Best week of the collecting calendar just wrapped. Draft, Futures Game, Home Run Derby, All-Star Game, all inside about 72 hours in Philadelphia. Kevin McGonigle made the AL roster as a reserve shortstop, which is absurd for a guy who was still climbing the ladder at Double-A Erie a year ago. He's the second-youngest Tiger to ever make an All-Star team, behind only Al Kaline (MLB.com). Travis Bazzana and Chase Burns, the top two picks from the 2024 draft, both made it too, so the "prospect hype is overblown" crowd took a rough week.

None of that is why I'm circling July 22, though. That's when Topps Chrome Baseball drops, and it's the line's 30th anniversary release. McGonigle, Konnor Griffin, and JJ Wetherholt all get their Chrome debuts in that set, since none of them had a proper flagship-style rookie card before this year (Beckett). If you already grabbed the Series 2 short prints on these guys, which is basically this whole issue, Chrome is round two of the same chase. Same names, shinier cardboard, bigger price tag walking in the door.

One autograph per hobby box, $239.99 a pop, with Mega Boxes running $69.99 for collectors who don't want to commit to a full case (Topps.com). Steep for a box. Still the safest brand-name release of the month if you're only buying one product in July.

New shop opening in the Birmingham market, and if you're anywhere close, it's worth the drive. 1st Card Collectibles holds its grand opening on Tuesday, July 21, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at 194 Narrows Drive in Birmingham. Follow along at @1stcardcollectibles on Instagram or 1stcardcollectibles.com for opening-day details, giveaways, and box breaks.

Every new brick-and-mortar shop is good for the hobby. More local breaks, more places to actually flip through wax in person instead of buying blind online, more community. If you're in the Birmingham area, go say hi and tell them Dugout Vault sent you.

Topps has run this play before: take the last four cards of the flagship checklist and short-print the current rookie class into those slots instead of whichever veterans the standard set assigns there. This year that meant Kevin McGonigle (Tigers), JJ Wetherholt (Cardinals), Carson Benge (Mets), and Justin Crawford (Phillies) took over #697 through #700 in the 2026 Topps Series 2 checklist, and it turned four complete-set filler numbers into some of the most-searched cards in the release.

McGonigle is the headliner and priced like it. He's the reigning AL Rookie of the Month, an actual All-Star at 21, and hitting .284/.394/.425 with 7 home runs and 11 steals through mid-July (MLB.com). Wetherholt sits second, the Cardinals' 2024 seventh-overall pick out of West Virginia and the shortstop of their future. Benge, the Mets' 2024 first-rounder out of Oklahoma State, converted from a two-way college arm/bat into a full-time outfielder and carries the middle price tag of the four. Crawford, the Phillies' speed-and-glove center fielder (and yes, Carl Crawford's son), is the cheapest entry point, since pure speed profiles tend to get discounted next to power bats in this hobby.