At this time Topps is the only company producing factory sets for its base brand. This set was released on July 6th 2018. It contains all the regular cards from the Series One & Two sets. According to the box, this totals 700 cards, (actually they are 702 not including the exclusive cards). Of course, there are more than five different versions of this set. These include:
- The Retail set <this has 5 Rookie variations including Ohtani as a bonus>
- The Hobby set (available at card shops) <this has 5 parallels>
- The Walmart Edition (This comes in a different size box and there are two versions)
- The Target Edition <this has 5 Rookie variations plus a Chrome Rookie Cup>
- The All Star Edition (available at www.topps.com) <all cards have an all star game stamp>
The All Star edition does not have the Rookie variations. Instead it has 5 All Star cards that include Bryant, Harper, Judge, Ohtani and Trout. These sets are basically the same with some slight variations. Which one should you buy? It depends on the price and which of the extra cards you are interested in. Note that the Target edition is the same as the retail except for one extra card. The price for the sets was about $50 at Target and Walmart. It is a good way to get the entire set but you miss out on all the inserts that are included in the wax packs.
Following their new tradition, the #7 card was issued to Yankees outfielder Clint Frazier in honor of Mickey Mantle.
Rookies
The following Rookie cards are in this set:
- Walker Buehler #177
- Miguel Andujar #305
- Ronald Acuna Jr #698
- Gleyber Torres #699
- Shohei Ohtani #700
Juan Soto does not have a Rookie card here but he did appear earlier in other Topps sets. If you want his RC for the Topps flagship set then you need to obtain the 2018 Update. It may be interesting to see which of these players start competing for a MVP award.
Note that in the Series Two wax packs, card 364 and 565 were missing. There were two different cards for 365 and 564. That has been corrected in the factory set. This would make a great gift for a child born in 2018.