Preview: 2011 Topps Marquee

Schedule Release Date: August 2011

Box Configuration: 5 cards per pack, 4 packs per box

SRP: $190/box

Box Break:

1 On-card Autograph

1 Autographed Muli-relic Card

1 Jumbo Relic

1 Quad Relic

My Thoughts:

Simply amazing is all I can say. I am not a fan of the price point and there are multiple base card parallels but the product does have many many many positives. To start I love the base cards, they are full-bleed and remind me of the Stadium Club releases. Each box contains 4 hits and each pack contains 1 hit, 3 base cards and 1 parallel base card.

An interesting addition to the release is the Museum Collection Autograph card, it is seeded 1 per 12-box Hobby Case. Each of these remarkably stunning metal framed cards is embellished with an on-card autograph, and is numbered to 10.

On-Card Autograph cards:

These cards come in single or dual autographs and each card is numbered. The dual autographs are #/15 and the Gold Foil Parallels are #/5.

The single autograph checklist includes 75 veterans, rookie prospects and Hall of Famers like Felix Hernandez, Reggie Jackson and Hall of Famers like Manny Pacquiao, Albert Pujols, Hank Aaron, Buster Posey and BJ Upton among other. The dual autograph checklist is themed, either by position or team and includes Stan Musial & Bob Gibson, Don Mattingly & Paul O’Neill and Roy Halladay & Cliff Lee.

Autographed Multi-Relic cards:

 These include Dual-relics and Triple-relics plus 1/1 patch versions.

The Dual-relics checklist contains 75 veterans, rookie prospects and Hall of Famers like Felix Hernandez, Reggie Jackson, Gary Carter and Evan Longoria. The Triple-relic checklist consists of only 35 players but there are some quality players as well as prospects like Tony Gwynn, Jason Heyward and Fergie Jenkins.

Jumbo Relic cards:

The Jumbo relics have been gaining some serious attention, specifically the Jeter patch that has been showing up everywhere. The patches are broken up in to 4 categories (plus patches). There is a 1/1 Ty Cobb Jersey Stitching that contains the stitching from Cobb’s name tag. The Titanic Jumbo Relics checklist contains 150 players and has players like Derek Jeter, Nolan Ryan, Ichiro, Cal Ripken Jr, Willie McCovey, Prince Fielder and Stephen Drew are on the list. There is also a patch version and an autograph version. The Titanic Jumbo Relic Autograph is a difficult pull at 1 per 12 cases.

Gametime Mementos Quad Relic cards:

The highlight of the product has to be the Quad relics, the single player quads are nice and there are patch versions #/5 but the focus of most collectors will be the Legends Quad Relic cards. There are 8 players on the list: Joe DiMaggio, Babe Ruth, Roy Campanella, Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson, Jimmy Foxx and Mickey Mantle.

I think the opportunity of pulling a Legend Quad relic card will be enough to make many people (who can afford it) not even think twice about dropping near $200/box.

Pros:

4 Amazing Hits per box

On-card autographs

Patch and Autograph versions

Joe DiMaggio’s Return to Topps

Legend Quads should be memorable

The base cards are sweet; Topps did a great job with these

Checklist is beyond words


Cons:

Price

Rating:

I have to give this release a 5 out of 5 based on the design and checklist alone. The price is high but if you can afford it you get quality and value for what you pay and it is definitely worth it.