Topps has had a lot of success as of late with products being brought over from Baseball. One of the biggest surprise successes of last year was High Tek baseball, which brought some very interesting concepts to the calendar in a reboot of a set from a long time ago. High Tek combined lots of parallels, on card autos, and acetate together, and the collectors went nuts over the cheap packs and cool looking cards.

Check out the baseball version:

2014 High Tek Mike Trout Auto BGS 9.5

2014 High Tek Miguel Cabrera Auto BGS 10

2014 High Tek Ken Griffey Jr Red Auto /10

2014 High Tek Randy Johnson Buyback Auto

Topps previously announced at the Summit that this product was making the jump, and we got the first preview yesterday. From what I am seeing, this might be the first product with a majority of on card non-rookie autos that costs less than $100 in a long time. Too long. To get on card non-rookie autos in Panini, you have to spend a ton. For this, it looks like the baseball price point will hold true.

If you remember back to 2009, in Upper Deck’s last year, they also put out a low price point on card product in Philadelphia. Another set I think deserves a ton more credit than it gets. Great looking sets with on card autos rarely come cheap. Both Philadelphia and this look to be of that type.

I love the look of the cards in the mockup, but you cannot account for what Acetate stock will do for these cards. They are going to look incredible, especially if there is a checklist that is as good as it was for other on card sets that Topps has done recently.

My favorite cards in the preview are easily the bright horizons cards, which feature the skyline of the player’s home city. They look sharp as hell, and with on card autos there too, this could be a surprise hit that surpasses what was done in Baseball.

I remain so bitter about the fact that this is Topps’ last year in the business as it is beyond clear to me that they deserve the license so much more than Panini ever did. Alas, this is a world that money will always mean more, and Panini continues to be the only stable entity with that characteristic in their back pocket. Kind of like the guy whose parents buy their way into an Ivy league School instead of displaying the merit that would grant access without the money. Same situation here.

Eventually we will see the final products Topps will make after 60 years in football, and its good to see that they arent taking this lying down.