When Five Star came out, I couldn’t contain my excitement about the first opportunity to get veteran hard signed autograph cards. I was quickly shouted down because people were pissed about swatch size and swatch quality. People failed to see that Five Star is an autograph product that has jersey swatches, not a jersey product (like National Treasures) that happens to have signed cards. Topps told me they wanted to give the players the maximum place to express their signatures, and I don’t fault them one single bit. Ridiculous jersey patches have become so common these days, that they aren’t as special anymore, even in jumbo sizes.
That being said, its obvious that the nice patches will command a higher premium, and we have seen that in Five Star’s initial auction closings. The cards that feature team logos are selling well above those that have 3 color and 4 color patches at a clip that extends beyond other sets. Because the logo patches aren’t as common, they go for more. THAT is a good thing.
2011 Five Star Cam Newton Rookie Logo Patch Auto
2011 Five Star Jake Locker Titans Logo Patch Auto
2011 Five Star Mark Ingram Saints Logo Patch Auto
2011 Five Star Christian Ponder / Kyle Rudolph Dual Viking Head Patch Auto
The extent in which Five Star succeeds is beyond a lot of expectations, especially mine. I have talked about a few of the ways it has surprised even me, and I don’t think Topps is even going to take a breath before running full speed into 2012. If there is one thing that Topps has learned from its competitors, its that there is no longer any wiggle room to make the same mistake twice on a set like this.
National Treasures may have Jumbo swatches with crazy patches, but I don’t think there are any other elements that make the set worth buying. Five Star, on the other hand, has more elements to chase than I can count on both hands, something that I credit to a great vision for the brand. After seeing collector’s reactions to the breaks, its clear that Five Star can impress on all levels, rather than just on a level surrounding the Rookies.
That is what a high end product is ALL about.
..and here come the fakers! This is a license to make fakes, the likes of which has not been seen since Tools Of The Trade.
I love the look of 5 star but cant afford the price tag at the moment. It seems the risk and reward is higher for five star than chrome. A two 3 dollar pack got me a 700 dollar card. Where the best chrome card will sell for more than the best 5 star. Seems backwards but topps is definitely king.
I think the product looks very good, but it seems like secondary market values arent even close to what they should be for what a box costs. that may be a product of the state of the hobby or other things not related to topps or the product itself, we will only know when national treasures hits ebay. while I despise every single thing panini ever does, their RAPs look a LOT better than five star’s. you can downplay the effect that patch size and content (colors, etc.) has on a card, but the fact of the matter is that people pay big time bucks for those big beautiful patch swatches. IMO, with the size of the swatches that five star is putting out, they arent really differentiating those cards from ones in their lower end products.
Secondary market values never match the box cost. Take any product this year and work out the numbers
Chrome at $100+/box $1200/case. What are your odds of pulling any card that will even be half the price? Not very high. I know of at least on case opened that didnt have a group A auto in it and a bowman chrome V Miller auto. even at direct price of $650 ish per case it doesnt work.
I opened 5 cases of Finest and got 4 of them at direct price. I pulled a 3 color Newton refractor auto(best card by far) and only got $150 for it.
It is always a lottery. Buy what you like and rationalize down to risk vs reward and realize that you can always buy the card you want for less than any chance to buy wax and try to pull it.
In the hobby we place a very high cost on the thrill of opening packs..
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