2016 Topps Now Baseball - Regular Season in the Books

Ryan Cracknell over at Beckett.com has compiled an excellent, all-inclusive checklist of the 2016 Topps Now Baseball set. His data includes the player name(s), team, event summary, date of event and total print run for each card. An eBay auction link is even provided for most of the cards, taking you right to any examples that are are currently available for sale on the platform.

Ryan's excellent NOW article and checklist can be found here.

Find Topps NOW cards on eBay

Results of the Topps NOW Baseball Alert

The window for ordering yesterday's four Topps NOW cards is closed. I felt the offering of four cards in one day was an interesting scenario, seeing as how none of them featured a rookie, and I loosely guessed what the production numbers would wind up being.

For starters, I pointed out that two of the cards pictured superstar players; Bryce Harper and Jackie Robinson. I predicted that Topps would sell several hundred of each player, and indeed, 759 of Jackie Robinson's cards were sold. Bryce Harper surprised me a bit, as a whopping 1,286 of his cards were ordered (by far the largest print run for a veteran)... When you compare that to the 782 examples printed of Harper's first card just ten days before, one starts to see that this Topps NOW program is really gaining some steam.

Phillies pitcher Vincent Velasquez and Cardinals pitcher Jaime Garcia were the two other players featured on NOW cards yesterday, and it didn't take a rocket scientist to know that their cards would be ordered in smaller quantities. I felt that Velasquez' card would have a higher print run than Garcia's, because Velasquez is a strikeout pitcher near the beginning of his MLB career; Garcia, on the other hand, has been in the league since 2008 and has yet to achieve All-Star status. Predictably enough, Velasquez' print run was 557, while Garcia's was right at an even 300. Yesterday, I felt that Garcia had the potential to be at or near the lowest print total for all NOW cards, and my guess wasn't too far off. Garcia's print run of 300 cards is a tad bit more than the four lowest; Albert Pujols (244), Chris Davis (266), Francisco Liriano (266) and Nolan Arenado (268).

Ten of those 300 Jaime Garcia cards are mine. It will be interesting to see how low-printed cards like this fare over the next several months, and I have a feeling that set collectors will be the primary force to drive up their value. At a cost of five dollars per card, I'm really not too worried!

Click here to hunt for Topps NOW cards on eBay

 

2016 Topps NOW Baseball Alert!

Here at the Oddball Card Collector Blog, we're not really in the business of tracking breaking hobby news. We did notice today, however, that Topps has decided to release four new NOW cards in one day! Phillies pitcher Vincent Velasquez, Cardinals pitcher Jaime Garcia, Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper and Dodgers legend Jackie Robinson are each the subject of their own NOW card, available for sale on the Topps website over the next 24 hours.

As we mentioned in our previous Topps NOW post, the rookie cards are the ones being purchased in the largest quantities. As of today, the four cards with the lowest print runs feature four veteran players: Albert Pujols (244), Chris Davis (266), Francisco Liriano (266) and Nolan Arenado (268). 

Getting back to the four cards that were released today, none of them are rookies. Bryce Harper and Jackie Robinson both reside in the superstar category, and Topps will probably sell several hundred of each. The most intriguing cards today, regarding their possible small print runs, are pitchers Vincent Velasquez and Jaime Garcia. The Phillies' Velasquez will potentially be a great strikeout pitcher for years to come, and has pitched almost flawlessly in his first two starts of 2016. His Topps NOW card is not branded as a rookie because of his inclusion in the 2015 Topps Update and Heritage High Series sets. While I believe the number of NOW cards sold of Velasquez will suffer because they lack the rookie designation, I reeeaally think the Jaime Garcia cards will be overlooked.

I'm going out on a limb by predicting that today's Jaime Garcia card has the potential to have the lowest print run of all the NOW cards thus far. This limb is only about six inches above the ground, I believe, and is a pretty safe bet. I certainly don't see the print run being anything above 300. Garcia is a solid pitcher, but is not an All-Star and is already playing his eighth season in the Majors. 

I'll revisit this post tomorrow to update how my predictions fared. Stay tuned, NOW fans!

Click here to hunt for Topps NOW cards on eBay

2016 Topps NOW Baseball Cards

You may have noticed these past few years that Topps has experimented with several modern ways to release baseball cards; virtually all of these methods relate to the internet, whether it be their semi-closed eTopps program, eBay Topps Vault store, or exclusive classic player reprint sets available only on the Topps website.

The cardmaker's newest baseball offering is a unique idea called "Topps NOW." Every day of the MLB season Topps will release one or two cards, each featuring a player (or team) that had a notable performance the day before. For example, the first card in the set features Pirates pitcher Francisco Liriano, who struck out ten Cardinals and notched a win on April 3... The NOW card commemorating this feat was made available for purchase on the Topps website for 24 hours, on April 4 beginning at noon. Shortly after an offering closes, Topps announces the print run on their website and mails the cards out to the buyers (266 Liriano cards were printed, by the way). As of this writing, the program is still getting started and just twelve different cards have been released. 

Anyone with a Paypal account or credit/debit card can order a NOW card from the Topps website after registering. This same one-time registration also allows you to purchase any other products offered on the Topps website. One feature of this program is that you can order just the cards you want, assuming you do it during their 24-hour window. The website gives you the option of ordering one card for $9.99, five cards for $29.95, ten cards for $49.99 or twenty cards for $79.99; shipping is included in these prices.

Cards are the standard 2 1/2" by 3 1/2" size, and are printed on 16-point glossy card stock. Fronts feature borderless color photos that were taken the day of the actual event, with a line of text across the bottom that tells what the highlighted event is. Card backs are simple, with a paragraph detailing the event and any relevant backstory. 

My opinions are as follows: I think the cards are nice and a welcome addition to the hobby. These can be considered a new generation of oddball cards in an era where you no longer get them from the barber shop or a local patrolman. It may be unrealistic to complete a set of these, but Topps welcomes you to buy just the cards you want (and the quantities you want).

Regarding the potential value of the NOW cards, I think it's safe to say that many of these  will hover near their issue price for a while, and some will dip well below the issue price as time goes on. Even though a mere 266 Francisco Liriano NOW cards were printed, the supply may still outweigh the demand in today's age of the "super short print" card. The ones that have the most potential for a price increase are the rookies, which feature the appropriate "RC" logo on the fronts. Even though the rookie cards are being ordered in larger quantities by speculators -- 1,350 cards of Astros prospect Tyler White were printed -- I believe the rookies still hold the potential for the greatest price increases. Future first-ballot Hall of Famer Albert Pujols has the distinction thus far of having the card with the lowest print run (244); even so, his NOW card may get lost in the shuffle of all the other limited cards a Pujols collector might chase these days.

I've been keeping an eye on the daily NOW releases, waiting to pull the trigger on a card that catches my interest. Today was that day. I finally settled on the twelfth card to be issued, which features Rangers rookie outfielder Nomar Mazara. Called up at just 20 years of age, Mazara went 3 for 4 with a home run in his Major League debut; I also noticed, several hours after I ordered the cards, that he went 2 for 4 with an RBI and a run scored this evening... I have a feeling that he may edge out Tyler White and take the crown for the most NOW cards issued. (Update: yep, 1,427 Mazara cards were printed)

I probably won't be throwing tons of money at this set. There are still hundreds upon hundreds of oddball sets waiting to be added to the archives, and I'll continue to dedicate much of my spare time to tracking as many of them down as possible. Even so, I will look forward to my daily email from Topps, informing me of the new NOW cards that show up for sale (I would recommend that all collectors put themselves on the Topps email list, which informs you of all their current oddball releases). 

Heck, maybe maybe the profits I gain from these Nomar Mazara cards will help land me that 1980 TCMA Reading Phillies set I've had my eye on for years!

Click here to hunt for Topps NOW cards on eBay

Click here to read a post about the first 50 2106 Topps NOW cards

Click here to read a post about the first 100 2016 Topps Now Cards

Click here to go to the Topps website for a complete NOW checklist with print runs