In the middle of 2021, some photos of wrestlers signing autographs started popping up on social media. This in of itself is not new. We’ve become accustomed to athletes signing cards or stickers over the years. What was different about this particular photo was that it was of an AEW wrestler, and the company they were signing for was Upper Deck! It seemed pretty clear that Upper Deck had landed the license for the first full AEW product, but it would be several more months before we received official confirmation. Now that the set it out, fans have fully embraced it!

Let’s take a look at the product and see what was inside the hobby box I received!

The Breakdown

One of the things I enjoyed most about this release is how Upper Deck used a completely new design for the base set. It is easy to envision a scenario where they would have recycled the designs of some of their past releases in an effort to quickly get a product to market. However, they went with an all new design which makes the product stand out and shows an encouraging level of commitment.

The 100 card base set is made up of 60 base cards and three different subsets. The first 60 cards feature individual wrestlers, the next ten highlight 10 tag teams, cards 71-80 show members of the crew, and the final 20 cards utilize a design of the AEW magazine.

Each of these subsets have a variety of parallels with varying levels of scarcity. They range from base Gold’s falling 1:2 packs to Black 1/1s! (The full breakdown can be found in the Beckett Checklist link at the bottom of the article)

There are also five different insert sets for collectors to track down. Upper Deck is bringing the popular canvas cards to AEW for a 30 card set. The Main Features is the largest insert set coming in at 40 cards. My favorite is the Top Rope ten card set showing wrestlers in mid flight! Rhodes to Success is a ten card set focused on Cody Rhodes. Finally, Wednesdays In Action is technically a 33 card insert set, but they are tough to pull. Falling in only 1:64 packs, they also join autograph and relic cards as one of your potential box hits.

These inserts also have a variety of parallels with varying levels of scarcity.

Finally, a variety of Autographs and Relic cards are available. Each hobby box has either an Auto, a Relic, or a Wednesday’s in Action card. Some collectors have expressed frustration at only getting one hit for the box price. However, we have to remember this product was originally intended to have an MSRP of under $100 and Upper Deck packed it out based on that. The secondary market has pushed the box prices to over $200 by the time of release but it was never intended to be priced that high.

Before we get into the results of my box break, I wanted to share a few images from the insert cards I pulled.

Box Break

I opened one hobby box, and I wanted to share the breakdown of the cards inside. Hopefully this can give you an idea of what you might expect to find if you buy a box for yourself!

Base cards: 78

Base Gold Parallel: 16

Pyro Parallel: 5

Dynamite Parallel: 1

Canvas Insert: 4

Other Inserts: 16

Insert Parallels : 2

Relic: MJF /199

Main Features 1/1 of Sammy Guevara

Yes, that’s right! I was lucky to pull a Black 1/1 of the Sammy Guevara Main Features insert. I almost missed it since the 1/1 stamp was right on top of Sammy’s wristband. My MJF relic was also in the same pack.

Wrapping It Up

I really enjoyed opening this product, and it seems collectors are enjoying it as well. Selling prices for Dr. Britt Baker, Sting, and many of these other parallels and inserts were selling very well on eBay in the first several months after release.

The number of parallels create a reasonable chase for rainbow collectors, and the master set would be a challenging but possible set build. I’m happy Upper Deck decided to go with a brand new design, and I really look forward to seeing what else they come up with in future releases!

Checklist

Here is a link to the checklist and scarcity breakdown on Beckett.com.