DA Drops of the Week: 12/15 – 12/17

Baseball

Albeit the offseason, Baseball releases are in full swing this week at Dave & Adam’s. Topps strikes with two on Wednesday, December 15. 

Leading off is the 2021 hobby box edition of Allen & Ginter Chrome, making its return after first appearing in 2020.

Coming in at 18 packs per box, four cards per pack, the Allen & Ginter Chrome includes six base refractors, 18 mini cards, and seven insert cards. New this year to the lineup of refractors is the X-Fractor, that’s one per case, and the Blue Refractor numbered to 150.

There are also new additions to the mini-size refractors, including a gold numbered to 50 and an Orange numbered to 25.

As if the product couldn’t get more enticing, there’s also a “full size” on-card autographed card per case. Besides base, you can also find those in an orange (numbered to 25), red (numbered to 5), and super (one-of-one) refractor.

The Allen & Ginter Chrome base and the mini base are 300 card sets of what Topps calls “the most collectible names in baseball and pop culture.”

Some notable past pop culture cards in Allen & Ginter include Kevin Costner, Axl Rose, and George Bush.

In other baseball product release news, the Bowman Inception hobby box and Panini Contenders hobby box are due out Friday, December 17.

Look for two autographs and one parallel in each Inception box. Topps says collectors should look for specially-marked Inception Introductions prospects who made their Bowman debut in 2021.

Autographs break down into four groups, Inception Autographs, Short Print, Inception Silver Signings, and Primordial Prospects.

Topps list parallels for Inception as:

• Aqua Foil Parallel
• Blue Foil Parallel – #’d to 99
• Fuchsia Foil Parallel – #’d to 75
• Gold Foil Parallel – #’d to 50
• Orange Foil Parallel – #’d to 25
• Red Foil #1 Parallel – #’d to 5
• Red Foil #2 Parallel – #’d to 5
• Inception FoilFractor Parallel – #’d 1-of-1
• Printing Plates – #’d 1-of-1

The latest in Panini baseball, Contenders, will contain six autographs, 18 Optic (base or parallels), and 24 inserts (base or parallel) per box.

Collectors should look out for today’s and tomorrow’s stars in inserts like Winning Tickets and Ticket to Stardom, as well as Rookie Ticket, Rookie Ticket 2, and 1998 and 2000 Retro Rookie Ticket Autographs.

Panini says a hobby box will have six packs and 18 cards per pack.

For a further breakdown, click here.

Football

Now on to the gridiron. We’ve got a mix of memorabilia and cards dropping mid-week.

On Wednesday, TriStar is releasing series two of its Autographed Football Mini Helmet Platinum Edition.

Camo, Lunar, Chrome, Eclipse, AMP, and Flash specialty mini helmets are just some things to look out for in this product, says TriStar.

In terms of players, this platinum edition includes Tom Brady, Calvin Johnson, Emmitt Smith, Trevor Lawrence, and Ja’Marr Chase, to name a handful.

Returning for Leaf is Valiant, featuring a selection of 2021’s hottest draft picks.

Per box, collectors will receive three autos, plus one BGS 9.5 or better, graded autograph.

Look for Leaf Valiant Football on Thursday, December 16.

Basketball

The lone new release for the hardwood this week is in the form of 2020/21 Panini Flux on Wednesday. There’s a lot to look out for in the debuting Flux hobby box.

Each box, ten packs, five cards per pack, contains one Uncirculated Encased insert, parallel, or autograph Box Topper, one auto, one Atmosphere insert, three additional inserts, one Prizm insert, and three silver.

The Flux set features a 250 card base set of 200 vets and 50 rookies.

Panini says hobby exclusive parallels include red, blue, supernova, sunrise, moonlight, solar eclipse, lunar eclipse, gold, green, and the one-of-a-kind black.

There are also five different insert sets exclusive to hobby boxes. Those are Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, Thermosphere, and Exosphere. Imagine pulling a Stratosphere Anthony Edwards or LaMelo!