2012 Topps Five Star Football Preview and Checklist

by Chris Harris

Football card collectors, it’s that time again. Time to smash up your piggy banks, cash in those Savings Bonds, sell the spare kidney, and call up your “connection” with the Colombian cartel – the sell sheets for 2012 Topps Five Star Football are out, and you’re going to need some big bucks for these cards. Set for release just after Super Bowl XLVII, Five Star promises five hits and three low-numbered base cards in every $500 pack.

Among those five hits will be two on-card rookie autographs (one of which will have a piece of a photo shoot-worn patch material), a third autograph, either a dual-autograph or an autographed “Relic” book card, and an oversized Relic/patch card. The Rookie Autographed Patches will also be available in Gold (serial-numbered to 55), Rainbow (numbered to 25) and Five Star (one-of-one) parallels; while the “Five Star Futures Autographs” (the rookie autos without the Patch) are also in the Rainbow and Five Star editions. Something else called the “Five Star Futures Quotable Autograph” will also be inserted. These cards will also be numbered to 25 each.

Judging by the provisional checklist released by Topps, 2012 Topps Five Star Football will have a significant number of current and retired players who will be signing for the product. Each pack will have one such autograph, some with and some without a Patch Relic, all available in the same low-numbered parallels as the rookie autographs.

In addition to the one-per-pack over-sized jersey/Patch “Relics,” collectors should also look for redemption cards that can be exchanged for autographed NFL rookie jerseys, “Rookie Yearbooks” (massive book card containing a photo shoot-worn “Relic” from each of the NFLPA Rookie Premiere players), and framed over-sized autographed cards of Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III.

The big addition to this year’s Five Star will be the inclusion of Super Bowl game used Relics. Featuring the NFL and Super Bowl logos taken from an end zone pylon, each card will be serial-numbered to a yet to be determined number.

2012 Topps Five Star Football is scheduled for release, exclusively to Hobby outlets, the week of February 11, 2013. Each eight card pack should retail for around $500 with three boxes coming per case. See the preview images and preliminary checklist below.

2012 Five Star FB Preliminary Checklist

2012 Topps Five Star Sell Sheet

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