Tag Archives: football

Preview: 2011 Topps Chrome Football

  By Sports Card Blog | June 10, 2011 - 1:08 pm |
Leave a comment

2011 Topps Chrome football looks to be the best Topps Chrome product to come out in years in any sport. With newly minted inserts, solid on-card rookie autographs, and sleek design, this Topps Chrome should set the mark for future Topps products in the future. There will be some sticker autograph in this product though, but I’m sure it is impossible to get everyone on card.

As collectors, we love hard-signed content and Topps has been doing their best to get as much on-card goodness as they can and they have been doing a great job listening to the collectors. On-card Cam Newton, AJ Green, Mark Ingram…the list for the season goes on and Topps has it all in that regard. Then add in all of Topps’ famous refractors and it’s a rookie autograph party. Included this year is a new red and crystal atomic refractor for these autograph. Nothing brings nostalgia like an atomic refractor in your pack of cards.

But where Topps Chrome really shines this year is their insert sets. I admit, I love inserts. Nothing breaks up the monotony of pulling base after base then solid insert cards. Personally, I wish I could have one every pack. This year Topps breaks up that monotony in a number of ways. The best part is that there is an autographed version to every insert subset. A limited edition Bowman Chrome will be inserted along with a Rookie Recognition set. But my favorite is the different die-cut inserts you can pull. Superlative Rookies and Finest Freshman are both very nice looking cards and die-cut into nice shapes. Maybe I’m a little old-school with my inserts, but there is nothing wrong with that.

The only problem I see with this product is that I don’t see any information on veteran autographs. I know Topps Chrome is known for their rookie autographs and it’s a great rookie product but I like pulling veterans too. It would add a little bit of value to a very hit or miss product. You either hit a top rookie or you don’t. That’s really what it comes down to in the end. I’d just like to see a little more autographed content.

More information to come soon on release and price, but for now we’ll assume it’s around the same price and time as last year.

For now I leave you with some die-cut goodness.

Related Posts

Preview: 2011 Panini Elite Football

  By Sports Card Blog | June 9, 2011 - 12:48 pm |
Leave a comment

The NFL may not be able to get a product on the field yet this year, but Panini isn’t having any problems with their next release of NFL licensed football cards.

2011 Panini Elite football is set for release later this month with all the rookies and stars you need this season. Well so does Panini Rookies & Stars, but we haven’t gotten there yet. June 22, 2011 is the day to mark down for when you can find this product online.

5 cards per pack and 20 packs per box. 4 autographed or memorabilia cards per box with at least 1 being an autograph. I’ve noticed when Panini says this you can usually find 2 autographs, but they are being cautious. This seems to be the year of the insert for Panini, which I love by the way, so there will be a ton of inserts to get your hands on. Included is at least 4 rookies in your box too from some of the best rookies of this year’s draft class and they are all numbered to 999.

Now I love a lot of the designs of the cards in this set such as the Throwback Threads booklet, Down and Distance, and other inserts, but the rookies seem a little weird to me. They are designed horizontally. They use a big and wide photograph of the player in the center with “Rookie” down the side and kind of a plain background. You can see all 36 rookie cards from Panini Elite here. I don’t know, maybe it’s just the fact they are horizontal throws me off. Maybe they look better in person, sometimes scans don’t do cards justice.

That’s about the only thing amongst the whole product that I find odd. Otherwise check out these beauties as I mentioned above, Down and Distance and the Throwback Threads booklet cards:

I love both of those cards. The field design in the Down and Distance subset with the team logo in the field looks great and it’s just very pleasing to the eye. A cool idea would be to have the jersey piece cut out in the shape of a football on the field. Just a random idea that just came to my head as I was typing this.

Also looking good in this set is the Throwback Threads booklet. I love the throwback design where the jersey sits. These are probably my two favorite cards of the set.

I know people love rookies but the inserts in this set appear to be where it’s at. With great design and some great names in these subsets, their value should be great for the 2011 football season.

Find 2011 Panini Elite football on June 22, 2011 for around $90-$100 a box.

Related Posts

Celebrating Pat Tillman on this Memorial Day

  By Sports Card Blog | May 30, 2011 - 11:17 am |
Leave a comment

By now we should all know who Pat Tillman was.

By now we should all know the story that brought Pat Tillman from fame and fortune in the NFL to his tragic death in Afghanistan in 2004.

Today being Memorial Day will bring that story once again to the sports media and will surely be on ESPN numerous times throughout the day. Pat Tillman is just one of 1598 Americans who have died in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and one of the 2495 total deaths including all the countries fighting along side us. And Pat Tillman was  just one of the millions who have died for our country.

But this is a sports card blog and Pat Tillman was an athlete as well as a soldier.

Pat Tillman’s cards still are being bought, sold, and traded for today. He only has 5 cards made from his rookie season in 2001 and those are the only 5 that were ever made. Pat Tillman cards are a rarity. While they aren’t worth much monetarily, to some they are worth much more than that.

Here is a list of Pat Tillman cards:

  • 2001 Fleer Tradition
  • 2001 Fleer Tradition Glossy
  • 2001 NFL Showdown
  • 2001 UD MVP
  • 2001 UD Rookie FX

In my opinion, the most valuable or the most inspirational of his cards should be his 2001 Fleer Tradition card. Have you seen this card before? I think the insert set name says it all.

Unsung Heroes.

In the NFL for the Arizona Cardinals, Pat Tillman was an Unsung Hero. But in the United States for the US Army Rangers, Pat Tillman was a hero to them all.

Remember to keep all those who have died for our country and along side us in your thoughts on this day.

Related Posts

Review: 2010 Topps Triple Threads Football

  By Sports Card Blog | May 23, 2011 - 7:51 pm | ,
Leave a comment

Hey there football fans, this time I’ve brought you a Topps football product. A kind of higher end product in the sports card collecting world. 2010 Topps Triple Threads football. With the lack of 2011 products out yet with decent hits, I decided to go back to last year and get a product that is either hit or miss.

2010 Topps Triple Threads is full of possibilities. You get two packs of cards in a box with a guarantee of at least one autographed triple relic card. The other is either another autograph or some sort of relic card with at least three relic pieces. There are a ton of rookies you can pull from your 2010 rookie class as well as a nice selection of veterans available. The great part is that everything is serial numbered! Let’s dig into what was pulled from my box.

Base (all numbered out of 1350):

Parallels:

Hits:

Design:

The design of the base and parallels is very nice. I like the simple design that doesn’t try and do too much. It has the type of photography you expect from Topps with the players in nice action shots during the game. I like what they did with their parallels as well. A lot of other Topps products only change the border in their parallels, which I don’t care for. But Triple Threads has a different color scheme for the whole card in their parallels which is the way to do parallels. The colors aren’t too extravagant either or overpowering. The hits are very nice and glossy, definitely makes it look more like a premium product. The only real gripe I have with the design of the hits is the small pictures of the players on the card. I understand if you pull a 24 piece booklet like I did the pictures are going to be smaller, but there has to be a better way to show off the player inside the booklet.

Checklist:

The checklist is large and varied. I have to say that this is a very rookie heavy product. The majority of hits you will receive are rookies. But of course, there is the possibility for some of the great rookies for the year as well as Hall of Fame players and current superstars, but those are few and far between all the rookies loaded in this product. I’ve seen a lot of box breaks of this product online, which is the reason I decided to review this. I think there is just too many rookies for a product like this, and that leads me to value…

Value:

I’m not very sure the value is there. First off, where are the patches? With this product being as expensive as it is per pack, why don’t I see any patches? If the price is going to be that high for this box, I would expect the rookies to be patches and the cards without autographs to be patches as well (except for huge piece booklets). Game used is going the way of junk wax, nobody wants just plain pieces anymore. I can see the want for huge booklets like the one I pulled, but if I had pulled just 3 single color jerseys of some low end rookie, I would not have been happy at all. I would of been satisfied if they were patches, regardless of the player. Speaking of patches, I would of liked to have seen my rookie autograph patched as well. Again, with such a high price point, there needs to be value or the smarter collectors will stay away. If you’re going to pay over $50 per pack, there had better be a patch in there.

Overall:

Overall, despite my rants on value, I actually really like the product and think it has the potential to be that much better. The simple design is great and the hits really make it look like a premium product. The checklist is there, but I would add more current players to even out the hits a bit as I feel there are too many rookies in this product and it seems too rookie heavy. Finally, there needs to be more value put in these boxes. If I am going to spend my money on a product that is $50+ a pack, I want to see some patches. I don’t want to see single colored game used pieces like I pulled. The booklet I am okay with the chosen relics, but the rookies need to be a little bit more. This product needs a tiny upgrade to really make it a great product. For now, it’s just average. Step up the game Topps, I know you can do better.

As always, I have done a little video break of this product and the video is located here, it seems the blue and orange theme really worked, just no Tebow:

Related Posts

Site News: Incoming Boxes

  By Sports Card Blog | May 16, 2011 - 4:42 am |
Leave a comment

For all you who enjoy box breaks of nice products, I have 3 boxes coming in. One from each of the 3 major league card companies.

- 1 Box 2010-11 Upper Deck SP Authentic Hockey

- 1 Box 2010-11 Panini Contenders Hockey

- 1 Box 2010 Topps Triple Threads Football

I wanted to do a “fight to the death” of Upper Deck and Panini hockey products. I think Contenders has a serious chance to take SP Authentic on as one of the hockey favorites of the year. So this will be a head to head product break and review.

I wanted to get Topps in on the madness so I also ordered a box of Triple Threads football. Probably the second best Topps football product of the year (after 5 Star) and just fit in my price range.

And finally, to add one more bit of madness to this, I ordered 2 of the boxes from Blowout and the other box from DA Card World. There will be blood! I will review both companies afterwards as well.

The Triple Threads should be here first, as Contenders isn’t released until Wednesday. At least, I think that’s how it works. I’m not sure if the product will be sent to arrive after release date or if they have to wait to send until street date.

So I hope you’re looking forward to the breaks and reviews. At least I have some time to think of more ways to make an idiot out of myself on camera.

Depending on when they come in and when I can get something totally awesome done for this site, I might be having some giveaways in celebration. Stay tuned.

Related Posts