Topps Not Dead Yet

On the heels of the Players, Inc. announcement that it would not be renewing Topps’ football card licensing contract after its February 2010 expiration, Topps has made an announcement of it own: product information for 2009 Topps Platinum.

Either Topps saw the downfall of their football releases coming and planned ahead, or they are quickly throwing together a last ditch effort to show everyone what a tragic mistake Players, Inc. has made. In a nut shell, 2009 Topps Platinum looks sweet. Each 24-pack box essentially guarantees 2 autographed refractor rookie cards and 1 autographed refractor patch card. Proving they dominated card inserts with refractor technology, every autograph card will be a refractor and will include the usual list of parallels we have come to expect from Topps. I have uploaded the official (and preliminary) sell sheet and checklist for you to review. I apologize for the last few items of each page of the checklist being weird, my pdf converter is acting up tonight. Topps has also released some preliminary card images, which you can see below (hover over image to see details):

 

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On obvious rookie-focused set, 2009 Topps Platinum is scheduled for release the first week in February, just weeks before its NFL license expires, and could be the final Topps football product for quite a while. The price per 24-pack box (each packs contains 5 cards) will run in the $80 range, obviously depending where you buy it.

What do you guys think? Is this a sorry attempt to dump the entire NFL sticker auto and jersey patch inventory Topps currently has, or is this a valiant effort to go out with a bang?

h/t to Mario for passing this information on to someone who is not important enough to receive these sort of emails directly.

Live Today: 2009 SP Threads

Delivering high-end inserts for mid-shelf prices, Upper Deck’s 2009 SP Threads hits hobby shop shelves today. Rookie player collectors and prospectors can get ready to chase some nice relic and autograph cards from this set. The product is being released in cases of 14 boxes of 16 packs of 5 cards each.

The base set for 2009 SP Threads consists of 100 veterans, 100 Rookie Future Watch, and 60 Rookie Auto Letterman. Beyond the base set, there are numerous autograph insert sets including, Rookie Auto Lettermen – College Parallel (Varied #), Rookie Auto Lettermen – College Nickname Parallel (Varied #), Rookie Auto Lettermen – Last Name Parallel (Varied #), SP Rookie Threads Auto Patch (# to 50), Multi Marks Duals (Varied #), Multi Marks Triples (Varied #), Multi Marks Quads (Varied #), SP Superstar Die-Cuts Auto (Varied #), and Stitch in Time. Memorabilia cards include SP Rookie Threads (# to 299), SP Rookie Threads – Dual Swatch Parallel (# to 199), SP Rookie Threads – Triple Swatch Parallel (# to 99), SP Rookie Threads – Patch Parallel (# to 50), SP Threads (# to 99), SP Threads – Parallel (# to 50), SP Threads – Patch Parallel (# to 25), SP Dual Threads (Varied #), SP Tri Threads (Varied #), and SP Foursome Fabrics (Varied #). SP Superstar Die-Cuts is also inserted into 2009 SP Threads

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Disclaimer: The above images were released by Upper Deck along with preliminary product details in June. The actual cards released today may differ from those shown above.

Per Box Breakdown: 16 packs of 5 cards each (80 total) including 2 autographs (with at least 1 Rookie Auto Letterman), 3 memorabilia cards, and at least 5 rookie cards. There are also 1 multi-signed card and 1 autographed memorabilia card in each 14-box case. Boxes are currently selling in the $80 ballpark.

While this is a good looking set, I am becoming mildly comatose with all of the similar “high-end inserts for low-to-mid shelf prices” products these days. It seems that every company is releasing a plethora of products that have similar design elements and promise certain “hits” per box. Do we really need all of these sets? How about focusing on one or two set builders’ products, one or two mid level products with really fancy base cards and guaranteed “hits” and then one top shelf, super high end release that only gives you ridiculously sweet relic and autographed cards without wasting card stock for a base set no one cares about? Just my two cents. That being said, this product does look like it is put together well. There are no egregious design flaws I see in the above images other than the dreaded manufactured letter patches. And obviously that Emmitt Smith patch card caught my attention immediately. I won’t (can’t) go out and buy boxes of this stuff hoping for that Emmitt card, and I probably won’t scour eBay all month looking for one, but if one just happened to fall into my lap, I wouldn’t complain.

What do you guys think? Is this a great set offering value to the collector, or is it just another “hit” product that you couldn’t care less about?

Product Review: 2009 Upper Deck

This review was a long time coming. I got three hobby boxes of my favorite annual product right after it came out, promptly ripped through all 60 packs, and then immediately pushed off writing the review for about a month. My bad. Since I did bust three complete boxes of 2009 Upper Deck at the same time, and because of the vast quantity of cards, I am going to do this review a bit differently by giving a per box breakdown rather than a per pack breakdown. The boxes each contained 16 packs of 20 cards for a total of 320 cards (so I got 960 total). I paid $197.97 for all three boxes from blowoutcards.com, which breaks down to around $0.21 per card — not bad for a brand new set.

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The base set of 325 cards consists of 200 veterans, 100 star rookies, and 25 short printed star rookies. Star Rookies fall 4 per pack while short printed Star Rookies fall 1 per 4 packs. Also available are 3D Stars inserts (2 per box), various memorabilia cards (3 per box), and various autographed cards (1 per box). To see more set information, please see my Product Preview of this set.

This is the first time in First and Goal’s short history that I have previewed a set on its release date and then reviewed actual purchased box(es) afterwards. So without further ado, here is the per box breakdown:

BOX 1:
Veterans (1-200) — All pulled except for #63 (40 doubles, 0 triples)
Star Rookies (201-300) — 64 unique cards (64%)
Short Printed RCs (301-325) — 4 (Malcolm Jenkins; Jeremy Maclin; Aaron Maybin; B.J. Raji)
3D Stars — 2 (Josh Freeman; Lee Evans)
Memorabilia Cards — 3 (Eddie Royal – Game Day Gear; Josh Freeman – UD Rookie Jersey; Ronnie Brown – Game Jersey)
Autographed Cards — 1 (John Niland – America’s Team)

BOX 2:
Veterans (1-200) — All pulled except for #63 (40 doubles, 0 triples)
Star Rookies (201-300) — 64 unique cards (64%)
Short Printed RCs (301-325) — 4 (Chris “Beanie” Wells; B.J. Raji; Hakeem Nicks; LeSean McCoy)
3D Stars — 2 (LeSean McCoy; Aaron Curry)
Memorabilia Cards — 3 (Randy Moss – Game Day Gear; Ramses Barden – UD Rookie Jersey; DeAngelo Williams – Game Jersey)
Autographed Cards — 1 (Donnie Avery – Signature Shots)

BOX 3:
Veterans (1-200) — All pulled except for #63 (40 doubles, 0 triples)
Star Rookies (201-300) — 64 unique cards (64%)
Short Printed RCs (301-325) — 4 (Malcolm Jenkins; Jeremy Maclin; Mark Sanchez; Aaron Maybin)
3D Stars — 2 (Adrian Peterson; Randy Moss/Tom Brady)
Memorabilia Cards — 3 (Earl Bennett – Game Day Gear; Pat White – UD Rookie Jersey; Marvin Harrison – Game Jersey)
Autographed Cards — 1 (Joe Flacco – Signature Shots)

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FIRST AND GOAL’S FOUR DOWNS:
1st Down, Design: This might contain a little bias because I like the annual flagship Upper Deck set each year, but I really liked this design. There is no needless border to get chipped, the name and team logo bars do not distract from the amazing photography, and the gold foil stamping works well (even if it doesn’t scan well). Overall, you have a very clean and classy set, which is important for a large, set-collectors’ product. The photography was not as memorable as 2008’s set, which captured some of the lasting images of the 2007 season, but it is by no means lacking. The entire set just exudes a crisp feeling and is a great binder-worthy set.

2nd Down, Inserts: As an obvious set collectors’ product, 2009 Upper Deck does not offer a lot of inserts, but the ones included are worthy of attention. I did not know how I felt about the 3D Stars insert replacing the Starquest insert when I wrote my product preview. I feared a bad relapse to the Sport Flix sets of the mid 90s was inevitable. As it turns out, I sorta like the outcome. It really works well for the Moss/Brady multi-player card and for the rookie cards as you can see the college and pro unis and logos on the same card. It would have been nicer to see away and home jerseys for the single player veteran cards, though. The memorabilia cards I pulled were nice. They featured clean design elements and vibrant colors. Since they were designed specifically as relic inserts (not base parallels), the swatch windows are well placed and do not hinder the overall look. The autographs are great, too. I would naturally prefer to see on-card autos, but with a lower end set, that’s just not going to happen. But if you look at the scans, you can barely see the stickers and it is obvious the design team took sticker placement into consideration here. Despite the label, it is still a clean autographed set. The higher-end inserts I did not pull also have great appeal and appear to be very nice.

3rd Down, Collation: When busting a large set that comes in high quantity packs, the first thing I demand is set completion. I was very happy with the results of these three boxes. I received all 200 veterans (#63 obviously does not exist while there are two #36s – read this for more discussion on that) in each box. Doubles were inevitable with the vast quantity of cards in the box, but I did not receive any triples in any box, so that was a definite plus. The rookies and inserts were pulled exactly per stated odds, so that is also hard to argue with. I was NOT happy about getting 4 short printed doubles in my boxes, leaving me to track down 13 on my own. However, this was a matter of pulling cards from different boxes, and there is no guarantee that blowoutcards pulled three continuous boxes or even three boxes from the same case. So while I felt I got a bit jipped in that department, it does not appear to have been a collation problem on Upper Deck’s behalf.

4th Down, Overall Value: This is a bit hard to gauge for this product. 2009 Upper Deck is obviously going to appeal to set collectors (it is the one set I assemble each year), so obviously there is some trade value in all those doubles you will get in a hobby box. The top rookies are short printed, which, while annoying, definitely adds value to them. I haven’t decided if I want to bother tracking down the other short printed cards, including the additional Michael Vick and Brett Favre cards. So that Mark Sanchez may find its way onto eBay just for that value reason. As the market becomes more and more inundated with autos and relics, there is very little value to the “hits” in this set, other than for player/team collectors or people like Joe who can’t pass up colorful relics. This year, Upper Deck did add some value with the higher-end premiere inserts. I was unable to pull any of those, so I am not able to pass judgment on them, but I trust they will do well on the secondary market, especially for the big name veterans and rookies.

RED ZONE RESULTS: TOUCHDOWN! (MISSED PAT) Finally, a product that found paydirt when lining up so close to the goal line for four consecutive downs. As I said before, there may be some bias in this review because this is one of my favorite basic sets each year, but 2009 Upper Deck did not disappoint. The base cards look great and will make for a nice binder addition to my collection (once I get around to buying a binder and inserting all 300+ cards into pages), and the inserts, while not my focus for this product, are pretty nice. Even if I decide not to keep them, they will be good giveaway material, trade bait, or possibly worth a dollar or two on eBay (if I ever get around to selling things on eBay in the first place). I was a little surprised Upper Deck kept the 16 packs of 20 cards format this year, given the downturn in the economy and obviously the Hobby. Turns out, they did cut a few corners, which is why they missed the PAT. The cards feel like they may be on ever so slightly thinner card stock and rather than insert those dummy relic fillers into packs that do not contain relics, they simply put fewer cards into relic packs. Each relic card obviously counts as 3 cards in Upper Deck’s world as each relic pack I opened only had 17 cards. You owe me 18 base cards, Upper Deck! It appears they also got rid of the “hot boxes” from last year (I had one!). Either this was another way to cut back on production costs, or they put the extra money into those higher-end inserts I talked about.

Overall though, I was very happy with the set. With the short print doubles, I could have gone with just two boxes, but now I have more ammo for trades. So seriously, if you are a team collector or are trying to build this set with just some trades and retail blasters, let me know. I have at least three of every card #1-200 and I think I have at least doubles of the RCs #201-300. I only need 1 of each. Help me clean out my card bins!

Live Today: 2009 SPx

Always the innovators in technology, Upper Deck has once again taken sports cards to a new level with this year’s release of SPx. The all new Shadow Box cards have been creating quite a buzz amongst collectors since the first images were released months ago. 2009 SPx is being sold in cases of 10 boxes of 10 packs of 3 cards each (follow that?).

The 150-card base set is comprised of 90 veterans and 60 rookies (#/799). Beyond the base set are quite a few inserted memorabilia, autograph, and parallel cards, along with the Shadow Box set. Autograph cards include: SPx Rookie Auto Jersey and parallels (#’d up to 549); SPx Rookie Signatures and parallels (# up to 299); Super Scripts, Super Scripts Duals, Trios, Quads, Six, and Eights (Varied #); X Factor Signatures; Rookie Materials Auto Patch (Varied #); Winning Combos Auto Patch (Varied #); Winning Trios Auto Patch(Varied #); and SPx Shadow Box Autographs (Varied #). Memoribilia cards without autos include: Winning Materials and parallels (# up to 249); Rookie Materials and parallels (# up to 249); Winning Combos and parallels (# up to 99); Winning Trios and parallels (# up to 50); and Fantastic Foursome and parallels (# up to 20). There are also parallels of the SPx rookie base cards (# up to 399). Also, don’t forget that the shortprinted 2009 Upper Deck flagship cards of Michael Vick and Brett Favre are also being randomly inserted into SPx.

 

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Per Box Breakdown: 10 packs of 3 cards each (30 total cards) including: 6 memorabilia cards and up to 4 autographed cards, including 1 Rookie Signature Triple Memorabilia card. Shadow Box cards are inserted at a rate of 1 per case and there will be at least 3 autographed memorabilia or multi-signed cards per case. Boxes are currently selling in the $150 ballpark.

My first thought is excitement. I have been looking forward to seeing these Shadow Box cards ever since Upper Deck first gave us a glimpse at them. I think it is a really cool concept and I applaud UD for trying something new in what has become a rather stagnant pool of releases. Football collectors have been lucky to receive some of UD’s best efforts in recent years, and after losing their NBA license, which had been UD’s forté, that trend should only grow stronger. I am a bit leary of this product though. Partially for the price point. As a collector who does not have the resources to drop top dollar for cards, $150 for 30 cards ($5 per card) is a bit high. But what really concerns me is that once again we see a mid-to-high end product that, other than those Shadow Box cards, is depending on relics and autos to move boxes. I know a lot of other collectors and bloggers have brought this up before now, but I would like to second the opinion that it would be nice to see a very well designed set not fall into the same relic/auto rut as all other products are in right now. I think the Shadow Box cards are moving in the right direction, I just hope we can get to that point soon. My last concern about SPx is the parallels, which are not fully explained in the product description. This is another trend I don’t particularly like. It was cool when companies started making gold parallels of cards and I even liked the bronze/silver/gold/platinum idea. But nowadays, it seems like every non-flagship card has multiple parallels of various names, serial numbers, and gimmicks. I’m not saying we need to go back to 1984 Topps and just have one base set and that’s it, but it would be nice if the companies could focus and exercise a bit of self-control. Overall though, I will say this product looks pretty nice. It is certainly not in a ridiculous price range and the cards look good and should do well in the secondary market, especially the highly-hyped Shadow Box cards. Hopefully I’ll get to see one of those in person some day!

Live Today: 2009 Bowman Sterling

Promising to provide some of the year’s best rookie cards, 2009 Bowman Sterling is hitting hobby shop shelves today. The much anticipated hobby exclusive release is available in boxes of 6 packs of 5 cards each. The base set consists of a variety of base, autograph, relic, and autographed relic cards, as well as parallels and variations.

The set contains 50 base rookie cards serial numbered in several parallels (Refractor #/199, White #/89, Black #/50, Gold #/25, and Red 1/1). There are also 50 autographed rookie base cards with several parallels (Refractor #/75, Black #/25, Gold #/10, White #/5, and Red 1/1). Additionally, there are 85 relic base cards, consisting of 34 rookies and 51 veterans and legends, also available in several parallels (Refractor #/199, Black #/50, Gold #/25, White #/5, and Red 1/1). And if that wasn’t enough, there are 25 rookie and 20 veteran autographed relic base cards with several parallels (Refractor #/75, Black #/25, Gold #/10, White #/5, and Red 1/1). Also inserted into 2009 Bowman Sterling are all 4 printing plates used to print the 85 rookie and veteran relic cards, the 50 non-autograph rookie base cards, and the 50 autographed rookie base cards. Finally, there are dual autographed cards seeded one per 4-box case that include autographs from 40 current and retired NFL players on numbered gold Refractor cards.

 

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Per Box Breakdown: 6 packs of 5 cards each (30 cards total), including 12 rookie cards (2 per pack), 6 autographed cards (1 per pack), 12 relic cards (2 per pack), and 2 autographed relic cards. Each 4-box inner display case will also contain 1 dual autographed card. This adds up to more than 30 cards per box, so an autographed relic or dual autograph will obviously replace a single autographed card in that respective pack.

My first thought is, wow, that is one confusing product checklist. Obviously this is a product specifically designed for the higher-end collector who chases valuable cards or is a player collector who is not afraid to lay down top dollar for his/her favorite player(s). If you are strictly a set collector, stay as far away from this product as possible! If the pre-release mock ups you see above are accurate to the actual release, I think the cards are actually pretty good looking. They may be a tad too shiny though as the images above almost have a shine to them on the computer screen, without being printed on foil board. I am interested to see how all the parallel colors are worked into the design. Is there a border like Topps Chrome, or is the entire design the specific parallel color? Whatever the case, these cards do promise to be highly sought after and able to fetch some nice money on the secondary market, especially from prospectors who have their rookie targets all picked out. Boxes can be purchased for about $230. At almost $8 per card, that is way too rich for my blood, but I’m sure there are plenty of collectors who are pumped up and plan to buy cases of this stuff. I would love to see some singles in person, but that is probably as close as I’ll get.

What do you guys think? Is this right up your alley, or are you passing on this mid-to-high end product?

Live Today: 2009 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia

Hitting hobby shop shelves and online retailer homepages today is 2009 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia. Carrying a per pack SRP of $40, this product is being released in cases of 18 boxes of 4 packs of 4 cards. Hobby boxes are currently going for about $120, a rather high price tag for 16 cards.

 

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Per Box Breakdown: 4 packs of 4 cards each (16 total), including 4 Material or Autograph cards (at least 1 of which will be an autograph), 1 Rookie, 1 Parallel, 1 Insert, and 1 other Insert/Parallel or Rookie.

I would like to start by saying that when I was younger, I LOVED the Playoff brand. They were sorta high-end, but had some really nice and classy designs. I will admit I was out of the hobby for a few years so I do not know exactly when the change happened, but I know that I am not pleased with this product. Panini, which currently owns the Playoff name, has once again created a Frankenstein checklist with a plethora of insert and parallel sets. Most of the cards feature a relic and/or autograph, proving that Panini is only interested in gimmicks and trying to get the most money out of collectors. Granted, I am not a high-end buyer. I probably never will be because I have too many interests to devote enough money to card collecting to buy those high-end products. Maybe this product will give collectors their money’s worth, but at about $7.50 per card, and that’s going with a big online retailer, I find it hard to believe. Normally I try to give all new products equal share on this site (when I remember that they are being released, sorry 2009 Topps flagship) and just present the facts, a few images, and my humble opinion. But this product takes the cake. I did not even bother typing out the long list of sets included with 2009 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia because there are a total of 95 freaking sets, including all of the inserts and parallels. To see the entire and freakishly long list of sets, you can view the pdf sell sheet here. To me, that is completely ridiculous. It’s as if their design team came up with a bunch of ideas and the manager just said “oh hell, let’s just use them all!”. Either that, or Panini execs are trying to make up for the fact that Leaf R&S and Score looked almost identical this year.

Do some of the cards from this product look cool? Sure. Do I think it’s entirely too expensive? Certainly. The only “absolute” things about 2009 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia? It is absolutely ridiculous and I will absolutely not be buying any.