Ryan Barone (@ballcardgenius, Card Expert) is a lifelong member of the hobby. He has been quoted in PSA Magazine, and his content has regularly been mentioned in “Quick Rips” (the Topps RIPPED Newsletter) and across other hobby publications. hello@ballcardgenius.com; Last Time Ago LLC dba Ballcard Genius.
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The best sports card brands include Topps for baseball, Panini for football and basketball, and Upper Deck for hockey. This is largely based on the fact that each of these brands holds the license to their respective sports, and thus can produce cards complete with team names and logos. Meaning, while Panini produces baseball cards, they are devoid of team names and logos.
Read More: Baseball Cards vs. Football Cards
In terms of specific sets from these brands, the top products over the last year include 2022 Bowman baseball (mega box), 2022 Prizm Monopoly basketball (booster box), 2021 Obsidian basketball (Tmall box), 2022 Absolute football (blaster box), and 2021 Prizm basketball (blaster box). This is based on total number of sales from the last 365 days as reported by Market Movers.
Here is a table of the top 20 sports card brand products, sorted by number of sales and complete with their average sales prices:
| Set | Box Type | # of Sales | Avg Sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 Bowman Mega Box Baseball | Mega Box (50-Card) | 1887 | $59.04 |
| 2022 Prizm Monopoly Basketball | Booster Box (24-Card) | 1004 | $45.63 |
| 2021 Obsidian Basketball | Tmall Box | 843 | $57.77 |
| 2022 Absolute Football | Blaster Box (66-Card) (Green Parallels) | 831 | $30.24 |
| 2021 Prizm Basketball | Blaster Box (24-Card) (Ice Prizms) | 799 | $25.16 |
| 2022 Mosaic Football | Blaster Box (36-Card) | 750 | $39.94 |
| 2021 Select Basketball | Blaster Box (24-Card) (Flash Prizms) | 699 | $23.28 |
| 1991 Upper Deck Basketball | Wax Box | 662 | $53.63 |
| 2022 Prizm Basketball | Blaster Box (24-Card) (Ice Prizms) | 630 | $23.79 |
| 2022 Score Football | Blaster Box (132-Card) (Gold Parallels) | 615 | $20.15 |
| 2022 Bowman Chrome University Football | Hobby Box | 565 | $114.00 |
| 2022 Topps Chrome Update Baseball | Hobby Box | 564 | $80.11 |
| 2021 Optic Football | Hanger Box (20-Card) (Blue Scope Parallels) | 563 | $32.83 |
| 1990 Fleer Basketball | Wax Box | 562 | $86.91 |
| 1990 SkyBox Series 1 Basketball | Wax Box | 557 | $41.72 |
| 2022 Bowman Chrome Sapphire Edition Baseball | Sealed Box | 548 | $335.43 |
| 2022 Topps Chrome Sonic Baseball | Hobby Box | 529 | $60.59 |
| 2021 Optic Basketball | Blaster Box (30-Card) (Checkerboard Prizms) | 526 | $22.95 |
| 2022 Topps Heritage High Number Baseball | Hobby Box | 526 | $57.35 |
| 2023 Bowman Baseball | Blaster Box (72-Card) | 523 | $28.95 |
If you’re just getting started in the hobby or looking for a popular set to rip into, you might want to consider any of these above.
All that said, I’ve been watching a lot of box rips, and since “top” or “best” is subjective, and not just based on sales volume, I’m sharing some videos and opinions of the experts and top channels that look at card brands daily.
As stated, we all know that brands like Prizm and Optic are favorites of basketball and football card collectors, while Topps Chrome is a must for anyone serious about baseball cards. But what else is there?
Photogenic Basketball
In his “Sleeper Product of the Year” video, Hitman Rips dives into Photogenic Basketball—a Panini brand product and an online exclusive drawing comparisons to Topps Stadium Club.
“You can’t buy them anywhere besides the online only Panini Dutch auction. That’s how they released them last year; they did the same thing this year. Last year was the very first time they released this set. It resembles Stadium Club where it’s based around the photography and the the trading card is more about the photo than you know that what’s actually on the card or the other things.”
And it’s not just Hitman:
Pack Man released “PHOTOGENIC BASKETBALL HAS THE BEST CARDS! 😍🔥 2022-23 Panini PhotoGenic Hobby Box Break/Review” while Acme Packs gave a glowing review with “WHAT A BOX! 2022-23 Panini Photogenic Basketball Hobby Box Review!“
Not to mention Ben on “Card Sets We Are LOVING Now” from Sports Card Investor had this to say:
“So the set that I really like that has popped up recently has been Photogenic, specifically the diamond parallels out of 75. I don’t own any of these yet but I’m definitely trying to change that…”
Honors Football
Average Sales Price:
- $929.95
Configuration
- 4 Cards
- 1 Buyback Autograph
- 1 Additional Autograph
- 1 Parallel
- 1 Base Card
Moving on, Pack Man saved up for a personal case of Honors football—that’s how much he enjoys this product!
Read More: Are Old Football Cards Worth Anything?
“Coolest cards in the hobby in my opinion. A lot of fun stuff; very unique ones and some stuff that we’re familiar with as well as once again some stuff only in this product so…Most are signed Originals or extra kind of like real copies they’re not reprints. So Josh Allen’s rookie card for example imagine from optic that’s not a reprint it’s actually from that year they just didn’t put in the product and then now they put in this product.
Clearly Donruss Football
We have talked about Donruss being a great product, especially when it comes to the best football card brands, but one that is talked about less yet still a thrill to rip is Clearly Donruss.
From that same “Card Sets We Are LOVING Now” video from Sports Card Investor, Doug says:
“I’ve always enjoyed acetate cards… I like that they include all of the case hits from Donruss Optic—you can get Night Moves and you can get Downtowns, and the price Point’s really good you can get those those boxes are fairly inexpensive. First Off the Lune stuff is packed full of hits. I don’t know, it’s a fun rip.”
