Next week, one of my favorite sets of the year will hit shelves. For 2007 and 2008, Topps chrome was possibly the best set of the year for the entire brand with maybe the exception of Bowman Chrome. This year’s success will hinge on a few things, mainly stemming from practices that Topps seems to have given up on for their chrome products all together.

If you notice for this year, the autograph space for the rookies is curved, something that wont lend itself very well to a square sticker. I sincerely hope that the new standard set by Chrome baseball will hold true for football, and deliver on card autographs for the first time in a VERY long time.

The preview sheet, released a few months ago, seemed to hint at on card autos, as Topps usually incorporates the awful rainbow foil stickers into the sell sheets. This time, they did not. If this does end up being the case, I may end up maxing out some credit cards to buy a few cases, as I cant tell you how excited I would be to open a few boxes.

Last year also brought the first Topps Chrome Patch Auto cards as well, numbered to a miniscule 25 per subject, something that could compete with SPA in terms of value if it were numbered a little higher. Now that Bowman chrome has also incorporated swatches into a product that doesnt need them, I hope the sophomore edition of the TC Patch cards dont screw up more of this potential set of the year.

As we saw with base Topps, the cards look great, and should be even better in chrome tech. The photos look ten times better than last year’s distanced player shots, some even using very dynamic action shots from the trampoline station at the premiere. However, we also saw that there were some variation SPs with VERY low print runs in base Topps, thus begging the question as to value in chrome. These cards could be huge if they are as short printed, and available in the normal refractor pyramid.

Well, its only a matter of days now, I hope its not delayed any further. I am ready with money in hand.