It has now been about eight days since PSA stopped accepting value submissions.

How are you holding up?

It’d be bad enough if that was the only rough news for collectors in the past few weeks.

But then we also got word that Munetaka Murakami, who is the chase in Topps Series 2 releasing today, is out for at least 6-8 weeks. Hobby heavyweight Aaron Judge might miss even more time than that.

I have long been a believer of the cliche “when one door closes, another opens” and the slightly more to-the-point “where there is chaos, there is opportunity.” And constantly evolving ecosystems like the baseball card world have been nothing but adaptable during the past eight decades.

Remember how quickly Murakami exploded in the hobby earlier this year? Nick Kurtz last year? Paul Skenes the year before that? Shohei Ohtani every year? We could soon see a new name emerge onto the scene in a similar way.

It could be someone who has lingered under the radar for the past few years who’s about to explode the way Cal Raleigh did last year. Or it could very well be a Baseball America Top 100 Prospect who’s about to take over the world.

Whatever the case, we’re here as your secret weapon for all the upcoming releases to help you navigate the constantly changing world of the baseball card business. And we hope that Murakami and Judge return soon, that PSA catches up with its backlog before the tree goes up in Rockefeller Center and that the baseball gods cover Shohei Ohtani and Paul Skenes in bubble wrap.

Before we officially dive into this month’s mailing, some quick business to attend to: It’s time to announce the winners of last month’s contest and to tell you about our next giveaway, too.

Drumroll please…

We are proud to announce that the winners of last month’s Baseball Card America contest are Steven LaForge and three other readers who haven’t answered my emails yet! So, if your email addresses start with the letters C, T or W, you should check your spam folder to see if I sent you an email yesterday. And if so, get back to me ASAP!

The lucky winners each win either a sealed box of 2026 Leaf Baseball Nation, or a pack of five boxes of ONIT college cards (one for each school in the initial release). And we’d like to take a moment to thank the good people at Leaf and ONIT for the free swag for our readers!

Which brings us to our next contest…

TODAY is Topps Series 2 release day! You can take a deep dive into the checklist right now, complete with the best chases, breaker values and more.

And we’re so excited, we’re giving away five sealed “Fanatics blaster” boxes to Baseball Card America subscribers. These are the boxes that might contain redemption cards for autographed merchandise—the Series 2 list includes an Astros jersey autographed by Nolan Ryan, a Pirates jersey autographed by Paul Skenes and a bat autographed by Nick Kurtz.

You don’t need to do anything to enter. If you’re a subscriber, you’re already entered!

We will announce the five lucky winners in the next installment of the Baseball Card America newsletter on Wednesday, July 8. Note that we won’t be picking the winners until early that week, so be sure to forward this newsletter to your friends and tell them to sign up so they can enter to win free boxes of cards!

And though July might seem like a ways away, let’s jump even further into the future and talk this year’s Debut Patches.

Remember the 2024 Debut Patch chase? The massive bounty on the Paul Skenes card, and the hunt that followed? The thrill of chasing names like Elly, the Jacksons and Yamamoto (who is still out there, by the way, as far as we know)?

This year’s checklist might put 2024 to shame.

Sure, Topps Chrome hasn’t even been announced yet, much less Topps Chrome Update, which will feature the patch chase and is not likely to drop until around Thanksgiving time. But it’s never too early to start thinking about the Debut Patch chase, which has become a top destination for collectors.

Because of the way Topps has traditionally put the checklist together in years past (players who debuted from June 1 of the previous season to May 31 of the current season), Baseball America has compiled a list, organized by team, of the 250 players who could be on this year’s checklist. (The list also includes a handful of players who debuted before May 31, 2025, and just didn’t make last year’s checklist for whatever reasons.)

While there’s no confirmation of the checklist yet and there isn’t likely to be for months, if the past methodology is any indication, this year’s patches will offer a list of players that starts strong and just keeps on going:

Are you getting the idea? This year’s Debut Patch list will be LOADED.

The full potential 250-player list went live just this morning at BaseballAmerica.com, and even though you have more than a few months until you’ll be able to dive into rips and breaks, it’s never too early to start your research.

And while you’re at it, feel free to dive into Baseball America’s 2023, 2024 and 2025 Debut Patch trackers, featuring the full patch checklists and which ones have been pulled.

The Debut Patches represent the best of the hobby. And on the other side of things …

In the last issue of Baseball Card America, we asked you to share your experiences with the Topps website’s checkout process.

You responded with some very interesting stories, some truly intense frustration and enough other complaints that we did a story highlighting a full dozen ways you wish the hobby could be better.

The story includes everything from the Topps checkout process and grading delays to issues with online breaks and at card shows.

And for this issue of Baseball Card America, I wanted to include a special bonus 13th pet peeve that a few people have written about since the article was published: Products that go on sale before checklists are available.

“There are times I’m being asked to pay hundreds of dollars for a hobby box,” one reader writes, “and I don’t have any (expletive) idea who’s even in the set!”

Here’s one personal example from last week that speaks to this: Topps put out a FDI (first-day issue) variation of their 2026 Finest this year, selling them in a Dutch Auction with a starting price of $1,200 and promising at least one low-numbered auto and at least two low-numbered parallels.The regular hobby boxes were $339.99, by the way, so this is not a small investment.

One of the big selling points for this year’s Finest is the introduction of the “Super Rare Tier,” a group of super short-printed cards numbered 301 to 350 in the checklist, which is a very nice selling point. Except that the checklist for 2026 Finest wasn’t posted until roughly 7 p.m. ET the night before the Dutch Auction began. Meaning that collectors considering paying 3-4 times what a normal hobby box would cost didn’t even know until the very last minute who the “Super Rare Tier” chases would be—never mind the full checklist, including autographs.

Ok, here’s a bonus 14th pet peeve: First Day Issue boxes!

But again, it’s all about perspective. As I point out at the top of my story, and as more than a few people emailed me, “First-world problems much?” Collecting cards is fun and a constant work in progress, so while it’s always fun to complain a little, it’s all in the interest of bettering a hobby that we love so much.

OK, back to nicer topics, because there’s a ton of baseball releases on the horizon.

Read on below for a closer look at some upcoming baseball card releases. As always, release dates are subject to change.

Again, remember that all release dates are subject to change. You can always get the latest information on these and other upcoming products at our baseball card landing page.

Here are some recent baseball card and collectibles headlines making news at Baseball America:

And make sure to bookmark BA’s baseball card homepage for the latest stories and to take a deep dive into hobby news, analysis and more.

What do you think of BA’s card coverage? What do you want to see more (or less) of? Any overall thoughts on anything? Email me at [email protected] and let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading, and make sure to tell all your friends to sign up—we’ll announce the winners of the five Topps Series 2 Fanatics boxes in our next edition of Baseball Card America, coming your way on July 8, just in time to get you ready for a pretty incredible run of events that could be super important for your collection, including the 2026 MLB Draft (July 11), the Futures Game (July 12), Fanatics Fest (July 16-19), 2026 Topps Chrome (exact release date TBD), Hall of Fame induction (July 26) and the National convention (July 29-Aug. 2). Plus, Bowman Chrome will be right around the corner.

Until then, happy hunting!

Seth

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