I have loved Five Star since it was first released in football back in 2010. The transition to baseball hasnt been as smooth, despite Five Star having some of the better looking cards that Topps creates. With the recent release of Dynasty, Topps proved that super high end in baseball can create buzz, but 2014 Five Star doesnt seem to do anything with it for a few specific reasons.

Here are some of the bigger hits posted so far:

2014 Topps Five Star Joe DiMaggio Bat Knob 1/1

2014 Topps Five Star David Wright Bat Barrel Nameplate 1/1

2014 Topps Five Star Sandy Koufax Auto

2014 Topps Five Star Mike Trout Auto

The main issue with Five Star is that it was released right on the heels of one of the most hyped up Baseball releases of recent memory. Although I doubt they expected Dynasty to take a dive, they should have easily figured out a better way to structure the release calendar so that Five Star wouldnt undermine the previous release. From what it looks like one of the products wasnt supposed to be released at the point that it was, but it has been nothing short of a disaster for both sets.

Five Star’s biggest challenge has been content vs checklist. Collectors paying huge for a box have been repeatedly disappointed from what each box has, despite the look of the cards being great with on card signatures. Because production has increased inexplicably again this year, more of the base autos have to be inserted, which makes for a rough break on many of the boxes people open. I have seen boxes that are nothing short of abysmal, and that seems to be par for the course of the last two years of this product.

That being said, the cards continue to look really good, and that has always been the main strength of what this product is all about. Despite the fact that I am beyond disappointed that the inscriptions from year’s past are not returning for a third year, the rest of the cards do look impressive.

I especially like the black background cards with gold and silver sigs, as the pen issues from last year seem to be a lot better this time around. The jumbo patch autos are also looking as good as they ever have, even though they are very hard to hit. I also think that the booklet cards look great, although like 2011 Five Star football, Patches in the books are crazy tough pulls. This has only escalated a situation that has pissed off a bunch of collectors who think they should now be standard.

Topps has a major decision on their hands, as Five Star clearly needs to be retooled to function more appropriately in the market. With Dynasty now taking center stage, its going to be interesting what happens next year.