Topps 2012 Baseball Preview Card- Game Changer...Really?

Topps released a single image of a Ryan Braun card from the 2012 Topps Baseball set today.

At the National Clay Luraschi claimed that the 2012 Topps release would be a "Game Changer", I am guessing that he actually meant that the base set is going to be the same old shit that Topps produce every year.

  Now of course he could have meant that the plethora of inserts and parallels that will be included in every single pack, along with gimmick cards and manufactured patches would actually be the game changer but as you can see, the base cards are not anything special.

Does anyone else feel let down by Luraschi's build-up?

Come on Topps, give us something really special that truly can be called a game changer.

Preview: 2011 Topps American Pie

Schedule Release Date: December 14, 2011

Box Configuration: 8 cards/pack, 24 packs/box

SRP: $80/box

Box Break:

3 Hits

1 Topps Buyback card

8 Parallel cards

16 Inserts

My Thoughts:

It has been 10 years (well 9 years) since the last American Pie release but Topps has decided to revive the line with a major change, no sports. American Pie used to be a baseball release with pop culture inserts but now they have dropped the baseball connection all together and went solely pop culture to counter Panini’s Americana release and Leaf’s Pop Century release.

This 200-card base set is completely a novelty set, a gimmick. Topps continues to bloat its products with inserts and parallels, a sad trend that they seem to have championed, and you will pull an insert or parallel from every pack. The auto checklist seems to be loaded with “celebs” that are just in need of a paycheck and this is not something that collectors will latch on to and bust.

To add to the parallels and inserts you will also pull 3 hits which can be any combination of autographs, relics, cut signatures, autographed relics, manufactured patches, stamps or coins. Besides a handful of true celebrities (Bob Costas, Henry Winkler, Charlie Sheen) the autograph checklist is a list of has-beens, B-Listers and a handful of people known simply for being “famous”… I am looking at you Kato Kaelin. A sampling:

Justin Willman

Maksim Chmerkovskiy

Tom Arnold

Chynna Phillips

Gilbert Gottfried

Joey Fatone

Does anyone want to really pay $80 and pull a Billy Baldwin autograph; a Sean Astin manufactured Hollywood patch and a Wilmer Valderama penny relic card?

Now there are some decent pulls, I am sure that anyone would be thrilled to pull the Charlie Sheen “Winning” 60^th Anniversary autograph or a Jimi Hendrix relic. Admittedly I would love to get the Tony Randall/Jack Klugman dual-cut signatures; I was raised on Odd Couple re-runs. But these are the exceptions not the rule to the hits.

It is almost like Topps is raising their middle finger to collectors saying “You will buy our shit simply because we put it out”

Topps, we know you can do better, please make something memorable of the American Pie set next year if you decide to continue with the product.

Pros:

A handful of decent celebrities

American Pieces relics seems like a decent idea

Cons:

Many irrelevant celebrities on the auto checklist

Sticker autographs

Manufactured patches

Relics that are not really relics (Manu-patches, stamps and coins)

Lots and lots of inserts and parallels per box

Rating:  

Honestly this release is maybe a 2 out of 5 and that is only because there are a couple of highlights in this product but I think most collectors will stay away from it only buying the one or two cards that draw their interest on the secondary market.

Preview: 2011 Leaf Family Guy

Schedule Release Date: August 31, 2011

Box Configuration: 53 cards per box

SRP: $70/box


Box Break:

50 Base cards

2 Insert cards

1 Autograph card


My Thoughts:

The last time we saw a Family Guy set was 2008 with Inkworks A New Hope series, before that was the 2005 releases of Inkworks Family Guy Season 1 and Season 2. With Inkworks now gone Leaf has picked up the torch and delivered a 50-card base set for Seasons 3, 4 & 5. Each box gives you a complete 50-card base set along with 2 inserts and an autograph all for $70. Not a bad deal for Family Guy fans or comic card fans.

Leaf did a nice job keeping the focus on the characters and not over-designing the card and this works out well, a nice design keeps collectors happy along with nice selection of autographs and other inserts.

The autograph checklist is decent, including Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher from the Blue Harvest, Something…Something…Something Dark Side and It’s A Trap Star Wars based episodes along with regulars Patrick Warburton and Patrick Stewart (Of course he is mostly on American Dad but still on the occasional Family Guy episode) plus guest stars Gina Gershon, Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling and more.

The inserts include 1/1 Sketch Cards, inserted at 4 per case, originally stated at 2 per case but Leaf updated that last month. I have not seen the checklist or list of artists but apparently these cards are created by actual Family Guy artists so you will be getting cards by the people who create the animation for the show.

Character Die cuts, inserted at 3 per case, this insert includes 10 characters from the show and the final insert is the Quotables Metal Cards, inserted an average of 18 per case (1-2 per box). These metal cards contain “favorite” quotes from the various episodes.

So to highlight, each 12-box case will contain 18 Quotables Metal cards, 12 autographs, 4 sketch cards and 3 Die Cut Character cards plus there will be “Hot Cases” that contain 12 Sketch cards. I find it interesting that the sketch cards are an easier pull then the die cut character cards.

I am going to have to hunt down the “A Very Special Family Guy Freakin Christmas” card.


Pros:

A complete set in each box

1 Autograph per box

A 25% chance of pulling a sketch card per case

Cons:

Sticker autographs

Not a huge con but usually sketch cards sell partially based on the artist and with these cards being created by the animators we will have to see how these sell.

Rating:

Admittedly I am biased, I really enjoy Family Guy and I like the odds when it comes to the inserts. I cannot really rate this set on the same level that I would rate a sports card set so I will leave it at “I love it” and finish with that.

UD Sweet Spot Terrell Pryor Cards

In a rush Upper Deck was able to include Terrelle Pryor in the 2011 NCAA Sweet Spot Football release, which recently went live. His rookie card will be card #101 in the set and they also included a short-print autograph, no numbers have been released regarding how many autographs are available but UD’s Chris Carlin said it would not be odd if you opened a case and did not find one.

There is currently one Pryor Sweet Spot autograph available and it is currently at $47.00 with 5 days left in the auction. A couple of regular Pryor UD rookie cards are available, all under $10 each. Panini released a number of Pryor cards at the National including Elite, R&S and Prestige versions and they range from $1 up to $55 each.

 Currently Pryor is in limbo as far as his football career goes, the NCAA has him suspended for 5 games for the upcoming season but he has since announced his professional intentions and signed an agent. The Supplemental Draft is set for August 17^th and according to recent reports the NFL sent out a list of eligible players this afternoon and Pryor is not on that list though it should be noted that players can be added to the list by the NFL at any time up until the draft date.

 If he is eventually ruled eligible the Browns, Redskins and Cowboys have each stated that they are interested in reviewing his Pro Day workout in Pittsburgh this coming Friday.

Preview: 2011 Topps UFC Moment of Truth

Schedule Release Date: Unknown
Box Configuration: 10 cards per pack, 16 packs per box
SRP: Estimated $50-75/box


Box Break:
1 Autograph card
1 Relic card
1 Dual-hit
16 Parallels
16 Inserts


My Thoughts:
Following in the steps of Gypsy Queen or Magic Topps is going with the artist-styling with the base cards in the UFC Moment of Truth release, which still has no announced release date or price (though Topps says packs should have a SRP of $2.65/pack).

One of the most notable additions to the product will be the addition of Strikeforce fighters, who were notably missing from previous releases even though WEC fighters were included in Title Shot. Also continuing from previous releases is the inclusion of several parallels of each base card; Gold (No #), Onyx (#/188), Ruby (#/8) and Diamond (1/1), parallels will be inserted at one per pack. There will also be one insert per pack and some of the inserts include Collision Course, Elite Skills, Showdown Shots, Heavy Hitters and Fight poster Review, all of which will also have parallels.

According to Topps there will be 70 different personalities included in the various autograph checklists, which means we will probably see announcers, refs or octagon girls in the autograph checklist along with the fighters. Like everything else in the set the autographs and relics will all include parallels.

Besides the artistic-styling of the cards and the Strikeforce checklist there is nothing new to be seen here in this set, sadly Topps has already become stale with the UFC brand which is really depressing considering they have only had the license for a few years.

As an MMA collector we are limited on what we collect and Topps is not doing anything to keep the collectors interested. To make things worse they are diluting the product by releasing 6 different UFC sets in less than 18 months (Counting Finest and Moment of Truth). Instead of flooding the market they should focus on quality (and quality control), on-card autographs and a solid checklist and put out one or two sets a year instead of one every 3 months. I do like the UFC Champs booklet cards (7 card checklist, there is one for each weight class champion) and they are each numbered to 3. Each booklet will include an autograph along with 2 jumbo relic swatches.

Let us see if Topps can actually get all 3 hits in to each box, something that has become a serious issue for them as of late. I am also anxious to see a checklist, the last few releases have had problems with adding fighters who were on the fringe or even cut by UFC.

They included Nick Diaz on the Strikeforce checklist even though he just vacated his Strikeforce Welterweight Championship to join UFC so he can take on Georges St-Pierre at UFC 137 in October. Since there is no release date I wonder if his card will be altered to show UFC.


Pros:
3 Hits per box including a dual-hit

Strikeforce fighters on the checklist (finally)

UFC Champs Booklet cards


Cons:
Gimmick artistic-styling

Parallels galore, a trend Topps has championed this year

Inserts galore, yup… Topps knows how to ruin a product

Sticker autographs


Rating: 

I will give the set a 3 ½ out of 5 because really it is only just “OK” as far as releases go. If the price point is around $50/box that is definitely a plus and with 3 hits per box you can do alright for yourself.

Looking For Ichiro's Autograph?

About a week ago Brian Gray made an announcement on their Facebook page that Leaf had just signed a major athlete to an exclusive contract but said no further details would be released until the National Convention. Today the details have finally been released, Leaf signed Seattle Mariners great Ichiro Suzuki to a one-year autograph contract. Ichiro has not signed for anyone since 2006 and his last autographs to appear in a major release were inserted in the 2008 Upper Deck Exquisite release.

 You can expect to see Ichiro’s first autographs in Leaf Metal Draft Baseball set to be released in September. Leaf displayed two promo Ichiro cards from the upcoming set, I wonder if he will sign using kanji.

Chemgod's New Contest

Chemgod at Badwax is offering up a new contest (12 actually) so take look, answer some questions and take your chance to win a prize.

What Is Your Take On The Subject?

Today I just want to ask a question, what is considered pack searching?

In the last few weeks there has been some hub-bub about Topps using a certain UPC on Heritage loose packs sold in Target. From what I have seen there really is no big deal about what you pull from these “special” packs with most being just a not-so-short print SP or low-end insert. Topps has really taken the parallel and insert baton from Panini and run with it and you pull an insert, parallel or gimmick card out of almost every Topps pack nowadays.

But apparently some people consider checking a UPC to be pack searching. Really? Based on this logic anything you do to a pack besides picking it up and purchasing it is considered pack searching. You pick a certain pack position and you are pack searching, you go for the thick pack you are pack searching, you pick any pack besides the top one on the stack and you are pack searching.

Over the years I have varied my pack selection technique including grabbing a pack that is thicker or thinner than the rest, picking packs based on the pack location or on its aura or energy, letting someone else pick my packs and even letting other people open my packs. I have had very little success but for some reason I still tend to pick packs out this way and I have never considered myself to be a pack searcher and honestly if I knew that a company was marking “hits” with a different UPC or marking the pack differently somehow I would look for these markings, it is just the logical thing to do and it is what most people would do. Think about it this way, if cards came in a clear cello wrap with the hits on the top wouldn’t you stick to the packs that you could see the hits you wanted? Would you consider this cheating? Nope.

When someone says “Pack Searcher” I think of the person sitting in the aisle with a stack of packs in their hands bending each pack, tossing the damaged packs back in to the box, or the ones who will weigh each pack with a digital scale looking for the weight variation. I might consider the person who feels up the pack more than a prom date, moving the individual cards to try and find the relic in the center, to be a pack searcher. Basically if you do damage to the pack or use specialized tools or skills to find the special packs you are pack searcher. Years ago I knew someone who did what he called “Wal-Mart Pack Searching”; he would grab packs of cards and put them in his child’s lap in the cart. Together they would open each pack and take the cards they wanted, putting them all in to one pack then leave the rest of the packs somewhere on a shelf and buy just the packs with the cards and inserts they wanted. This was almost 20 years ago before relics and autographs were inserted but still the same premise as pack searching today but add in a criminal element.

 Weigh in on the subject, what is your take on pack searchers?

In The Game Heroes & Prospects Series 2

After a somber week away I am happy to return home, it now gives us a chance to begin the healing. A weeks-worth of work has greeted me along with a daunting list of web work that needs to be addressed but I decided that after spending the last 5 hours working on designs and my portfolio update I needed to sit back and recharge a little and jump back in to the sports world, which has gone crazy with the return of the NFL, rumors on NBA players jumping ship and the second half of the baseball season starting off with some huge trades (and my Mariners ending their losing skid).

 To coincide with the National’s opening day In The Game is releasing 2011 Heroes & Prospects Baseball Series 2 tomorrow, a couple of weeks ago I did a write up about the product, but to usher in the release they posted up some final preview shots of the  “HUGE” hits. Topps, Panini and Upper Deck take note, this is how you do a patch (the card design is a different story but the patches are definitely sweet).

Hank Aaron

George Brett

Edgar Martinez

Ozzie Smith

Nolan Ryan

Fernando Valenzuela

I do not expect to be buying any packs but I would love to get my hands on the Edgar Martinez patch, I see that and I can just hear "Edggggggaaaaaaaaarrrrrr!" calling out from the upper deck.

Temporary Absence

I apologize for not having any recent postings, we had an unexpected passing in our family and my wife and I are taking care of the needed arrangements and honestly my mind has not been on sports cards. I will return to blogging next week.

Thank you for understanding,
Corky