The 2023 Topps Series 2 baseball trading cards hanger box is one of the most popular and affordable ways for collectors to add to their collections in the middle of the season. Series 2 is released each year in July and features rookie cards and updates to players’ teams from trades and call-ups that occurred since Series 1 in March. While not as large as a blaster or hobby box, the hanger box offers collectors a fun, inexpensive way to rip packs and potentially find valuable rookie cards or hits.
Topps has been the dominant brand in the baseball card industry for decades. Each year they release multiple series that chronicle that season’s action. Series 1 comes out in spring and features the full rosters for each team at the start of the year. Series 2 is the mid-season update, allowing Topps to get players into their new uniforms after trades or call-ups. This year’s Series 2 was released on July 13, 2023 and included a wide variety of parallels, inserts, and rookie cards across the 132-card base set.
The hanger box itself is a thin cardboard container that holds 5 packs of cards inside. It has a colorful design on the outside depicting stars of the set like Shohei Ohtani or Ronald Acuña Jr. While not as large or robust as the plastic blaster or metal hobby boxes, the hanger is perfect for collectors on a budget or those just starting out. At a price of around $15-20, it offers a fun and relatively inexpensive way to rip packs compared to the $30+ price tags of the bigger boxes.
Inside each hanger box collectors will find 5 factory sealed Series 2 packs with 8 cards each for a total of 40 cards. The base cards make up the bulk of what you’ll find, showing photos of every player along with their team logo and stats on the back. These are the bread and butter of any set and what drives completion of the base collection. It’s the inserts, parallels and rookies that excite collectors the most. With luck, you may pull short prints, autographed cards, or one of the highly coveted rookie cards of a future star.
Some of the inserts collectors hope to find in 2023 Topps Series 2 hanger boxes include Flashback Friday cards honoring past seasons, Stars of the Topps Now program, Topps Now Moments recapping great plays from the year, and All-Star cards. Parallels include the ever-popular rainbow foil, gold foil, and black bordered “photo variation” versions that add to the base card count. The big chase however is landing a prized rookie card, with potential stars like Griffin Jax, Adley Rutschman, or Oneil Cruz just some of the names that could provide a major return on investment down the road.
While the odds of scoring a true hit are lower in a hanger compared to a full box, crafty collectors have still managed to pull off big hits from these smaller packages before. In 2021, one lucky ripper found a coveted Luis Robert autograph card in a Series 2 hanger. Last year, a Series 1 hanger yielded an ultra-rare Fernando Tatis Jr. autograph number to just /25 copies. With only 40 total cards compared to hundreds in a full box break, the suspense and excitement is maximized wondering if your hanger might contain that one in a million find.
Even if the chase cards elude you, 2023 Topps Series 2 hanger boxes are still a blast to rip for the thrill of the hobby. Casually sorting through the base cards and checking each parallel and insert for anything of value makes for a fun few minutes that baseball card collectors of all ages can enjoy. Completing the 132-card set is also quite doable thanks to the trade and collector community online. With affordable prices and the potential to score a valuable hit, the hanger box remains one of the best introductory products in the hobby perfect for growing your collection at any time of the season.
Whether you’re a long-time collector, kid just starting out, or casual fan looking for an affordable way to get your baseball card fix, Topps Series 2 hanger boxes deliver the goods. With a low cost of entry and the excitement of the chase, they provide the perfect mid-season rip to stay engaged in the hobby throughout the summer months. Even if the autograph or 1/1 parallel eludes you in your particular pack, flipping through the rookies, stars and inserts is half the fun. And who knows, with a little luck your $15 investment could yield a card worth 100 times that down the road.
