This is a tough time of year to be producing football card products, as training camps are ramping up and its still too early to have production done on patch autos for hard signed autographs. That leaves a lot of stickers, unless you do what Topps has done with Inception and get creative.

Here are some of the nicer hits so far:

2014 Inception Johnny Manziel Gold Ink Auto /25

2014 Inception Teddy Bridgewater Auto Red /50

2014 Inception Sammy Watkins Auto Red /50

2014 Inception Blake Bortles Auto Silver Ink /50

Inception has become one of my favorite products of the year, as it has a low cost per box and can deliver some monster hits very early on in the card calendar. It takes a lot of ingenuity to make that happen, and Topps has accomplished that in spades with Inception over the last 4 years.

My favorite cards over the last two years in inception have been the Inscription cards, which are back again this year with a few surprises. Considering how cool this unique type of autograph content can be, its a great idea to get them done when possible at the Rookie Premiere.

Although there are issues with 00 jerseys as we have seen in many of the products completed at the rookie premiere, Topps makes the most of it. The added content of Patch Autographs blows away ugly content from Panini products produced during the same timespan, especially through the design of the cards.

Adding in the booklet cards, which hold enormous value through the whole year (very difficult to do), and Inception has some major firepower that is not usually seen this early on. They have added NFL Shield and other booklets this year for the first time, so this is going to get nuts.

The main drawback to this product is the box configuration, which can be very hit and miss. Because of the obvious elevated costs of certain players’ autos, it should be of no surprise that there is a list of players that are going to be VERY hard to pull. Manziel, Watkins, Clowney and Bridgewater look to be SP to an extent.

I am a fan of this set, and I will be picking up some cards over the next few weeks for sure. Even when Topps Flagship comes out on the 20th, Inception will be a target for me.