Between 2010 and 2013, Major League Soccer cards changed hands twice: from one manufacturer to another, and from a league that included the women's game to one that no longer did. Our catalog holds a sealed box from every year of that stretch. This is how they fit together.
2010 Upper Deck MLS
20 packs of 12 cards, with one autograph and four memorabilia cards per hobby box. The 200-card base set covers 175 MLS players, 15 SuperDraft rookies and 10 All Stars from Women's Professional Soccer, then in its second season. The autograph is either an MLS Marks card numbered to 30 or fewer or a WPS Marks card numbered to 100 or fewer; the WPS checklist includes Marta.
2011 Upper Deck MLS
The same configuration: one autograph and four memorabilia cards per box. The base set now includes 12 WPS players and 3 WPS SuperDraft rookies — among them card #198, Alex Morgan's rookie card, issued three months after she was drafted first overall. The MLS side carries the first Upper Deck MLS cards of Thierry Henry and Rafa Márquez.
2011 Upper Deck SP Game Used Soccer
Released in January 2012, this is Upper Deck's high-end brand, pointed at soccer for the first time. A box holds only 6 packs of 3 cards — 18 cards in total — with around six hits and three serial-numbered rookies. Morgan appears again here, and the memorabilia and autograph checklists include David Beckham, Thierry Henry, Landon Donovan, Abby Wambach and Christine Sinclair.
2012 Upper Deck MLS
Upper Deck's last MLS set, released in July 2012. 20 packs of 12 cards, with five jersey or autograph cards per box on average. It is the first of the run without a single WPS card: the league had ended operations two months earlier. The checklist carries the first Upper Deck MLS cards of Robbie Keane, and SP autographs of Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey numbered to 25.
2013 Topps MLS
The first set of the Topps era, which continues today. 24 packs of 10 cards, with two autographs and three relics per box. Topps opened its run with an insert set that puts MLS players on the design of its 1978 English football cards.
Reading the run
The 2010 and 2011 boxes are the ones with the women's game in them, and 2011 is the Alex Morgan year. SP Game Used is the premium product of the group, 2012 is the last Upper Deck set, and 2013 is the first Topps one.
Which players a box contains is random. Print runs are totals across each release, and no specific player or card is guaranteed in any single box.
See the 2010 Upper Deck MLS hobby box
See the 2011 Upper Deck MLS hobby box
See the 2011 Upper Deck SP Game Used Soccer hobby box
See the 2012 Upper Deck MLS hobby box
See the 2013 Topps MLS hobby box
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