This is Part 2 of a two part series on the production of 2022S1 GPK Book Worms. If you missed Part 1 you can go here to catch up.
In the first post we looked at how many packs/boxes/cases were produced of 2022S1 Garbage Pail Kids Book Worms. Here’s a review of what we came up with.
- Total Production – 3,635,000 Packs
- Collector – 405,000 Collector Packs or about 16,875 Collector Boxes or about 2,109 Collector Cases
- Retail Display – 564,000 Retail Display Packs or about 23,500 RD Boxes or about 2,937 RD Cases
- Mega Box – 2,681,000 Mega Box packs or 157,705 Mega boxes
I’ll be using these numbers to try to come up with an idea how many of each type of parallel and insert were created for the set. This will give you a good idea how rare a set is and how quickly you need to snap up that card for your rainbow! I’ll also compare some of this info to the previous sets for reference. As a reminder, in addition to using the sell sheet and odds, we will also have to make some assumptions and flat out guesses when trying to figure some of these out.
So how many of each type of card was made? Topps actually helped us out with this set. By eliminating Fat Packs and cancelling Blasters, this set ends up being the cleanest one in a long time to figure out numbers for. This is a rare time where we are able to get usable data on nearly every card type. Like previous sets, Topps has continued to number many card types. This means we already know most of the parallel and insert numbers already! Makes this post a lot easier! We know Gray /199, Blue /99, Red /75, and Gold /50 for the parallels, and Patch Cards (/199, /99, /75, /50, 1/1). Like most sets there are changes with this one. Most notable artist autographs are no longer numbered. However we know artists were given 170 of each card to sign, (160 to be inserted + 10 for replacements).
First let’s figure out production for the two parallels that aren’t numbered.
- Black Borders – 405,000 Collector packs / 1 Odds (doh) = 405,000 total Black borders / 200 cards in set = 2,025 per card.
- Green Borders – 3,245,000 Retail packs / 1 Odds (doh) = 3,245,000 total Green borders / 200 cards in set = 16,225 per card.
Topps actually made this pretty straight forward to figure out. There are only 8 card retail packs in Retail Display and Mega boxes. Each one has 1 green border. With production being up over 100%, we see those results in the parallels. Both Black and Green per card numbers are higher than any previous GPK set. Lots of parallel sets to go around.
Now let’s take a look at the various insert sets.
- Wacky Package Prose – 405,000 Collector packs / 24 odds = 16,875 total Wacky Package / 8 cards in set = 2,109 per card
- Book Marked! – 405,000 Collector packs / 24 odds = 16,875 total Book Marked / 5 cards in set = 3,375 per card
- Iron-On Patch – 405,000 Collector packs / 24 odds = 16,875 total Iron-Ons / 6 in set = 2,812 per patch
- Author’s of Their Own Misfortune – 564,000 Retail Display Packs / 3 odds = 188,000 total Author’s / 10 cards in set = 18,800 per card
- Gross Adaptations (#1-15) – 2,681,000 Mega Box Packs / 2 odds = 1,340,500 total GA / 15 cards in set = 89,366 per card
With the recent release of the Walmart Toy Aisle Mega Box, it throws a wrench into trying to figure out the numbers for all the Gross Adaptations cards. With the odds being exactly the same for cards 16-20 and 21-25, we can’t determine the print run for each. We can’t assume Topps printed 50% of both types of boxes. Without knowing the ratio of each type of Mega box, we can’t figure out the numbers. However, Gross Adaptations 1-15 being over 89k is more than base cards in Food Fight! That insert set alone is larger than any base set released in the last 12 years. Increases in the other inserts can also be easily seen. As with parallels, there are no inserts that are particularly rare.
With production being so high, collectors have noticed that the “hits” are few and far between. The odds listed for plates and artist autographs are much longer than collectors are used to. If you are hunting those, let’s take a look at the distribution of both plates and autos in each pack type.
- Collector packs 405,000 / 35 auto odds = 11,571 autos in Collector packs
- Retail Display packs 564,000 / 228 auto odds = 2,473 autos in Retail Display packs
- Mega Box packs 2,681,000 / 1,055 auto odds = 2,541 autos in Mega Box packs
- Collector packs 405,000 / 1,480 Plate odds = 273 plates in collector packs
- Retail Display packs 564,000 / 16,834 Plate odds = 33 plates in Retail Display packs
- Mega Box packs 2,681,000 / 29,166 Plate odds = 91 plates in Mega Box packs
The auto distribution flipped from Food Fight. The majority of autos are now in Collector boxes. This isn’t surprising, we know the artists signed 160 autos to be inserted into packs. We also see the increased print run for Collector boxes, with one guaranteed hit per collector box all these additional autos had to go in Collector boxes. Plate distribution is roughly the same compared to Food Fight. Another note on these numbers. If you add up all the autos and divide by 100 (auto cards in the set), it’s comes to an average of 165 per auto. Which is very close to the 160 Topps had the artists sign for the set. Total plates in all three pack types add up to 397 plates. Oh so close to the 400 plates Topps inserts into the product. This reinforces we are on the right track with our production numbers.
Now let’s take a look at how many of each sketch card is inserted into the product.
- Regular Sketch – 564,000 Retail Display packs / 186 odds = 3,032 regular sketches in Retail Display packs
- Shaped Sketch – 405,000 Collector packs / 356 odds = 1,137 Shaped Sketches in Collector packs
- Triptych Sketch – 405,000 Collector packs / 2,654 odds = 153 Triptych Sketches in Collector packs
This is one of the few times we are able to run numbers on sketches. On average the total sketches inserted match up to what Topps assigned the 59 artists GPKNews identified for the set.
It’s hard to wrap my head around just how much 2022S1 Book Worms was printed. None of the parallels or inserts are rare, there is a lot of everything to go around as long as boxes of the product are busted. Are there enough new GPK collectors to support this high of print run? That remains to be seen. What will also be interesting in the future is what will production numbers look like for upcoming sets. Will the increases continue?
Finally, can we figure out how many base cards were produced? Not really, but we can use what we know and give it our best guess! We know Collector and Retail Display packs have 6 or 7 base cards per pack. We will go with 7 for those packs. Mega boxes also have 6 or 7, but of the 17 packs in a box, 10 or 11 have 6 cards, so let’s use 6.5 for Mega box packs.
Base Cards – 404,000 Collector packs + 564,000 Retail Display packs = 969,000 packs * 7 cards per pack = 6,783,000 base cards + 2,681,000 Mega packs * 6.5 cards per packs = 24,209,500 total base cards / 200 cards in set = 121,047 per base card
Wow! Over 24 million base cards! 121k base sets available!!! GPK isn’t a little tiny niche anymore. These numbers approach some sports card sets. While we can’t figure out ANS print runs, I’m thinking these numbers might exceed those sets. Time to reach for the heights of OS!
This is Part 2 of a two part series on the production of 2022S1 GPK Book Worms. If you missed Part 1 you can go here to catch up.