2010 Topps Sterling hits store shelves this week, the latest edition of one of the company's signature higher-end products.
Each Sterling Box contain the following:
- 1 Relic Card Numbered to 10 or less
- 1 Autographed Relic or Relic Card numbered to 10 or less
- 3 Numbered Base Cards
- 1 Numbered Framed Base Parallel or Cut Signature card.
Each Sterling Box contains one Theme Pack and one Mystery Pack with Theme Packs offering 3 Numbered Base Cards, 1 Numbered Relic Card and 1 Numbered Autographed Relic or Numbered Relic.
Theme Packs include First Class Hall of Fame (Cobb, Ruth, Wagner), Rookie Phenoms (Strasburg, Heyward, Castro), 500 Home-Run Club (Ruth, A-Rod, Mantle), .400 Average Club (Cobb, Hornsby, Sisler), Five Ring-Club (Berra, Mantle, Gehrig), and many more!
Mystery Packs contain one Numbered Framed Base Parallel Card OR 1 Cut Signature Card (1 per 10-ct Case)
The appeal of the product is often in direct correlation to the buyer's results when opening packs.
Here's what Rich Klein experienced when he dug into one of several boxes of different products delivered by Topps this week:
When we received the latest group of Topps products for review, my wife saw the boxes and her eyes instantly lit up with the idea of “box busting”.
The first product she went to open was 2010 Topps Sterling and her immediate reaction was how “classy” the whole product was. When the box wrapper is opened a really nice display type box is there with the special “one-card” mystery pack on top followed by the standard five-card pack. She even liked the design of the cards and the fact that every player was a Hall of Famer, which was the specific theme of our box.
After that type of glowing recommendation, the more mundane tasks come down to describing more about the product.
Sterling cards are again of the thick variety, more like collectibles than trading cards, really.
This product is currently available on line at the $200-225 level and each box contains the relic card numbered to 25 or fewer and the signed card numbered to 10 or fewer. There are some incredible autographs in the product i
ncluding a Ruth/Gehrig dual signature book.
With just six cards in the box, thus the auto and relic cards plus the “mystery card” pack becomes very important in terms of getting your value back from the box. There are just six cards per box and five boxes per case.
Here's what we pulled from our box:
Base Cards (#d to 250): Steve Carlton, Reggie Jackson and Robin Roberts
Gold Card Parallel (#d to 5): Andre Dawson—this was the mystery pack insert
Sterling Stats Relics Six (#d to 25): Whitey Ford
Career Chronicles Triple Relic Autograph (#d to 10): Reggie Jackson
After opening the packs, it was obvious that Topps did put a great deal of care into the product. Although the opening of the packs does not last very long with such a small number of cards, it's one of those products that generates a lot of anticipation and excitement when you start peeling away the wrapper.
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Click here to check 2010 Topps Sterling box and single card prices on eBay
