Best of 2023 Awards
2023 is in the bag. Long live 2024! Before shoveling too much dirt on the hobby year 2023, it is time to look back and reflect on the year that was. What were the biggest stories? What were the best cards? Will the market ever stop dropping? Sit back and relax and I’ll take you through all of the best of 2023. So for the second year in a row, here are the winners of the prestigious Dudley Hobby Awards (DHA).
Rookie of the Year (Hobby)
Bedard, Wemby, Stroud, and Corbin Carroll highlight a surprisingly strong year of rookie players across the professional leagues. Choosing one is tough, but Wembanyama wins out with hype not seen since Lebron James’ debut. He might not even be the best-performing rookie in his league, but Wemby is the clear top rookie in the hobby. Bedard is a close second as he has drawn considerable attention to hockey products and likely will throughout 2024. Super-strong year overall for rookies which is always welcome in the hobby.
Player of the Year (Hobby)
Acuna Jr. had a historic year and the major stars in the NFL and NBA had down years. The hobby just hasn’t reacted positively enough to Acuna’s comeback so I can’t choose him despite my Braves’ homerism. While he ended the season injured, the clear choice to me is Shohei Ohtani who dominated most of 2023 including supplanting Michael Jordan as the most-graded player in a month at PSA. Anyone who knocks off Jordan is worthy of the title of Player of the Year for the hobby and I really can’t see another choice here.
Best Trend of the Year
There have been some highly public snafus, but for me, the biggest trend in 2023 was an increase in overall quality control. Fewer releases, especially chromium ones, are seeing surface and centering issues. For a span, I avoided all Panini products due to a spate of bad quality control. Now, I have no hesitation in picking up a Prizm blaster, or at least not for quality control issues. Throw in the fact that both Topps and Panini have upped their insert game with some great-looking cards and quality becomes the key winner in 2023 and no, neither Topps nor Panini paid me for that opinion.
Worst Trend of the Year
Pricing. Yes, singles prices have been on a downward path, but I’m talking about wax prices. With singles prices plummeting, one might expect a serious price drop on wax as the cards in said wax are worth substantially less. Unfortunately, the great price drop in wax is still largely a myth. This leads to multiple products that fail to cause any kind of buzz in the hobby as it is hard to get excited about a $1000 box with the best card in said being worth $100. Long-term this will sap excitement from the hobby. It also hurts the singles market as collectors need people to be actively engaged in ripping packs to populate the singles market. 2022 Topps Sapphire is my cautionary tale of this where it was priced too high and no one ripped and consequentially it is a pain to find singles. Unfortunately, this cautionary tale is becoming the norm.
Card image of the Year
I’ve had this one pegged since its release and nothing else this year has even been seriously considered. Topps Now’s WBC card featuring Shohei Ohtani striking out Mike Trout is a historically cool card even if the image itself isn’t the best quality. The moment was big enough to make this card an instant classic.
Insert of the Year Award
Lots of choices this year as more and more products embrace the case hit insert craze. For me though, the award almost goes to Topps Homefield Advantage for the second year running as it is one of the more attractive sets and one of the very few that I hear of multiple people building a set. Sure, it is a Downtown knockoff, but Panini has long forgotten what the word downtown means and Topps has surpassed them in quality by a country mile. It’s just not good enough to win twice in a row.
Instead, the award goes to Topps Golden Mirror which revamped the already popular Topps SP image variations. The changes caused high demand for even common cards and were fueled by an impressive bounty for the first complete set. Even after that was claimed, these cards have remained hot and are some of the most sought-after from 2023.
Best New Product
Not many choices here. 2022 gave us a few new products, but 2023 has seen almost nothing new and actually has seen older product lines end. The one new product that has gotten decent buzz isn’t a new line but a new way of distributing cards. Breaker’s Delight products are likely to see more use in the upcoming years as the hobby continues to cater to one of the biggest segments of consumers. With Fanatics involved with breaking directly now, more formats dedicated to breakers seem like a given. The good news is that the format was well-received for the most part which was a surprise as even mentioning breaking causes a certain segment of the hobby to reach instinctively for their pitchforks.
Card of the Year (Wide Release, pr>99)
The card of the year wasn’t even issued in packs. The card with the most buzz around it this year came from S.I. for Kids and features everyone’s favorite French teenage giant. The Wembanyama hype is real and his S.I. for Kids cards is quickly becoming the iconic trading card image associated with him. I’m not sure the card will keep its current level of popularity when premium Wemby cards hit the market and there is already evidence of price drops. Really though, the card of the year had to be a Wembanyama one and this is still his most recognizable one.
Card of the Year (Limited Release, pr <99)
There are a few good options here, but for me, it boils down to the Ruth/Ohtani dual autos and the Tom Brady Bowman Chrome autos. Here, availability wins out and with the Ruth/Ohtani only having a couple of copies I’ll give the nod to the Brady auto which has generated more hype than any other card this year.
Product of the Year (Under $500 a Box)
The wax market this year had very few clear winners. I’m tempted to go with a lesser-known product like Holiday, but that feels too gimmicky for this award despite its appeal. Topps Brooklyn is an annual favorite, but the price increase makes it a bit too pricy for the top spot. Panini’s last years with football and basketball haven’t been as bad as I feared, but they also haven’t released any products that have provided bang for the buck so no real contenders from them. It’s not just about money so I ended up choosing Topps Series 1 which was released to much fanfare and was a blast to open, especially the jumbo boxes. A strong rookie checklist, nice design, friendly price point, and a strong class of auto signers made this the top product for under $500.
Product of the Year (Over $500 a Box)
Nothing this year has come close to the hype of Bowman Draft. I’m cheating a bit as hobby boxes weren’t over $500. Jumbos and Super Jumbos were though so I’m counting it. Throw in the extremely popular Tom Brady “Bowman 1sts” and the choice becomes clear, especially in a year where the ongoing theme was how overpriced the premium wax in particular was. This one was a big enough winner that it was impacting other products as folks saved their hard-earned ducats for Draft.
Wrap Up
That’s it for 2023. I’m eagerly awaiting 2024 and expect it to be my biggest year in the hobby in decades. There is a cautious optimism building in the collecting community and I count myself amongst the optimists. Hopefully, when I write this column next year it will be one discussing how great things have gotten in the hobby. If not, there’s always next year.