If you havent seen Star Wars yet, you are probably in the minority. It has quickly become one of the biggest movie releases ever, and Topps has been at the forefront of the trading card part of it since March. Now that the movie has been released, Topps has started to release some of their best and brightest, to much fanfare among SW fans, and non-sport enthusiasts.

Star Wars cards are known to bring some insane asking prices:

2015 Topps Force Awakens Harrison Ford Auto 1/1

2015 Topps Chrome Jedi vs Sith Carrie Fisher Auto /10

2015 Topps Star Wars High Tek John Boyega Auto Gold /50

2013 Topps Star Wars Galactic Files Mark Hammill Auto

Of all the sets out there, there are two big ones that even I have busted boxes of. Yes, you heard that right. There are sets that are non-sport on shelves that I have actually wanted to open. Star Wars High Tek and Star Wars: The Force Awakens are so hot that it is very difficult to find MSRP priced boxes anywhere, and for good reason.

Starting with High Tek, it is one of the only Star Wars products to have hard signed autographs. This is actually a pretty big deal, as non-sport autographs are notoriously hard to obtain. With actors, getting them set for a signing can be an exercise in futility, especially actors who are as in demand as the SW ones are. Companies like Cryptozoic have done great work with on card autographs in the past, but their products are typically not on the scale of what Topps is doing here.

2015 Topps Star Wars High Tek Rey Galactic Difractor Black 1/1

2015 Topps Star Wars High Tek Billy Dee Williams Gold Auto /50

In my opinion, a theme like High Tek was made for something like Star Wars. The acetate and the design work is almost too perfect a fit. The checklist is pretty impressive in its own right, including the first hard signed autographs of John Boyega, or Finn from the new film. Naturally they are selling for a ton.

Like many of the non-sport sets these days, 1/1 sketch cards are a big part of the allure as well. Topps has a stable of sketch artists that do some pretty incredible work, and High Tek has a lot of quite impressive examples.

As for the flagship set associated with the Force Awakens, there are a million reasons to rip some packs if you can get your hands on some. Not only do they have some incredible sketch work of themes from the movie, and the autograph checklist is quite strong to boot. There are extremely rare mystery redemptions that should end up as Daisy Ridley, which are easily some of the most valuable non-sport cards released this year. If you have seen the movie, you know why. I wont spoil it.

When you see the prices that some of the relics and other cards can get, it might bring about questions of whether or not you are collecting the right thing. Star Wars is the gold standard right now, and Topps has been making great cards since 1977. The retro themes in the Force Awakens set brings about all sorts of interesting nostalgia, and that’s just the base cards.

Last but not least, Topps has absolutely blown the doors off the digital side of things with Star Wars Card Trader, which has been releasing amazing Episode VII content since Force Friday. They are finding ways to get national publicity around the app, and continue to prove that physical cards are almost second fiddle to digital. If you havent played SWCT, now is as good a time as any to get signed up and start trading. Check out my other blog – digitalcardcentral.com if you want to read up on what the app is all about.

It should not surprise you that there is such a huge market for SW related materials, and Topps could not have been more lucky to have the license in place during all the madness. Its worth checking out the products if not only to see what non-sport sets look like.

Last year, regular Chrome’s overproduction led to an absolute disaster in the way collectors perceived the value of the product. Although the good hits were there, and looked great, they were impossible to get in a pack. Chrome mini came out a few months later and delivered much of what collectors believed regular Chrome should have been. Better odds, low parallels were easier to pull, and value was pretty consistent. Chrome mini was the better chrome product. This doesnt look to be the case this year.

Here are some of the cards up so far:

2015 Topps Chrome Mini Jameis Winston Black Refractor Auto /25

2015 Topps Chrome Mini Dan Marino 60th Anniversary Auto /5

2015 Topps Chrome Mini Marcus Mariota Blue Refractor Auto

2015 Topps Chrome Mini Matt Jones Super Rookie Retro Superfractor Auto 1/1

The biggest thing that really gets me fired up is that these cards are almost entirely sticker autographs. The sell sheet depicted the product as having on card autographs, which would result in another Chrome set that is definitely worth breaking. Instead, we have mini cards with full sized stickers, that lead to all sorts of sizing issues and a misrepresentation of what the sell sheet was showing. Now, sell sheets are NEVER final, and that goes without saying. At the same time, I feel completely taken out of this product because of how awful the stickers look, especially when seeing how nice the regular on card stuff is in comparison.

Im a sucker for on card Chrome. Ill buy pretty much anything with on card chrome autos, and that’s what I thought I was going to get here. Unfortunately that isnt the case. The sell sheet also looked to have previews of the first hard signed non-rookie chrome cards in a very long time, and that didnt happen either. Its clear that Topps has a bad draw with finishing out 2015 knowing they wont be back for 2016. That is clearly a situation I hate, and wish was not the case. At the same time, I dont think that gives them a pass here.

Right now, I dont see a reason to buy this version of Chrome over the hard signed regular version. Not only is the price point similar, but the content is far diminished. More people want the regular sized cards, and without on card autographs, this becomes very much less valuable to collect. Some of the refractor parallels are going to be valuable in low amounts, with collectors looking to pick up cheaper versions of their favorite cards, but I wouldnt break this unless you have no other options of Chrome to break.

Back in 2009, Topps platinum was released and boy did I hate every last little bit of that set. When things were redone in 2011, the set took on more of the form it currently showcases in 2015. Over the last few years, Platinum is one of the sets I look forward to every season, as it showcases more of the on card content and cool looking cards on Chrome stock that I love.

Here are some of the cards up so far:

2015 Topps Platinum Amari Cooper Auto NFL Shield Superfractor 1/1

2015 Topps Platinum Jameis Wiston On Card Auto Pulsar

2015 Topps Platinum Todd Gurley Gold Refractor On Card Auto

2015 Topps Platinum Marcus Mariota Auto Patch /25

As we have seen in 2014 and a little in 2013, Platinum is a bit more “out there” in the way it looks and is designed. This year takes it even further in its final year, going with a space age smoky cloud look that works in some ways and doesnt in others. The worst examples of the set are the colored refractors of the patch autos, where the sticker is highlighted in a white area separated from the color of the background.

Additionally, the veteran patch autos are pretty boring in their own right, with very little of the cool features of the rookie patch auto design. A small circle patch on a solid background just doesnt do it for me.

The best part of the set is the on card rookie autos, as they have been for a number of years. This years design is quite nice, although there are more stickers than previous years. I would guess this is the type of concession that is made to avoid redemptions in light of the pending Panini exclusive, and that is really unfortunate.

Either way, Platinum is still a fun set, and worth buying a box or two just to see what it looks like. There are some huge hits to be had, and if not, you will get some nice looking Chrome style rookies.

Outside of the absolute debacle last year with the Teddy Bridgewater and Odell Beckham cards, National Treasures was a pretty solid set. The design was nice, the cards were pretty high end, and for the most part, I liked the look of the product. Leave it to Panini to throw consistency to the wind and barf out a set like we are getting for 2015. Funny thing is, I think the design from 2015 College National Treausres would have been more than fine. Nope, we get the poopy looking crap.

Starting with the most important cards, the rookie patch autos, I absolutely HATE that they went with a vertical approach. Vertical approaches are fine when you have silhouetted players or small swatches. When you are looking to do cards with jumbo swatches, horizontal is almost ALWAYS the better approach.

I mean, this set has had good looking cards maybe once or twice since 2007. For some reason collectors really think that this is the premiere rookie patch auto available in Football, and it makes literally no sense. Exquisite was far more valuable when it was NFL licensed, and Treasures just took over by default it seemed like. Crazy unfortunate, considering how much better Five Star has looked on a consistent basis.

Regardless, Panini is going to be the only game in town starting next year, and the way this set was designed should showcase what that continues to be a disaster for people like you and me.

Moving on, the rest of the set really sucks as well, ESPECIALLY this horrific booklet with more acetate scrap signatures being forced down our throats. I swear I expect to see boxes of this shit opened up with acetate scraps, black paper scraps, and manupatches just to fuck with all of us. Not only does the booklet look like hot garbage, but it makes you wonder why they use booklets for this and not more appropriate stuff.

The inscription Mariota I like. I like it a lot, only because of the potential that the Five Star quotables set might be resurrected in some minor fashion with something like this. Inscriptions are awesome, and as long as the card design looks reasonably okay im on board.

As for the Colossal set, I think its pretty blah. Very white, not much there, and just the player, the auto and the swatch. Its definitely not bad looking in any way, its just not that much involved. I love simple and white designs, but this is just too simple and too white.

Lastly, the Staubach sticker is disgraceful. Treasures is a late release set. It also costs a shit ton of money per box. For whatever reason, Panini just cant get their crap together when it comes to getting Treasures to be 100% hard signed. They need to figure it out. Now.

I didnt buy Treasures last year because of the Teddy situation, and I am DEFINITELY not buying it this year. Ill stick to buying Immaculate singles and will reserve judgement on Flawless singles until I see what they are looking like. Really too bad they couldnt continue last year’s success.

Last year, Topps Dynasty took the hobby by storm in a way that hadnt happened in high end baseball in a very long time. Many people were saying that Dynasty was more attune to what Five Star should have delivered, and as a result, the boxes flew off the shelf. With a new year of Dynasty coming today, a lot of people are hoping for another great result.

Check out some of the cards up so far:

2015 Topps Dynasty Mike Trout MLB Logo Auto 1/1

2015 Topps Dynasty Will Ferrell Auto Patch /10

2015 Topps Dynasty Russell Wilson Auto Patch /5

2015 Topps Dynasty Kris Bryant Auto Patch /10

2015 Topps Dynasty Yu Darvish Auto Patch /5

2015 Topps Dynasty Roger Clemens Tag Patch Auto /5

Dynasty is back for another year, naturally. This year’s product took a much different approach, going from the dark background with unreliable paint pens to a more bright look with black pens. This was a big deal last year, as not every pen delivered the kind of streak free signature needed to look nice.

Added in, Topps brought some huge names from outside MLB, mainly in Will Ferrell, John Elway, Russell Wilson and Dan Marino. If you remember back to earlier this year, the Ferrell cards sold for an absolutely shit ton out of Archives. The dynasty cards have a piece of game used jersey from his day in Spring training, and I would guess that they will be among the top cards in the product. The football players are a cool addition as well, with a fun tie to the teams they were drafted by. Russell Wilson is especially interesting, as like Ferrell, he was able to play a game in Spring Training a few years ago. His variations in Bowman still remain very valuable from the first time he was featured in a baseball product.

Dynasty is really the marriage of some great looking and well designed cards and some insane patches. Rarely do the two really exist together, as many times the design element is abandoned in favor of maximizing the patch space. This time, that didnt happen, and the results are amazing.

When you see some of the patches that came out of the product last year, this year looks to build on that situation. I cannot wait to chase down some of the cards for my guys, as it is clear that this is a product that is right up my alley. It has boom or bust potential like every high end product in some of the names on the checklist, but man, there are just some awesome cards that are going to come out. Whether its Ichiro, Bryant or one of the names mentioned above, there may not be a better case to watch opened live.

I would hate to be one of the people that pays for this product and ends up with Hanley Ramirez or Pablo Sandoval, but I would LOVE to be one of the people that gets the 1/1 Trout. For a person that lives for super premium products and autographs, this is a no brainer.