NEW RELEASES: New football, basketball cards highlight new sets just in time for Christmas

As sports card collectors, our favorite time of the year is approaching.

No, I'm not talking about the National Sports Collectors Convention. We are looking forward to the upcoming holiday season full of new card releases. 

It's a winter wonderland of Christmas trees, jingle bells, and shiny boxes wrapped with big bows under your tree. Here's hoping some of those boxes are filled with sports cards. If you're looking to add something to your wish list, here is a short list of five great new releases for the holiday season.

We would be remiss if we didn't start with the obvious holiday release, the festive 2023 Topps Holiday Baseball Mega boxes.

Also See: More 2023 New Releases 

This product is out in plenty of time to put under your tree, hitting shelves at the end of October. Remember, the annual holiday cards will find their way to store shelves early. Walmart pre-sales already exist.

These boxes contain one hit in the form of an autograph, relic, or auto relic card and a seasonal ornament box topper. Coming in at a reasonable $30 a box, these are even suitable for the naughty people on your list.

The design mirrors the flagship Topps cards with the added sprinkling of candy canes, holly, and snowflakes, which is fitting for the season. 

Of course, you can find Santa Claus throughout as inserts, parallel cards, holiday parallels, and, most interestingly, faux autographs and relic cards of all of your favorite iconic holiday characters, including Elf, Frosty the Snowman, Mrs. Claus, Santa Claus, and a second Kris Kringle card.

Also See: Highly-ranked Pete Rose card collection up for bid 

You might have a better chance of seeing the real Santa Claus than pulling one of these faux relic or auto cards as they appear one in every 24,000 mega boxes. You read that right. One in 24,000. There is a cool Santa archives set, which appear to be designed in honor of classic Topps sets from 1952 all the way up to the 2023 design.

These would be a great gift for a young collector, a collector on a budget, or even someone who just wants something holiday-related. The box is so holiday-oriented you wouldn't even have to wrap it.

The flagship Donruss Football product made its way to shelves on Nov. 2. This baseline would be a great gift for any collector. With a price tag right at $240, it's a little bit more expensive than the aforementioned Topps Holiday Mega, but depending on your luck, it could be well worth it.

Expect to find the iconic Rated Rookies of your favorite 2023 rookie class as well as the wildly popular Downtown and Gridiron Marvel cards. There's no shortage of autographs that are done on a wide variety of subset and insert designs, including Gridiron Kings and Champ is Here, which features autographs from the Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs roster.

Also See: NHL rookie cards to chase in 2023-2024

Expect one autograph, one relic, and 18 Rated Rookies per box, along with a plethora of other inserts and parallels.

Mid-November is a wild run for new card releases, and if you were a really good boy or girl, you might be able to talk someone into buying you a box of the 2023 Panini Origins Football cards for right around $500.

One of the more classy and artistic designs of the year, Origins has a rich history of high-end cards. The base cards are almost a work of art in their own right, and there are plenty of parallels that follow suit.

The product features one Jumbo Rookie Jersey autograph and one additional autograph per box, along with a memorabilia card, two base rookies or rookie variations, and two base or base parallels. This is released in hobby and retail form, with hobby boxes carrying seven cards per pack, one pack per box, and 16 boxes per case.

Also See: Trade 2023 Topps Chrome MVP cards in Topps Buyback program 

Don't miss the beautiful Primordial inserts, as well as the various rookie autographs. The dual-rookie autographs and even triple-rookie jumbo patches are some of the nicest in the game and are PC and showcase worthy in every sense of the word.

This is one of the more aesthetically pleasing football releases each and every season, and this year will be no different.

By the end of November, one of the best high-end releases of the year will be on the market. National Treasures is the beginning and the end of cream-of-the-crop releases, and collectors can expect to see the 2022-23 basketball product available before Christmas. Coming in at a hefty $3,200 per box, finding this under your tree would be the Christmas of a lifetime.

The Rookie Patch Autos in this product are the standard by which all others are measured. The even more spectacular 1-of-1 RPAs, Logoman, and Rookie Material autographs are absolutely stunning. There's a wide range of superstar and legend autographs placed nicely on these high-end cards.

The breathtaking inserts include Colossal Materials, Colossal Logoman and Treasure Tags. In these boxes that should be made of gold, you will find four autographs and four memorabilia cards, along with one base or parallel card and a printing plate.

This is the holiday gift for the most astute and elite collectors.

Anyone who follows basketball knows that watching the annual McDonald's All-American high school basketball game is almost like rubbing a crystal ball or looking directly into the future of the NBA.

What makes the 2023 Topps Chrome McDonald's All Americans set so special is it will feature the first licensed cards of Bronny James, the eldest son of NBA icon LeBron James. This product will carry his first licensed autograph issues. It's hard to overstate how big of a deal that could be for the market.

The cards in the Chrome set cover the East and West All-Americans on both the men's and women's teams. Each hobby box contains two autographs.

As you can imagine, with the Topps Chrome product, there's an unlimited number of base parallels. Collectors will find New Waves inserted and Gold Vibrations as well as the aforementioned All-American Basketball Autographs.

Each hobby box will contain 20 packs per box, with four cards per pack. Let the Bronny James card hunting commence, even on Christmas morning, if you so choose.

— Tony Reid has written about sports collectibles for such publications as Beckett and Sports Collectors Daily. He collects RCs of star players in baseball, basketball and football. You can reach him at @reidrattlecage on all social media platforms.