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blanning71
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Love it or hate it, Bowman Sterling is back again for another installment for 2012 with a huge crop of highly successful rookies fanning the collective flames of hobbyists. This year's release is backed by the names of Luck, Griffin III, Richardson, Wilson, and Foles. Collectors looking for rookie cards are in for a treat as the product has been revamped to include all rookie cards including base cards with only a smattering of veterans with memorabilia cards inserted randomly in packs. Another change this year is the thickness of card stock for the "hits". These cards feature a 180pt stock and packs will normally drop a "base" rookie auto and then a second hit, mostly an oversized relic card. So, lets dive into the product a litle bit and see what is different for this year.
First things first, this product is not for the average collector. Packs are generally going to run you in the 50 dollar per range. Boxes are going for close to 300 dollars with some deals to be found around the internet with better pricing. Topps decided to do away with the "mini box" style packaging scheme and went with regular foil packs this year, each box yielding 6 hobby packs and one topper pack.
The topper pack this year features a rookie jumbo relic card of one of the 2012 rookies. Many of these oversized cards feature multi color patch swatches and are very appealing to the eyes. There are parallel colored refractor versions with varied numbering but the base "patch" cards will usually be numbered to 99. These cards are on a 180pt stock and the only thing I have a gripe about is that some of the cards have some sort of glue or residue on the foilboard finish on the fronts of the cards.
-----My two boxes yielded a 3 color Michael Floyd patch and a 2 color Trent Richardson patch. Not a bad selection of guys for my two boxes but it could have been worse.
The packs will have 5 cards each with 3 base cards and two "hits". There aren't any veteran base cards in this year's offering which was a little bit of a letdown for me. I mean, nothing against David DeCastro, Robert Turbin, and Marvin McNutt but geez, I would have liked a little veteran variety thrown in. I was pleased to see Topps include some vets in the memorabilia side with some oversized relic pieces. The base card design is fairly solid with team colors being utilized on the card bottoms. Don't eat any pastries or a heaping pile of greasy fries before handling these cards as the foilboard will definitely pick up fingerprints. All in all, a very nice clean design and some nice photography to go with them.
Overall, you will find two rookie autographed relic cards, 4 rookie autographed base cards, and 6 jumbo relics per box with parallels thrown in. There are also multi autographed cards and booklet cards if you're lucky enough to land one. I figued you might be interested in knowing what I ended up with in my two boxes so here goes:
Notable hits:
Nick Foles RC gold refractor base card
Trent Richardson RC black refractor base card
Trent Richardson jumbo 2 color patch topper
Michael Floyd jumbo 3 color patch topper
Andrew Luck 2clr black refractor patch /75
Robert Griffin III blue refractor jersey /99
Kendall Wright gold refractor auto
Russell Wilson base auto
Vick Ballard base auto
AJ Jenkins prism refractor 2clr patch auto
TJ Graham gold refractor 3clr patch auto
Dwayne Allen/Coby Fleenor prism refractor dual jsy/auto redemption
Alshon Jeffery/Reuben Randle prism refractor dual jsy auto /20
If I had to give this product a rating out of 5 stars, I would probably go with 4. I think the offering of colored refractors along with a solid design make this a pretty nice product for 2012. If you have the chance to pick up some packs and/or a box, give it a try. And good luck!
B
I
First things first, this product is not for the average collector. Packs are generally going to run you in the 50 dollar per range. Boxes are going for close to 300 dollars with some deals to be found around the internet with better pricing. Topps decided to do away with the "mini box" style packaging scheme and went with regular foil packs this year, each box yielding 6 hobby packs and one topper pack.
The topper pack this year features a rookie jumbo relic card of one of the 2012 rookies. Many of these oversized cards feature multi color patch swatches and are very appealing to the eyes. There are parallel colored refractor versions with varied numbering but the base "patch" cards will usually be numbered to 99. These cards are on a 180pt stock and the only thing I have a gripe about is that some of the cards have some sort of glue or residue on the foilboard finish on the fronts of the cards.
-----My two boxes yielded a 3 color Michael Floyd patch and a 2 color Trent Richardson patch. Not a bad selection of guys for my two boxes but it could have been worse.
The packs will have 5 cards each with 3 base cards and two "hits". There aren't any veteran base cards in this year's offering which was a little bit of a letdown for me. I mean, nothing against David DeCastro, Robert Turbin, and Marvin McNutt but geez, I would have liked a little veteran variety thrown in. I was pleased to see Topps include some vets in the memorabilia side with some oversized relic pieces. The base card design is fairly solid with team colors being utilized on the card bottoms. Don't eat any pastries or a heaping pile of greasy fries before handling these cards as the foilboard will definitely pick up fingerprints. All in all, a very nice clean design and some nice photography to go with them.
Overall, you will find two rookie autographed relic cards, 4 rookie autographed base cards, and 6 jumbo relics per box with parallels thrown in. There are also multi autographed cards and booklet cards if you're lucky enough to land one. I figued you might be interested in knowing what I ended up with in my two boxes so here goes:
Notable hits:
Nick Foles RC gold refractor base card
Trent Richardson RC black refractor base card
Trent Richardson jumbo 2 color patch topper
Michael Floyd jumbo 3 color patch topper
Andrew Luck 2clr black refractor patch /75
Robert Griffin III blue refractor jersey /99
Kendall Wright gold refractor auto
Russell Wilson base auto
Vick Ballard base auto
AJ Jenkins prism refractor 2clr patch auto
TJ Graham gold refractor 3clr patch auto
Dwayne Allen/Coby Fleenor prism refractor dual jsy/auto redemption
Alshon Jeffery/Reuben Randle prism refractor dual jsy auto /20
If I had to give this product a rating out of 5 stars, I would probably go with 4. I think the offering of colored refractors along with a solid design make this a pretty nice product for 2012. If you have the chance to pick up some packs and/or a box, give it a try. And good luck!
B
I
