When Finest changed their format in 2010 to what it is now, the product went from a completely dead brand, to one that was worth everyone's attention year after year. This year’s product continues that tradition, but for the first time in a long time, the design has lagged significantly.

Here are some of the bigger hits up so far:

2015 Topps Finest Todd Gurley Pink Refractor Jumbo Patch /10

2015 Topps Finest Amari Cooper Auto 1995 Retro RC

2015 Topps Finest Jameis Winston Camo Patch Auto /15

2015 Topps Finest Marcus Mariota Atomic Auto On Card /30

My biggest complaint about Finest this year is that the designs are so incredibly busy that it takes away from the card's visual appeal. Although the base box hits are all pretty simple and not as cluttered with background patterns, the parallels hit on all of my pet peeves. Separation of the stickers from the main design, and big ugly white boxes behind the stickers.

The patch auto parallels are the worst of the bunch with concentric circles filled in with the parallel colors. It is extra distracting when you see that part of the background is obscured by the box behind the stickers. I think that a different design with a less “hypnotic” type approach would have worked significantly better. Similarly, the boxy corner piece elements on the patch auto backgrounds add further reason to hate the look.

I am a fan of the on card rookie autos and on card atomic refractor autos, and the 1995 retro cards bring back a nostalgia that I am pretty fond of. I remember opening boxes of the cards looking for Drew Bledsoe and Marshall Faulk, and to this day, both of their 1995 Finest cards remain in my collection.

The great thing about this year’s set is that there are no redemptions product wide, something that had been an issue with finest in previous editions. I would say that there are some notable omissions from the on card stuff, mainly Gurley and Stefon Diggs, but it could just be that Topps doesnt want to deal with problem signers prior to the end of their license. Considering that Gurley is in just about every other set that has rookie signers, its not that big of a deal. The one big miss is that he wont have a base superfractor auto, which will need to wait for Chrome coming next week possibly.

UPDATE: Gurley does have on card autos, despite not being on the checklist.
Overall, in a class where there are some big names and lots of rookies that could be on pace for record years, Finest falls flat to me. Its unfortunate, as this is the last year. This was one of my favorite sets growing up and Im sad to see it go.