We now know the details of 2021-22 Topps UEFA Champions League (Flagship) hobby boxes and here is a full breakdown of the print runs and a review of the product.
2021-22 Topps UEFA Champions League Details
Checklist – Here
Hobby Box Makeup – 24 packs of 8 cards. An average of 2 numbered parallels per hobby box. No guaranteed auto. (Search on eBay)
Value (Blaster) Box Makeup – 7 packs of 6 cards. Roughly 40% chance of hitting numbered card. Auto possible but odds not known. (Search on eBay)
Print Runs – Based on pack odds there are roughly 2,300,000 packs between hobby boxes and value (blaster) boxes. About 1,500,000 hobby packs and 800,000 blaster packs.
8 Starballs per hobby box for a total of 2500 Starballs of each base card.
4 Speckle per blaster box. Roughly 2250 Speckles of each base card.
1 Future Stars Pink (unnumbered) per 5 blaster box. Roughly 1500 for each pink Future Stars card.
850 SP Variation and 270 SSP Variation of each.
1013 Numbered parallels of each card. See checklist for full breakdown.
Roughly 75000 of each base card.
Pack odds image at the end of the post.
Rookie Breakdown – Want to know more about the rookies in this? Read Now
SCHQ Conclusion: Based on the presale information we knew this was going to be a heavily printed product. They add even more numbered parallels and more importantly raised it to a 200 card checklist. Even knowing that I would be lying if I said I was not disappointed in Topps for the hobby box makeup of this product. Having roughly 2 numbered parallels per box is pretty low since there is not a guaranteed auto. I have seen some hobby box breaks with only 1 numbered parallel. That is what was in 2020-21 Topps Chrome blaster boxes last year. Getting 8 Starballs in a hobby box is great until you factor in that means that there will be 2500 each of them so that kills their value. It’s hard to imagine they settle much higher than a few dollars even for the good rookies. I would put the value of hobby boxes at roughly 5 times that of a blaster box if you want to try and figure out which is the better value. The base cards are going to be all but worthless unless you are trying to complete a set. Remember when we were all shocked at the 43697 Moukoko Topps Now print run? Well guess what there are close to 75,000 base cards of each base card in this product. The SP and SSP image variations was a nice touch but they aren’t very short print at all so it will be interesting to see where those settle in value. As usual singles are going to be your best bet but I am afraid that those will go down in value as Chrome products of this same checklist come out later this year. The frequency of autos is the big unknown when it comes to value. The auto checklist is pretty good. There is just no guaranteed auto like most hobby products so until we have a better idea of that it’s hard to put a value on them.
Hobby boxes are currently going for around $160 so it is cheap enough where you can rip and not feel too bad. I just think you are better off with other wax products. For example I would rather have 2 2020-21 Topps Chrome blasters (Search on eBay) or 2 2020-21 Merlin Chrome blasters (Search on eBay) for around the same price. As always it is your money to spend how you choose, but I will be waiting for Chrome products to hit the market later this year and hoping for better box makeups.
As the print run of this set make the rounds I am seeing that people think the 1st Edition of this product is so undervalued. While 1st Edition does seem like a better value than hobby boxes that does not mean they are undervalued right now. Box prices are not binary in that manner. You can read the 1st Edition breakdown here for more details and thoughts.
With this product Topps has made it clearer than ever that 2021-2022 print runs are going to be like nothing the soccer hobby has ever seen before. I am sure the “this is the new junk wax era” will be thrown around. While these increased print runs are a bit overwhelming, this is not junk wax. You can read about the differences HERE.
Hobby pack odds
Blaster pack odds
All Search on eBay links go to EBay listings
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