This season has been literally epic for rookies in the major leagues. It seems that its a weekly occurrence for a top rookie to be called up to the team, and I am sure that baseball prospectors are licking their chops over the pending September call ups that will be happening shortly. There are a few rookies that are poised to make a big impact as the season comes to a close, some of which are relatively under appreciated. To think how many of these guys are on playoff teams is just crazy, which only makes this year that much better.

Kyle Schwarber – Cubs

I dont think there has been a bigger surprise in baseball than Schwarber’s success so early on in his MLB career. He has undoubtedly outshined the other big name on his team in Kris Bryant, putting up some really nice power numbers. As the Cubs make a final push, both Bryant and Schwarber will need to play extremely well, and that will mean some big bumps for their cards if they do. Right now, he is much cheaper than Bryant, but that could change if he continues to play like he is.

As with many of the guys on this list, his prices are climbing:

2014 Bowman Chrome Kyle Schwarber Auto RC BGS 9.5

2015 Bowman Inception Kyle Schwarber Auto Gold Parallel

2015 Bowman Kyle Schwarber Auto Gold Refractor /50

Carlos Correa – Astros

As a former #1 pick, his ceiling should be high. That being said, the hobby seems to think he is the second coming of Mike Trout, pushing his value into the stratosphere. He has been a big part of the Astros continued push for the playoffs, which is shocking considering where they were last year. I think if you are looking to pick up a prospect, Correa is reaching his ceiling very quickly. However, if the Astros go deep in the post season, he could see even higher prices.

Insane prices for him since he hit the bigs:

2013 Bowman Chrome Carlos Correa Auto RC BGS Raw Review 9.5

2013 Bowman Victory Carlos Correa Gold Auto

2013 Bowman Platinum Carlos Correa Green Refractor Auto PSA 10

Miguel Sano – Twins

In less than 40 games, he has hit 11 HRs, which is nuts. The guy is pretty much a hulk when standing at the plate, even more impressive when you see he is only 22 years old. He may have seen time at the big leagues last year if it werent for Tommy John surgery, but that obviously hasnt phased him. For someone mashing the ball like he is, his autographs go for basically nothing. This is a perfect time to pick up his stuff.

Underrated value all around:

2015 Bowman Inception Miguel Sano "Inceptioned" RC Auto

2010 Bowman Chrome Miguel Sano Auto RC

Jung Ho Kang – Pirates

To be completely honest, I had no idea who he was prior to the start of the season. Now he is one of the front runners for NL ROY. As an international player, his prices are going to be inflated above the normal situation for a player of his caliber, but he is worth a look if the Pirates can stay atop the wild card race for the NL. He doesnt have the power numbers that some of the other guys on this list have, but he is a solid player.

2015 Topps Chrome Jung Ho Kang Purple Auto /250

2015 Bowman Inception Jung Ho Kang Auto Blue

Noah Syndergaard – Mets

Thor has had himself quite the 2015 campaign, and the Mets are on pace to win the division for the first time in a while. He is definitely in the mix for ROY, and that should help his cards out a lot. He has some electric stuff when he is on point, and playing in NY doesnt hurt at all. With pitchers, injuries are always a huge concern, which is maybe why his values arent as high as some of the big hitters.

2015 Topps Chrome Noah Syndergaard Orange Auto RC /25

2010 Bowman Chrome Noah Syndergaard RC Auto Refractor

Joc Pederson – Dodgers

One of the only rookies that made the All Star team, he has cooled off at the plate considerably since his hot start. He still put up 23 HR so far, and the Dodgers in the playoffs makes for great TV. They are only a tiny bit ahead of SF for the West lead, and that could prove pretty interesting. Pederson has been one of the top guys of the class all year, and I would love to see him turn it back on.

2012 Bowman Chrome Joc Pederson Auto PSA 10

2015 Gypsy Queen Joc Pederson Auto Patch Booklet

Kris Bryant – Cubs

He is the face of the 2015 class. He is the top valued guy in the group, and his potential seems to be pretty high. The issue is that, like Pederson, he hasnt been that productive as of late, seeing his average and power numbers drop considerably since making the All Star roster. His early call up in the season helps for him to be a top contender for ROY, and it will be quite the sweet experience for Cubs fans who have been dying for a playoff run for years.

Prices are still high:

2015 Allen & Ginter Kris Bryant Framed Auto

2014 Bowman Chrome Kris Bryant Black Refractor Auto BGS 9.5

This is going to be a fun chase over the next few weeks, best to get stocked up now. If one of these guys goes off in the playoffs, the values will be white hot.

Yesterday I was sitting down at my local shop and a brand new collector came in. He was looking for an expensive box or two to bust, and he settled on the recently released National Treasures. In his first box, he literally had one of the worst boxes I have seen in a while. Almost a complete loss. Second box though, was a bit different. Inside was the Andrew Wiggins Rookie Patch Auto /25, easily one of the top cards in the product. This is the power that Treasures has.

Look at the prices on some of the major cards:

2015 National Treasures Andrew Wiggins Rookie Patch Auto – Will end for more than Luck and Wilson combined!

2015 National Treasures Nikola Mirotic Rookie Patch Auto /10

2015 National Treasures Jabari Parker Rookie Patch Auto – Blew his knee out, will still sell for more than Trout Chrome Auto

2015 National Treasures Chris Paul Notable Nicknames Auto

2015 National Treasures Jabari Parker Logoman /5

On the other hand, the rest of the boxes are filled with a combination of nicer hits and relics that wont earn back the box price, with stickers galore and Panini points. In fact, we watched a few other cases get opened, and very few really nice cards came out. There was another Wiggins, but the sticker and small patch probably wouldnt break even on the box price. Overall, everyone in the shop agreed the break was a bloodbath. In fact, these types of situations tend to happen more often than not with Treasures, especially for people who arent lucky enough to pull on card autos of the top rookies in the product.

Treasures has paled in comparison to Immaculate and Flawless over the last few years, and that might be putting it lightly. The addition of Panini points as a replacement for a hit is a fucking disaster, and that doesnt even begin to describe the condition of some of the cards. Dont get me wrong, hit one of the big guys and you paid for your case and then some.

I honestly dont know what to say here, because the boxes are about as schizophrenic as they have ever been. There are a lot of cool looking cards, but there are also a ton of cards that are better reserved for Prestige. Immaculate, at least to me, remains the top product in the game, and yet, here we are. even more shocking to me is how much people put value in the design, as I think the vertical orientation is no less than 100 times worse than the extremely rare horizontal ones. The ugly design game is strong with NT, and that doesnt seem to matter.

These types of situations DO NOT exist in Football and they DO NOT exist in Baseball. However, with Hockey and Basketball, they seem to be frequent in the way cards are valued. An international sport brings international collectors, and therefore a much larger market for the cards. How much of this product’s problems are hidden by the number of people that collect the cards? I would say a lot.

Exquisite NBA remains the best product in basketball to this day. It was 100% on card, it had Jordan and Lebron, and it delivered some crazy fucking hits. Treasures seems like a cheap knock off, and yet that doesnt seem to bother anyone. Well, maybe not until you see this video.

I have never been too big a fan of Certified in any one of its many iterations, especially over the last few years. The cards have always been really ugly, save a few years here and there, including one of the ugliest modern sets of all time in 2006. Bottom line, Certified should have been axed years ago, but like many of Panini’s products, the beatings will continue until morale improves.

Witness the Carnage Yourself:

2015 Certified Rob Gronkowski Auto Jumbo Relic

2015 Certified Phillip Dorsett Mirror Red Jumbo Patch Auto

2015 Certified Eli Manning Gold Team Auto /10

2015 Certified Todd Gurley Auto RC

Just taking one look at this design, all I can think is that someone dropped an iPad and they used it for inspiration. That, or Spider-man prematurely blew his wad, and it landed all over the printing plates. Not exactly the best feelings to instill in your customers. OH BUT IT HAS COLORZ AND BIG PATCHEZ! AWWWWWW YISS.

Certified is a product for those people who have no other desire than to get big patches. Regardless of how the cards look, they just want the CAR-AY-ZAY MOJOZ! and they dont care about anything else. These cards are some of the most hideous fucking train wrecks I have ever seen, and that’s being light. The jumbo patch autos are just horrible in every single way, and the base autos are worse. The cracked glass/Spidey Spooge approach takes this product to a new level of shittiness.

There is one part of this set that deserves some attention, and it might be the only reason to even consider joining a group break, let alone a box. The on card Super Bowl autos are a cool addition to this dumpster fire, and the cards are some I would pick up if there was someone in the set I collected.

As mentioned before, Panini did not get any cards signed at the rookie premiere, and Certified continues to suffer from sticker shock on every card in the product. The relic autos are not possible to be on card at this point in the year, but to see every card a sticker without a single on card offering is a slap in the face. As recent as 2011, Certified had on card content. Now? Might as well put it in the bargain bin before it even goes on the regular shelf.

After the last few years, this is pretty much how it is.

Although retail Chrome has been live for a while now, almost inexplicably early, the main content for Hobby should start showing up today. There is potential for some really nice hits in the product, but from what it looks like, boxes can be very feast or famine. The autographs look great, and the parallels are plenty, which means this should be pretty popular.

Bigger hits up so far – retail and hobby:

2015 Topps Chrome Kris Bryant Purple Refractor Auto RC /250

2015 Topps Chrome Carlos Correa SSP RC

2015 Topps Chrome Jose Abreu Illustrious Auto

2015 Topps Chrome Byron Buxton Gold Auto

2015 Topps Chrome Clayton Kershaw Red Refractor /5

2015 Topps Chrome Joc Pederson Auto RC

The biggest news has to be the SSP rookies, which include Buxton, Syndergaard, and Correa, whose late call ups forced the cards to have limited runs per Topps' podcast. These cards are definitely going to be valuable, maybe even more than some of the autographs in the set, and I will definitely have to look at picking up a box just to see if I can pull one. Correa has been ON FIRE in the hobby, maybe even more than Bryant lately, and this could be a card that ends up being a lower tier option for collectors who can no longer afford the Bowman Chrome autos.

Considering that Trout did not have a 2011 Chrome card because of his call up timeframe, I think having guys like Buxton and Correa in the set will be a nice to have if both pan out like they are supposed to.

As expected, some of the inserts look pretty cool. However, with insert autographs being mainly stickers, I dont think that is why you buy this product. In fact, its becoming more and more clear that Topps Chrome really doesnt have the clout in the hobby that it does in football, and that poses a real problem if you are looking to get a bang for your buck.

I think that the collectors who love the nostalgia of their previous experiences with Chrome, as well as those that want a shot at the big rookies, will bust this product exclusively, but overall, others might be checked out – especially without big rookies like Sano, Conforto, Schwarber and others having cards in the product.

Going to be interesting to see if this holds up on the secondary market, if not only because Superfractors will always be popular, and the Bryant autos that could carry this set.

We all know that Rookies and Stars is rarely ever worth paying attention to. The set hardly even lives up to its horrible name most years. Even so, its rare that a product is released that is done so without the typical sell sheet and pre-sale info that goes out to every distributor. 2015 Rookies and Stars looks to be the first football product in years that seems to have gone that direction, although it might be because the set ends up as retail only. Its probably better that as few people as possible are subjected to it from the looks of the way it turned out.

Over the last few years, and really since the product’s inception, Rookies and Stars has been the Ford Pinto of the trading card world. So bad that it is a punch line. Not a good brand identity, but Panini keeps on using the paddles to shock another few beats into its heart. I dont think I have bought a pack of this product, ever. That’s how bad it is.

This set has been inexcusably bad for almost a decade:

2014 Rookies and Stars Odell Beckham Patch Auto

2011 Rookies and Stars Tom Brady Auto Relic

2012 Rookies and Stars Andrew Luck Auto Patch RC

2011 Rookies and Stars Colin Kaepernick Auto Manupatch RC

This year’s product is so boring looking that it might not even be worth talking about. If you saw these cards in a large search on eBay, you wouldnt even notice them. It has always been a forgettable set, but this year is an exception to how bad it gets. Not even going into the horrid looking die cut cards, and even more stupid content than one could imagine. It even has manupatch cards – ones that dont feature a team logo or even anything worth making a manupatch of. It has the set logo as a manupatch. I cant even make this shit up. Of course, this is the set that originated those awful signed pieces of scrap cloth that Panini loved for so many years, so maybe its destiny?

It makes you wonder if this is like those movies they dont screen for critics because they know how bad they are. That’s definitely 2015 Rookies and Stars, a set that is about as worthwhile as making another Mummy movie. 2015 Rookies and Stars: The Mummy Attacks! This is what we have come to. Remember, there had to be someone who looked at this set and said – YES! PRINT IT! I loathe that person.

Before I show the pictures, here is a running list of Panini products that will hit shelves before the first set with any significant on card rookie autograph content. Yes TEN FUCKING PRODUCTS:

• 2015 Prizm Draft
• 2015 Contenders Draft
• 2015 Prestige (1 set of same day cards)
• 2015 Clear Vision
• 2015 Spectra (1 set of HOF)
• 2015 Certified
• 2015 Rookies and Stars
• 2015 Donruss
• 2015 Panini Playbook
• 2015 Gridiron Kings

Wow, someone needs an award made up. Holy shit.