Pack War: 2011 Topps Finest Football

Thursday, April 14, 2011

2011 Topps Finest Football

Schedule Release Date: August 15, 2011
Box Configuration: 2 Mini-boxes per Master Box, 6 packs per mini-box, 5 cards per pack
SRP: $75/Mini-box or $150/Master Box

Master Box Break:
1 Rookie Autograph Patch
1 Autograph Jumbo Relic Patch
2 Atomic Die-cut Refractor Rookie cards
2 Finest Moments Insert

My Thoughts:
Topps has stated that all of the rookies will be pictured in NFL uniforms, which is a big plus. Even though we may not get to see these rookies play in their pro uniforms at least the cards will show them in their proper uniform.

The set consists of 125 total cards, 90 veterans and 35 rookies, and each card has 8 parallels. Once again Topps thinks more is the way to go and this seems to be a continuing trend (They had 13 parallels for each base card in the 2011 Topps Baseball release).

Parallels include:

Refractor
X-Fractor (#/399)
Black Refractor (#/99)
Gold Refractor (#/50)
Red Refractor (#/25)
Mosaic Refractor (#/10)
Printing Plate (1/10
Super-Fractor (1/1)

Straight up this release is a hot mess.

Topps created a boring design that really is not appealing in any way graphically. Most autographs are stickers, a couple are on-card, and some of the inserts actually have borders around the stickers highlighting this travesty even more. Add in plain dime-sized jersey swatches, which are also bordered to highlight the relic, and collectors are left scratching their heads. Oddly some of the cards have the sticker autographs placed over a fog beneath the player which at least allows the autograph to stand out against the background but other sticker autographs are placed solidly over the player causing the autograph to “vanish” in to the busy background. Even the "Jumbo" relics are barely larger than a dime in size, hardly what most people would consider jumbo.

This is clearly one of those sets that looks like it was thrown together just to add something to the release calender. You wonder if Topps designers just gave up on this one. It makes me wonder if Finest has hit its pinnacle and it is all downhill from now on.