The National Hangover

Welcome to The Drip, your weekly fix for all things sports cards. Here’s what’s in store:

• The National Hangover has begun 😭 

• Topps Chrome is 🔥 🔥 🔥 

1) The National is over… but the memories live on. The Comic Con of the trading card world. The place where you can find that white whale or land the 1of1 of your dreams. Where Benjamin Franklin’s autograph and Lebron’s rookie card can be bought in the same hour…

Celebrating it’s 43rd year, the National set attendance records speculated at north of 100k. It was a hot, sweaty affair (seriously get some ACs up in there) and the excitement was palpable. It remains to be seen if this is an industry shift or an anomaly but if Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin follows through with all his marketing talk this could be a sign of things to come…

Only 358 days till the next one!

2) Topps Chrome 2023 released on July 26th and Tacofractors are now in the hands of the people! 🌮 So far initial reviews have been solid. With a good mix of refractors and interesting inserts, this is shaping up to be the go to baseball set for the near-term (at the least it’s better than last years box). The Ultra-Violet All-Star inserts in particular caught my eye (autos on some).

Of course, Tacofractors are the true gems here! Numbered to 5, these things are fetching big money on eBay (Yoshida sold for $850 on July 26 💰️ ).

Prices on a hobby box are $35 and a jumbo hobby box is $390. Wax is widely available now and a checklist can be found here.

BREAKing News

Some hits from recent days:

• Dame Kaboom!

• Card Collector2 with the pull of the Bowman Chrome line

• Packman opening Black Boxes at the National

• Bowman Chrome National Exclusive Pack

• IF Sports Cards Top 10 Pulls from the last week

August Release Calendar

Prepare your wallets 💸:

• 2nd - 2023 Panini Score Football

• 9th -

  • 2022 Panini National Treasures Football

  • 2023/24 Upper Deck MVP Hockey

• 11th - 2022/23 Panini Mosaic Basketball

• 15th - 2023 Panini Chronicles Racing

• 16th - 2023 Panini Immaculate Collegiate Football

• 23rd - 2023 Panini Immaculate Baseball

• 30th -

  • 2023 Topps Allen & Ginter Baseball

  • 2023 Panini Donruss Elite Football

  • 2023 Panini Encased Football

  • 2023 Panini Prizm WNBA Basketball

Meme of the Day

Me coming back from the National: