The 2022 Topps baseball card set is the flagship baseball card release for the year from Topps, the industry leader in sports and entertainment trading cards. The complete base set contains 330 cards featuring current Major League Baseball players and managers from the 2021 season. Collecting the entire 2022 Topps baseball card set is a challenging undertaking for any serious baseball card collector.
The design of the 2022 Topps cards continues the modern aesthetic Topps has embraced in recent years. Each card features a full bleed photo of the player against a solid color background. Player names, team logos, and positional abbreviations are displayed prominently below the image. Card numbers are found in the bottom right corner. The back of each card contains career statistics and a brief bio of the player.
Building the base set requires obtaining Series 1, Series 2, Heritage, Update, and Topps Chrome cards. Series 1 was released in early 2022 and contains 132 cards, including base rookie cards of top prospects like Bobby Witt Jr. and Julio Rodriguez. Series 2 followed in the spring with another 98 cards. The Heritage set came out in May with 50 throwback-styled cards paying homage to older Topps designs. Topps Update, released in late summer/early fall, adds another 50 recently called-up rookies and players who switched teams. Topps Chrome, the premium refractors version of the base cards, rounds things out with another 50 cards that are considered some of the most desirable in the set.
In addition to the 330 base cards, collectors can find numerous parallels, short prints, autographed cards, relic cards with game-used memorabilia, and more that make completing the entire 2022 Topps release quite challenging. Some of the more coveted parallel and short print cards include the Gold Foil parallel (/50), Rainbow Foil (/25), Platinum parallel (/1), Black parallel (/5), and Topps Chrome Negative refractors. Autographed and memorabilia cards are inserted at extremely low odds throughout the various Series and products.
Completing just the base 330 card set is an accomplishment on its own, but avid collectors will want to track down all the various parallels and inserts as well. This super-completionist approach can take an entire year of diligent trading, buying singles on the secondary market, and ripping boxes of retail and hobby packs. The average collector is lucky to pull a handful of the short prints or high-end cards organically.
As with any collectible release, the rarity and demand of certain players drives their individual card values much higher than others. Rookies and stars on contending teams are always in high demand. Some early season standouts from 2022 like Julio Rodriguez, Bobby Witt Jr., and Shane McClanahan have already seen their rookie cards skyrocket in value on the secondary market. Veterans like Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, and Juan Soto command premium prices as well due to their consistent production and popularity with collectors.
Completing a full 2022 Topps baseball set, including all variations and inserts, would likely cost thousands of dollars if purchasing singles online. The average collector could expect to spend $500-1000 completing just the 330 base card set by ripping retail packs. For those willing to invest serious money and time into chasing the rainbow, a true super-complete 2022 Topps collection containing all parallels, short prints, autographs, and memorabilia could fetch $10,000+ on the secondary market. Such an undertaking would require ripping boxes upon boxes of hobby products like Hobby Jumbo, Jumbo, and High Tek.
While the cost is high, collecting the entire 2022 Topps baseball release is a monumental achievement that few collectors will accomplish. For those willing to put in the effort, the satisfaction of owning every card from the flagship baseball set of the year is immensely rewarding. Building complete Topps sets is a time-honored tradition that connects today’s collectors to the history of the hobby. As long as Topps continues producing their baseball cards each season, collectors will be chasing the rainbow to finish off each new release. The 2022 set will go down as one of the most ambitious projects any collector can take on.
