Baseball card collectors keep getting more and more options on how they will be able to collect cards of Waner Franco. That also means that there may soon be more Wander Franco cards than the total pool of baseball card collectors want to (or even can) absorb. The 2022 Topps Series 1 release in February already created an avalanche of cards, and now there are even more.

Collectors Dashboard is not spending time on ex-Topps issuance of Wander Franco cards because these have been on the market for some time. They are also numerous. What we have determined is that Topps has its floodgates wide open when it comes to producing Wander Franco cards. We have taken a deep dive into these numbers. With no MLB/MLBPA deal yet reached and the 2022 season looking much shorter, let’s just hope for all the collectors out there that Wander Franco lives up to the expectations that #TheHobby has for this young man’s career as a ballplayer.

The Topps MLB Living Set — 68,228 New Cards!

The Topps MLB Living Set Card #495 is of none other than Wander Franco. The card sales were available from Feb. 23, 2022 to March 2, 2022. Topps does not release its final print runs until after the closure of each car, but we now know what that print run happens to be — it is 68,228 new Wander Franco cards. We also know that they way Topps sends its Living Set cards out and the way it sends its Topps NOW and Project 70 cards out that we can assume these would all be in the range of PSA 10 and PSA 9 grades if and when they are graded, assuming the owners or postal service do not damage the cards getting them ready and shipped to be graded.

Topps Throwback Thursday – Wait, There’s (Even) More!!!

And just as fast as the Living Set ended… “But wait, there’s more!” Topps has released its Throwback Thursday set for $14.99 which is a series of baseball cards molded directly in the same layout as the 1972-73 Topps basketball set. The product is available from Mar. 03, 2022 and expires on Mar. 10, 2022 and the set featured three cards on the site. Two of the featured cards are Ian Anderson (P, Braves) and another is the great Ozzie Smith (SS, Cardinals). Want to guess the third card? — Wander Franco! The print run numbers will be released after the order date ends.

What About 2022 Topps Series 1 in General?

The Series 1 run from the 2022 Topps baseball cards released in February was literally jammed full of immediate Twitter and social media posts of collectors and pack breakers pulling Wander Franco cards. Cards then started showing up for sale on eBay immediately and we tracked countless numbers (actually, we counted them!) on eBay. One card even managed to come back as “the first ever PSA 10 graded by PSA” and it sold for more than $2,000 on eBay in an auction format. The ‘Why’ for that sale is something we will leave up to you to explain. The 2022 Topps Series 1 Baseball has almost 50 rookie cards in the set and there are at least 15 parallels that were created. Beckett did a serious deep dive into just how many variations make up that Series 1 release and it is almost mind-boggling even before getting into exclusives, inserts and other pack variations.

2022 Topps Series 1 Baseball Checklist, Team Set Lists, Odds and Details

How Many Series 1 are Wander Franco?

What we do not have absolute data on is how many card #215 were printed. That’s Wander Franco’s base card. We have seen YouTube estimates and blog posts with certain formulas that outline just how many Wander Franco cards there may be from the base set. Some estimates are that 750,000 cards were run, others are higher and some were smaller — but they all point to “a boatload!” Frankly there is just no way to know without an inside line. What we do know is that stores are not having the product shortages that were so widely reported in 2021. Does that mean they are in deep supply or does that mean much fewer people are buying cards off the shelves and at local card shops? Then again, we have already seen all of those cards listed on eBay and posted on social media in the first hours and days after the Series 1 was released.

The PSACard.com site is only now starting to release its Topps 2022 grading stats. These numbers are way behind, or at least the so-called “phantom population” of cards that will be graded or could be graded is going to easily be in the tens of thousands of Wander Franco cards. As of this time of editing, only 11 base cards of the #216 have been graded — 9 of which are PSA 10 and 2 are PSA 9. The other 6 are various parallels and the like. And for that “phantom population” let’s not forget that many pack buyers and case buyers buy these only to hold for an eternity and to open for key pack breaks.

Let’s Not Forget TOPPS NOW Endless Cards

As for the 2021 Topps Now (#402) debut of Wander Franco’s first hit on June 22, 2021 at least happened to be of a home run, but that print run was shown to be 61,305 cards printed in Topps’ on-demand series. There were then 6 different autograph variations of that image used for autograph relic releases (limited editions to /99, /49, /25, /10, /5 and finally 1-of-1) for $399 for the /99 all the way up to $1,149.99 for the /5 and to $3,999.99 for the /1 release.

The second card in the Topps Now was card #589 and the third was shown with a print run of 2,216 cards. Unfortunately, at least for large populations, there were 12 more Topps Now releases thereafter with print runs of about 1,428 on the lowest run and 4,877 on the highest run.

In the End…

It is truly hard to imagine how many Wander Franco cards were printed during the 2021 season and then in the Topps 2022 Series 1 and the addition print-on-demand format cards from Topps that would count as pre-rookie cards, rookie cards, and then post-rookie cards. We did know about the large issuances of other sets by other card makers from long before 2022 came to pass. The good news is that it is going to be very easy for just about any card collector to get there hands on Wander Franco “rookie cards” without much trouble.

The bad news is that the market is flooded with “rookie cards” of Wander Franco. And with the MLB/MLBPA now shortening the season already with game cancellations there may be a pushback from baseball fans and card collectors alike. And now the collecting community has to hope and pray that their countless Wander Franco bets are followed up by him becoming the superstar that #TheHobby is predicting him to be. And do we dare point out that #TheHobby is notorious for getting overextended and leaning way too far in certain young players?

Tell us if you remember the lessons of chasing rookie cards of Joe Charboneau for his rookie of the year performance or Barbaro Garbey for what could have been a .400 season right out of the gate… We did a synopsis of these to remind collectors that not all great baseball prospects work out. Sometimes even the card industry insiders get so excited about young players that do not pan out. And, NO!, that’s not a prediction.