Fan Signal Desk
Daily brief on cards and kits.
Edition 3 Sunday, July 19, 2026

Liverpool and Palace both go retro for 2026-27

A white Liverpool away shirt built from 1970s match tickets, Crystal Palace's sash back after 50 years, and two big Topps pre-orders opening this week.

Official imagery published July 19 by Footy Headlines, with a confirmed July 28 release date.

Liverpool's 2026-27 away kit is white, with a crest built from 1970s match tickets

adidas has Liverpool back in white for the first time since 2023-24, and the detailing is the story. The crest sits inside a shield pattern lifted from 1970s Liverpool match tickets, paired with maroon logos and the old Trefoil. It goes on sale Tuesday, July 28. The keeper shirt tips its cap to the purple 1994-95 number.

Source: Footy Headlines · Published July 19, 2026
Official club announcement, on sale July 17, corroborated by Footy Headlines' release post.

Crystal Palace bring the sash back for the first time in 50 years

Palace's new Macron home kit puts the red-and-blue sash across a white shirt, the look first worn in 1976 and gone for half a century. The badge is the circular crest the club ran from 1973 to 1987, on the left chest. It went on sale July 17, with adult shirts from 65 pounds and the Body Fit cut at 75.

Source: Crystal Palace FC (official) / Footy Headlines · Published July 17, 2026
Confirmed July 20 pre-order date reported by Beckett News, corroborated by SI Collectibles.

2026 Topps Pristine Baseball opens pre-order July 20 with its smallest base set since 2022

Pre-orders go live on Topps.com Monday, July 20 at noon ET, sold through the EQL raffle. The base set is down a third to 200 cards, the leanest Pristine has run since the brand came back in 2022. Hobby boxes carry two autos and one autographed relic, with new inserts including Pristine Wilderness, Spotless and Timeless Connections.

Source: Beckett News
Release date and cover athlete confirmed by SI Collectibles and Beckett News.

2026 Topps Flagship Football pre-orders open July 24, No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza on the cover

Topps set July 24 for pre-orders on Topps.com, with the full release August 21. Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the top pick in this year's draft, fronts it. The checklist brings first rookie cards for the 2026 class, Mendoza, Jeremiyah Love and Ty Simpson, plus 1991 Topps Football throwback inserts and Golden Mirror and True Photo parallels.

Source: Sports Illustrated (Collectibles)
Surfaced on r/baseballcards' top-of-day feed; exact vote count unavailable today, since Reddit rate-limits thread-level fetches.

A 1948 Menko mail day from Japan, and the occupation history behind it

A collector shared a haul of 1948 Menko cards out of Japan along with the backstory that makes the format tick. Under MacArthur's occupation, traditional hero imagery, samurai, military figures and folklore warriors, was banned, so card makers turned to sumo and baseball instead. The poster says four Hall of Famers turned up in the batch, though the post does not name them. Vintage Japanese Menko stays a genuinely under-covered corner of the Western hobby.

Source: r/baseballcards · Published July 19, 2026
Surfaced on r/baseballcards' top-of-day feed; current eBay listings put Raines autos in the $20-plus range.

A $10 Tim Raines auto, and a growing Expos personal collection

A collector pulled a Tim Raines autograph off eBay for $10 and added it to a growing Montreal Expos PC, then asked the community where to find more Expos signatures. Raines autos generally list north of $20 right now, which is what makes ten dollars a real find. Expos gear remains one of the game's quieter collecting corners.

Source: r/baseballcards · Published July 19, 2026

PSA's grading backlog falls from 14 million to 12 million cards

Source: Yahoo Sports