The MLB regular season is in the home stretch and the Zion hype has begun to pull some collectors’ attention to the upcoming basketball season, but Topps isn’t quite done with its 2019 baseball releases.  The youth movement and skyrocketing values of the 2018 and 2019 rookies have made Bowman Chrome and Topps Update into highly anticipated releases, and the popular Heritage set gets an update of its own!  2019 Topps Heritage High Number continues using the 1970 design to once again provide another 225 card set which includes a first Heritage card for several rookies and a card in the new uniform of several other players who were traded throughout 2019.

The first 200 cards, numbered 501-700 have a standard print run and contain the highly sought after rookie cards of Pete Alonso, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Fernando Tatis Jr., Michael Chavis, Nick Senzel, Austin Riley, and Eloy Jimenez.  Cards 701-725 are short printed and fall approximately one in every three packs.  Ichiro, Andrew McCutchen, and Victor Robles are a few of the bigger names found in the short print checklist.

Several photo, color swap,  and error variations provide a popular chase element to Heritage and are actually where much of the “value” in this product comes from.  In the past, many breakers who were new to Heritage didn’t realize this and focused on the traditional autograph and relic cards.  They sold off the rest of the case contents as if they were all standard base cards, and astute collectors could scoop them up in bulk purchases and walk away with a ton of value.  Now, Topps labels most of the variations on the back of the card under the number.  That makes it easier to identify what you have, but the days of picking up the errors and variations on the cheap are long gone.  Each hobby box also promises either an autograph or a game used relic card.  It seems a twelve box case will yield 3 - 4 autographs with the remaining boxes containing relics.

Several insert sets are included in the release including a tribute to Hank Aaron.  Fifteen more Scratch Off inserts continue the set that started in the main Heritage release in February, and the Retail exclusive Candy Lids, Cloth Stickers, and Player Story Booklets also get the High Number treatment.  The Award Winners, Combo Cards, Rookie Performers, and Now & Then sets are a mainstay of Heritage High Number and are back again to provide an opportunity for Topps to release additional cards of some of the season’s biggest rookies and stars.

Box Break

I preordered three boxes of High Number and had a blast opening them up.  I got two autos out of three boxes, and getting rookie action variations of two of the biggest rookies was a big win! You can check out the results of one of my boxes below! 

This is the second straight year where the rookie class is very strong.  Despite the rookie content we typically see, the prices of Heritage High are typically pretty soft on the secondary market.  Last year we saw the standard drop throughout the fall, but over the winter and 2019 season, 2018 Heritage High prices continued to climb.  It will be interesting to see if 2019 follows the same pattern.  Currently, sealed boxes of 2019 Heritage High are selling for almost 50%-75% more than wholesale cost.  If we see a drop into the low 60s during the Black Friday sales window, I’ll be scooping up some more boxes.  If not, I’ll be happy with my current set for the PC!

Do you like the late season releases like Topps Update and Heritage High, or are you just ready to move onto the other sports at this point of the season?

Checklist

501 Michael Chavis RC

502 Charlie Morton

503 Michael Brantley

504 Vladimir Guerrero Jr. RC

505 Nick Markakis

506 Yasmani Grandal

507 Nick Senzel RC

508 Brendan Rodgers RC

509 Derek Holland

510 Lonnie Chisenhall

511 Phil Ervin

512 Keston Hiura RC

513 Kurt Suzuki

514 Eric Stamets RC

515 Sam Gaviglio

516 Eloy Jimenez RC

517 Fernando Tatis Jr. RC

518 Bradley Zimmer

519 Pete Alonso RC

520 Manny Machado

521 Andrew Miller

522 A.J. Pollock

523 Carter Kieboom RC

524 Griffin Canning RC

525 Justus Sheffield RC

526 Yusei Kikuchi RC

527 Jorge Alfaro

528 Joe Kelly

529 Brian Dozier

530 Patrick Corbin

531 Taylor Clarke RC

532 Richie Martin RC

533 Jon Duplantier RC

534 Bryce Harper

535 J.T. Realmuto

536 Trevor Cahill

537 Austin Meadows

538 Tyler Glasnow

539 Byron Buxton

540 Alex Verdugo

541 Yasiel Puig

542 Nicky Lopez RC

543 Sonny Gray

544 Daniel Murphy

545 Troy Tulowitzki

546 DJ LeMahieu

547 J.A. Happ

548 Adam Ottavino

549 Zack Britton

550 Brian Goodwin

551 Ian Kinsler

552 Josh Harrison

553 Marwin Gonzalez

554 Tim Beckham

555 Jurickson Profar

556 Jake Bauers RC

557 Jed Lowrie

558 Wilson Ramos

559 Jeurys Familia

560 Robinson Chirinos

561 Lance Lynn

562 Wade Miley

563 Danny Salazar

564 Tyler O’Neill

565 Matt Davidson

566 Jonathan Lucroy

567 Alex Wood

568 Nathan Eovaldi

569 Cody Allen

570 Josh Phegley

571 Kendrys Morales

572 Clay Buchholz

573 Matt Shoemaker

574 Craig Kimbrel

575 Freddy Galvis

576 Elvis Luciano RC

577 Max Fried

578 Alex Jackson RC

579 Brian McCann

580 Brandon Woodruff

581 Zach Davies

582 Ben Gamel

583 John Brebbia

584 Adam Wainwright

585 Alex Reyes

586 Daniel Descalso

587 Victor Caratini

588 Brad Brach

589 Eduardo Escobar

590 Wilmer Flores

591 Christian Walker

592 Carson Kelly

593 Greg Holland

594 Merrill Kelly RC

595 Corbin Martin RC

596 Russell Martin

597 Austin Barnes

598 Kevin Pillar

599 Gerardo Parra

600 Jeff Samardzija

601 Drew Pomeranz

602 Connor Joe RC

603 Tyler Naquin

604 Nate Lowe RC

605 Adam Cimber

606 Domingo Santana

607 Omar Narvaez

608 Braden Bishop RC

609 Curtis Granderson

610 Neil Walker

611 Sergio Romo

612 Trevor Richards

613 Cal Quantrill RC

614 Austin Riley RC

615 Skye Bolt RC

616 Jorge Lopez

617 J.D. Davis

618 Matt Adams

619 Jeremy Hellickson

620 Dwight Smith Jr.

621 Drew Jackson RC

622 David Hess

623 Rio Ruiz

624 Francisco Mejia

625 Nick Margevicius RC

626 Eric Lauer

627 David Robertson

628 Jason Martin RC

629 Melky Cabrera

630 Jung Ho Kang

631 Adam Frazier

632 Francisco Liriano

633 Delino DeShields

634 Asdrubal Cabrera

635 Logan Forsythe

636 Yandy Diaz

637 Ji-Man Choi

638 Avisail Garcia

639 Jose Alvarado

640 Blake Swihart

641 Matt Barnes

642 Curt Casali

643 Jose Iglesias

644 Derek Dietrich

645 Tanner Roark

646 Amir Garrett

647 Josh Fuentes RC

648 Mark Reynolds

649 Ryan McMahon

650 Homer Bailey

651 Martin Maldonado

652 Richard Lovelady RC

653 Kyle Zimmer RC

654 Ian Kennedy

655 JaCoby Jones

656 Jordy Mercer

657 Matt Moore

658 Tyson Ross

659 Grayson Greiner

660 Jake Cave RC

661 Kyle Gibson

662 Michael Pineda

663 Brett Gardner

664 Domingo German

665 John Means RC

666 Jesus Sucre

667 Brandon Kintzler

668 Leury Garcia

669 Kelvin Herrera

670 Kevin Plawecki

671 Max Moroff

672 Brandon Brennan RC

673 Hansel Robles

674 Matt Harvey

675 Tommy La Stella

 676 Ryan Pressly

677 Brett Anderson

678 Billy McKinney

679 Aaron Sanchez

680 Clayton Richard

681 Cole Tucker RC

682 Charlie Culberson

683 Junior Guerra

684 Pedro Avila RC

685 Anthony DeSclafani

686 Shelby Miller

687 Scott Oberg

688 Jake Marisnick

689 Terrance Gore

690 Scott Alexander

691 David Freese

692 Nick Anderson RC

693 Renato Nunez

694 Ryan Brasier

695 Raimel Tapia

696 Josh Sborz RC

697 Travis Bergen RC

698 Joe Harvey RC

699 Caleb Smith

700 Nick Kingham

701 Victor Robles

702 Andrew McCutchen

703 Chris Paddack RC

704 Hunter Pence

705 Adam Jones

706 Daniel Vogelbach

707 Dominic Smith

708 Clint Frazier

709 Gio Gonzalez

710 Cameron Maybin

711 Johnny Cueto

712 Hunter Strickland

713 Chris Devenski

714 Franklin Barreto

715 Thomas Pannone RC

716 Alen Hanson

717 Ryan Helsley RC

718 Erik Swanson RC

719 Tayron Guerrero

720 Anibal Sanchez

721 Mychal Givens

722 Hector Neris

723 Dominic Leone

724 Luis Cessa

725 Ichiro