2023-24 Select La Liga is here and has got a little lost in the shuffle as it is releasing the same day as 2023-24 Topps Finest UEFA and 2023-24 Donruss Soccer. If you got involved with 2022-23 Select La Liga then you are already familiar with this year’s product as it has a pretty similar makeup. Take a look at the review and see what you can expect.
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2023-24 Select La Liga Breakdown
Checklist – HERE
Box Makeup – Hobby (Search On Ebay) – 3 Autos OR patches, 5 #’d cards
Print Run – ~1000 hobby cases.
SoccerCardsHQ Review – The good news with 2023-24 Select La Liga is while the print run did increase from 2022-23 Select La Liga, it is still very reasonable for modern day soccer card releases. The bad news is there is no Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo cards to be found. As I mentioned in other reviews the lack of Messi and CR7 in checklists will hurt both Topps and Panini this year. In a short print product like this it hurts even more as you had a much better chance of hitting a big card.
Enough about what’s not in 2023-24 Select La Liga, let’s look at what is. The good news is La Liga has a number of good rookies this season with the biggest being Lamine Yamal (Search On Ebay). His Barcelona teammates Vitor Roque and Fermin Lopez also get rookie cards. Panini has given Arda Guler and Savio a RC so they will have a number of Wookies (RC that comes year(s) after other rookies) this year. Assane Diao is an interesting name to keep an eye on but Topps has him in their checklists so he’s going to have too many cards for it to matter unless he really pops off.
The 4 case hits are back this year. Stained Glass (Search On Ebay) is the most popular. Collectors don’t seem to be as happy with the design this year as they were last year. At a print run of ~33 they will still be very short print. Artistic Impressions (Search On Ebay) is back with a similar design this year and it seems people like this one a little more than last year. the print run on these is ~40 this year. Visionary (Search On Ebay) has a completely new design this year and the opinions seem mixed. There is also a print run of ~40 on these. The big rookies make all the case hit checklists which is good for the set. The Team Badges are back with a print run of ~50 this year. I was hoping they would add color to those this year to change it up a bit but they didn’t. I think a lot of people sleep on the low print runs of these case hits and how that could play out in the future. If you haven’t read the Lionel Messi Case Hit article I wrote I think it paints a better picture.
While there aren’t any Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo autos, there are Ronaldo Nazario, Zinedine Zidane, Lamine Yamal, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, David Beckham, Diego Maradona and even Pep Guardiola autos. Patch Autos also return though none of those players listed above make the checklist. Jude Bellingham does not make the auto checklist either and I am starting to think he may have signed a deal with Topps. Either that or Panini dropped the ball again. The patch (memorabilia) cards are all current players. There are a number of cool Dual patch cards including a Jude Bellingham-Vini Jr (Search On Ebay). The problem is the patches on those are pretty small. I will say the patch checklist is very Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid heavy so if you are entering into breaks keep that in mind.
Like last year if you open a case you are going to hit a lot of low number cards. The highest numbered parallel in hobby is /99. The next highest is /49. You will hit multiple Golds on average in a case. You will hit a Black 1/1 in about every 2 cases. This is what I consider a feel good product. Even if you whiff you still feel good because you get so many low number cards. I don’t know who the case hit autos are but I am sure you will get at least 1 auto you are happy about. I would be very wary buying loose boxes of this unless it’s from someone you trust not to screw with selling boxes after they get the case hits. I know not everyone can afford cases but this is one instance where I would probably say buy into case breaks over ripping loose boxes. 2023-24 Select La Liga is priced about the same as 2022-23 and that seems about right because last year was so devoid of rookies and this year isn’t. Basically, you’re trading Messi and Ronaldo for a better rookie class. Use that as your guide for which one you would rather open.
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