Pack War: Topps Magic

Showing posts with label Topps Magic. Show all posts

Thursday, August 29, 2013

A Quick Peek At 2013 Topps Magic Football

Topps has decided to bring Magic Football back to the shelves after being an online-only release last year. Boxes, no price announced yet, will be released in January 2014 and will include 24 packs. Each box will also contain three autographs.

The set is pretty large, 330 cards on the checklist, with 110 short prints. There will be retired players, veterans and rookies on the checklist. Each pack will contain 8 cards with one mini and one parallel. This year’s parallels will be Green, Black, Blue and Red (#/50).

The base autograph checklist will have at least 150 players, there will be two parallels (maybe more) Black (#/5) and Red (1/1). Additionally there will be Dual Autographs (#/25) and Six Autographs (#/5). There are also Mini Autographs (#/10) and Mini Autographed Books (#/5) which will be a dual auto booklet.

Relics are not a big part of the set and there is only one relic insert, Magic Rookie Relics, which contain a large swatch and are #/99, there will be a Magic Rookie Relics Patch parallel #/5 each.

Finally, there will be four base inserts, Ground & Pound (25 Running Backs), Aerial Attacks (25 Quarterbacks), Rookie Enchantment (33 Framed Rookies) and ’48 Magic (25 All-Time Greats based on the 1948 Topps Magic set).

I will do a more in-depth review as more information is released.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

2012 Topps Magic Football Is Now Live

Topps Magic Football was released today through retail stores (Hobby boxes come out next week) and some of the cards are beginning to show up on eBay. The most noticeable postings come from the relic Gridiron Coins and Historical Coins sets, #/10 and #/25 respectively, they are being posted up for some big bucks though they do not seem to be getting much attention from the bidders. The Gridiron Coins contain a quarter from the state quarter set that matches the player’s team location.

I know they are limited but does a state quarter inserted in to a player's card really demand $100+? Now if the coin came out of their pocket and signed by the player and then inserted in to a card I could see some value but a quarter out of a $10 roll in the Topps headquarters does not warrant this type of price.

The Historical Coins contain a Buffalo nickel, minted between 1912 and 1938, with the card depicting a historical event or figure so there is a Babe Ruth card, a card announcing Life Magazine’s first publication and so on. At least with the Buffalo nickel the coin has more value than its original minting price, though not by much.

The one highlight that has shown up has been this guy…

Colin Kaepernick

His autographs are running the tables right now, there are currently 9 of his autographs up for auction and besides a couple that are newly listed the rest are sitting around $100 and they all have multiple bids. Imagine the asking prices had he led the team back from 22 points down and won the championship.

There are some cool cards in the set including multiple Luck, RG3 and Wilson cards; Alfred Morris has an auto in the set, nice looking patches plus a triple-autograph of the Top 3 2012 NFL Draft Picks (Luck, RG3 and Richardson). I used to be a fan of Magic but since Topps has went to the fluorescent/day glow colors I have lost interest.

Here are some of the highlights that can be pulled from the set.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Early Preview: 2012 Topps Magic Football

Topps Magic Football is back and set for a January 9th release. Once again Topps is changing things up a bit for the fourth time in four years. Topps has decided to return to the 2010 model. Last year they went to a 110-card set that was made up entirely of rookies, boxes were sold in blaster-box style (11 cards for $19.99) and they were only available through Topps’ online store. They will return to a model that is more collector friendly, sold through LCS/Hobby and retail outlets in standard pack out in 24-pack boxes. Gone also are the bright and fluorescent colors from last years design.

The set will contain 220 cards plus 55 short prints. Each base card will have a mini parallel (1 per pack), there will also be black-bordered parallels (1 per Hobby box), autograph parallels and relic parallels.

RG3 Mini

Autographs, which are seeded 3 per Hobby box, will be made up of base autographs, dual autographs (#/25), triple autographs (#/25), 6 Signatures (#/5), 1948 Magic Autographs (#/5), mini base autographs (#/10) and mini autograph booklets (#/5).

Luck Black Bordered Autograph parallel

RG3 1948 Magic Autograph

Mini Auto Booklet

Relics, which are not part of the guaranteed 3 hits but considered an additional very limited bonus, will be made up of Magic Relics (#/25), Rookie Patches (1/1) and Gridiron Coins (#/10) and Historical Coins (#/25). The Gridiron Coins will contain images of NFL veterans or rookies with the Historical Coins containing historical figures.

Basic inserts will include: All insert ratios are based on Hobby packs.

Magical Moments: Milestones and career moments from the 2011 season (1-in-8 packs)
Supernatural Stars: Up to 40 of the NFL’s top veterans (1:4 packs)
Rookie Enchantment: Top rookies of 2012 class
Charismatic Combos: Best quarterbacks and wide receivers in football (1:12 packs)
‘48 Magic: Veterans and rookies on ’48 design (1:12 packs)

Sunday, January 22, 2012

2011 Topps Magic Football- Worth It? Yes or No?

Next week (1/25/12) Topps will be releasing the 2011 Magic Football set and there will be some changes from the 2010 release. First this will be a rookie only release and second the product will only be sold through Topps’ online store. Each $19.99 box contains 10 rookie base cards and 1 rookie autograph. According to a Topps rep the shipping will be $8-12 (WTF?) depending on shipping preferences and location.

The set contains 100 base cards and 10 short print parallels for a 110-card base checklist plus 68 autographs. There are also 68 Black Magic Autograph parallels (Black bordered and #1/1) and 8 Black Magic Cut Signatures (Silver inked cut-signatures).

The Topps Magic Football set has changed over the years, 2009 was an NCAA product and 2010 was an NFL product but the most obvious change has been this year’s product. These base cards use some awfully bright colors, bordering on fluorescent in some case, and to counter that the autographed parallels are muted in color. I have to admit, besides the colors I do like the design but I am disappointed that Topps is shutting down the card shops/online retailers and requiring buyers to go through them and their insane shipping costs.