Category Archives: topps sucks at high end

I Have High Expectations For 2009 Products

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Every year, readers send me boatloads of emails asking which products are the best. I usually have to give them a short answer in the interest of not writing a novel, but most of the time it boils down to 5 products that don’t usually disappoint. Last year I talked here about my favorite cards of the year for each rookie class, so I thought I would update things a little with performance updates based on the 2008 products.

Here is my list for 2009:

1. SP Authentic Rookie Patch Auto

I put this one at number one because the design is usually the best of the year, they are usually half the price of their exquisite counterparts, they are on card autos, and they have been around longer than most of the other ones that are making an appearance on this list. Collectors value these over many of the more high end products mainly for those reasons and I agree. SPA is my favorite of the year almost all the time.

2. Exquisite Rookie Patch Auto

These cards come from the Bentley of sports card sets, and usually the design and value reflect that. I loved the RPAs from this past year, which offset the suspect year before it. These are the most valuable cards of the year, but you will pay almost twice the price of a normal card to get one. If you had started a collection of your guy, this would be the centerpiece.

3. National Treasures Rookie Patch Auto

I am only referring to the on card version of this set, as the others can get nuts with the different diecuts. I especially liked this set last year, as the tapered windows were a major, MAJOR upgrade. These may come out of the second most expensive product of the year, but they don’t live up to the cards from SPA and Exquisite. The reason that they are so high on this list, is they are the first super high end card of the year, and most consider these to be Cadillacs to the Bentley mentioned above. I would be fine with a Cadillac.

4. Topps Chrome Rookie Auto

I love Topps chrome, it’s the one Topps product that usually doesn’t disappoint. Add in the fact that they dropped the price last year, and I must have busted 5 boxes. The Chrome autos are usually just the auto’ed version of the base, a tactic I wholeheartedly approve of, and the simplistic card usually scores well with everyone. Although the design isnt fireworks in my heart this year, Im hoping it will look better in person. It usually does. Now, the photography is a whole different story altogether.

5. Leaf Limited Patch Auto

Leaf Limited was a let down last year due to the format switch. The patch autos were still great, however, and that was enough to get me to buy into a few group breaks. I think these made the Contenders from last year look like crap, but that was just me. This year, I hope they are back, and I hope they continue to be one of the more aesthetically pleasing. The one thing I am dreading is more black sharpie over the player’s pic. That didn’t make sense with room below.

Honorable Mentions:

– Playoff Contenders Ticket Auto – no material, which I like, but last few years design has been ridiculously bad.
– Leaf Certified Material Mirror Blue Freshman Fabric – Loved 2007, HATED 2008, 2009 is a ?
– Ultimate Collection RC Autos – These were kind of botched in terms of the usual format, but I loved these last year.

Be sure to realize that new products come out every single year, and this year will be no exception as Donini tries to make a splash. So far, we havent gotten much in terms of plans, but you can bet that the other companies will have their guns cocked and ready to fire with their own sexy products. As long as you are good at spotting the ‘1 year duds’ as I call them, you will be fine.

Collecting On A Budget: Getting On Board With The Top Of The Class

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Each year a new class comes to the front of the hobby, usually there are one or two that are in the stratosphere for pricing, a middle group of people who are expensive but not overly expensive, and lastly, the scrubs. In 2007 I was faced with a whole year of collecting that top level of rookie with Peterson, but last year, Booty was, in terms of value, a scrub. This year, Harvin will probably be a mid level guy, taking in 20-30 bucks for autos after the first few games of the season, my wallet is thanking me right now. The question remains, what if you are “stuck” with the top guy in the class, but don’t have the cash? Here are some solutions I have had to incoporate into my repetoir.

First, Chrome is your best friend. You can usually buy a box for less than 50 bucks, and you can get some of the best looking base RC cards out there. Although the autos of your top guy will be scarce, you probably wont need to spend more than 5 bucks for an amazing base card. The good thing is that collectors still value chrome, so it isnt one of those, “lets throw base RCs in here because we need to fill the set” type of things. Also, parallels for chrome will also still be well received, so that will work in your favor. Of all the parallels in the hobby, this and SPA are the only ones I support. The icing on the cake is that chrome comes out early, so you don’t have to wait to long to have a keeper. After all, you could get lucky in your box.

Second, pick your battles. There is no reason to be a super collector these days, as there is no possible way to get everything. That doesn’t mean you cant pick your favorites, however. Choose a set or two that you know will be amazing from the previews and years past, and save your shit for that release. If you like Contenders, don’t waste your money on buying card after card after card. I know one of my favorite sets of the year is Classics because I know that it is the first Post RC Premiere product. The autos are just the base cards in a parallel, so I know it wont be a crappy RC subset that was an afterthought. Plus, from the previews, it looks pretty good this year. Because of my feelings, I wouldn’t buy boxes of Elite, UD Draft, or Prestige because I am a bigger fan of the later sets. Funny enough, Draft actually looks pretty good this year, so I may jump on that boat despite my Classics target.

Third, know your personal structure of value. If you want a nice card of your top guy, and know that you will only have one or two shots at an auto with the money you have, it may be in your favor to just pick the highest up on the value structure. Usually the top of the pyramid are always nice cards, and I hope that continues. Here is my list of cards to consider:

1. Exquisite Auto Patch
2. SPA Auto Patch
3. National Treasures Auto Patch
4. Chrome Base RC Auto
5. Topps Rookie Premiere Auto
6. SPX Auto Jers
7. Contenders Auto Ticket
8. UD Premier Auto Jers
9. Limited Auto Jers
10. Gridiron Gear Double Patch Auto (the one without the EU Football)

Of course, if you just want a cheap auto option and just want it to look nice, there are quite a few early DLP products with tons of subset autos to choose from, along with UD heroes and UD Icons. They wont be worth a ton, but they will look nice. Plus I believe that most of the UD products this year will be on card, if not all, so that will be good if you want something similar to the on card bonanza that happens with the top end of the scale.

Really, I cant stress enough how important it is to save up your cheese for something you need, as there is always something else you want. If you chip away at the 400 you need to pay for a top level SPA patch auto all year by throwing a few dollars aside each time you want to make a worthless buy, you will have your cash when you need it. However, if you buy junk for a year and then wonder why you are short on cash, I have an “I told you so” cocked and ready to fire.

Lastly, it comes down to watiting versus jumping the line. If you have a QB as your top guy, and you cant possibly wait one second, fine. Otherwise, QBs usually don’t start their first season, and when they do, they usually suck. However, if you wait until this reality sweeps over the line jumpers, you can usually chop 20-30 bucks off the 100 the autos usually cost. For a RB, people are obsessed with buying as many as possible, just in case there is some miniscule chance that the guy turns into Peterson. Look at Felix Jones, Jonathan Stewart, Darren McFadden, and Rashard Mendenhall, all of whose prices were astronomical beofre the season thanks to the idiots who don’t know any better. Then, as they started to show that they were still rookies, prices fell with reckless abandon. McFadden was tops to start the year, and ended up near the middle of the value pack at the end. Mendehall bottomed out and almost became a scrub. Don’t make this mistake for yourself.

Also, here is the way value will even out as the years pass. Even though a WR may be the top guy now, history shows that in the long run they wont be:

1. QB
2. RB
3. WR
4. LB
5. TE
6. DE/DL
7. CB
8. OL

Be smart, and for god’s sake, don’t be that guy.

Topps Continues To Suck At Just About Everything

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Well, Topps is closing the doors on its basketball division, and here is one of those shitty ass things that will happen along the way. See, in case you forgot, Topps went and produced a product that raided their stores of Basketball stickers, and called it signature editon. It was basically a poorly thrown together product, solely to use up all the extra stickers before they lose the license. Of course, this left a lot of cards without the proper supplies to be made. On top of all that, if they didn’t have the stuff back from the athletes, they werent going to try and fufill it, and here is the result.

I have gotten about 3 emails in the last 24 hours from people who have outstanding Topps B-ball redemptions. All have been cancelled. Instead you will receive a replacement from the underwhelming Topps product mentioned above, where your card will most likely be a crap auto numbered to 15,000. Im sorry, but if you put out the commitment to help your customers before you lost the license, it is STILL your responsibility to fufill it. You do not get a free pass because you have given up on your basketball division.

For all of you who have Topps stuff, and also those of you who broke the golden rule of purchasing Topps products that cost more than 100 dollars, please be sure to let me know what you get as your replacement. If you end up with a JameSon Curry signature edition numbered to eleventy billion, I want to hear your horror story (for the record, that name is not a typo, he actually has a fucking captial letter halfway through his name for no reason).

Nice job Topps, glad to see that customer service is not your focus.

H/T Matt, Jerry, Shawn

Designing A Winner

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I have said on many occasions that the design of the card can make or break a product, more-so to me than any other element of the card. To me, it could be a 1/1 NFL logo Adrian Peterson autograph, and I would pass if it looked like a piece of shit. Personally, I think card design has become a lost art, and that companies, especially Topps, have focused more on how they will pack more autos into a set than more well designed cards.

Look at Triple Threads, my all time most hated product. It is packed with cards literally packed with jerseys and autos, and I think it is the worst possible thing you can invest in. I have not bought a single Triple Threads single in the last few years, and most of it stems from the ridiculous designs and color schemes. To me, the sole purpose of the set is to give us as many low numbered cards with as many pieces of jerseys and autos as humanly possible. This means that things like design and photos of the players take a back seat to make the douchebags who don’t know any better jizz in their pants. Because of the jam packed set up of the cards, the product HAS to be considered high end, despite the fact that none of these cards are appealing to 90% of privileged portion of collectors who take pride in the way they look at the hobby. Those other 10% are die hard player collectors who live by a different creedo.

If it was up to me, I would always want better designs over more content. I love awesome looking cards, regardless of what company makes them. There are certain criteria I need to be true, like how I hate college jersey in the picture cards, but most of the time I base my want on how the card is put together. If a company uses sticker autos, but they are well done and well placed, it doesn’t matter to me. Look at SP Rookie Threads from this year, another set designed to pack as much into a product as possible. The difference between Triple Threads 2008 and SP Rookie Threads 2008 is that one set is well put together, nicely done with a cool theme, while the other focuses on all the wrong things, including printing plates with no player names and tiny player pictures.

SP Rookie Threads was designed around the look of a jersey. All the cards look like they have been sewn together like the numbers and tackle twill on a normal jersey, and I really appreciate the cool theme and idea for the set. Hell, they even made a set based on the NFL logo part of the jersey, which I thought was awesome. I bought the Peterson.

Look at Exquisite for this year, its done in an ornate and almost regal design, and the whole set follows suit in its picturesque glory. Exquisite also features more Jersey than Triple Threads in their RC Autos, and they still managed to fit in a large picture and a signature. Hell, the duals and triples were even done in a way that makes the Triple Threads ones look shameful. Large player picures and no die cut swatches to confusingly spell shit out. I love it.

If you want less high end examples, look at the way DLP did Classics the last few years, or even better, the way UD does SP Authentic EVERY year. For 100 dollars a box, UD has made Triple Threads and other poorly designed sets irrelevant. One other thing about sets like Classics and SP Rookie Threads is that they use sticker autos, but use them in a way that makes them not as noticible. Topps thinks they need to destroy the look of every card with GIANT foil stickers, or even the transparent, but not transparent foil stickers. Yes, they still stick out even when they are supposed to be clear.

Recently, Topps has put out a product that was solely designed to dump their entire store room of basketball stickers into a set before Panini takes over. This means that the set was actually somewhat necessary to utilize thousands of ugly foil stickers in the stockroom, but it is no excuse for the result. Now, we all know how much I fucking despise Topps’ design moves over the last few years, and this set is no exception. Because it was so quickly put together, you can expect that the design would suffer, but jesus, the set is fugly as hell. Add in the fact that each card is numbered to 9000, and you have a donkey turd on your hands.

The one thing that the nostalgic focused modern haters have right is that design used to be better. I agree 100%. However, I do think you can have the content that each product MUST have to survive and also the design to appease the people like me. I have seen the custom card designs out there, so I know it isnt impossible to design a nice set. Hopefully the manufacturers wont save the good stuff for the expensive sets exclusively, and will let it trickle down to the low end stuff too. When cards are designed with care, everyone wins. Take notice quickly, Topps.

Why God, Why?

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So, I came across this thread on Blowout’s forums about this guy who is happy he has all 20 of the Triple Suck relic books for their set of complete ass. These are the ones that have, wait for it, 24 different die cut windows per card, all spelling out some of the weirdest shit you could ever fucking think of.

Now, you all know how I feel about each year’s JC Memorial Set, but this is absolutely fucking nuts! I cannot understand why anyone would want singles from this set, let alone ALL the fucking cards from the UGLIEST part of the years UGLIEST set.

Yeah yeah, to each his own, but hot damn, this is ridiculous. I do give him credit for finding a way to display these eye sores. Congrats for completing the worst of the worst, im not going to repeat the golden rule of topps collecting for the 8th time on here, you all know it.

Just to give you an idea of what these cards are capable of, I put TWO rows of them together. Yes, it only takes two rows of these steaming piles of watery goat turds to make you cry…