by Rich Klein
In some ways the new 2011 Topps Platinum Football product is an easy product to collect. Each box contains three autographs and those autographs are the key to this product. The box promises two rookie on-card autograph refractors per box and one autograph patch relic per box.
These boxes have 20 packs per box with five cards per pack. Leading on-line retailers are selling 2011 Topps Platinum Football for $90-100 per box. With the three guaranteed autographs with two being on-card rookie autographs, that may not be the worse chance for a collector to make.
The mid-range product was fairly popular last year. This year’s product is a step above. The “Platinum Technology” Topps refers to in its marketing really does stand out. The cards have a nice rainbow effect. The backs have a little write-up, which adds to the quality. There are a lot of refractor variations here.
Here’s what we pulled out of the box:
Base Cards: 70 of 150 or slightly less than 50 percent of the set
Emerald Parallels: Dallas Clark, Shon Greene
Thick Parallels: Tom Brady, Dez Bryant, Matt Cassel, Peyton Hillis, Steve Johnson, Thomas Jones, Jeremy Maclin, Ryan Mathews, Rashard Mendenhall, Knowshon Moreno, Adrian Peterson, Troy Polamanu, Philip Rivers, Ben Roethlisberger, Jonathan Stewart, Brian Urlacher, Reggie Wayne, Beanie Wells, D’Angelo Williams.
Die Cut: Patrick Peterson
Blue Refractor (#d to 299): Jerrel Jernigan
Rookie Autograph (#d to 1000): D.J. Williams
Rookie Autograph (#d to 250): Delone Carter
Rookie Patch Autog
raph (#d to 475): Austin Pettis
Thus we did procure the three autographs promised from each box and will wait to see how well our signed rookies perform in 2011 and beyond. Carter has a chance to shine in Indy. Williams was one of the Packers’ higher draft picks, but won’t see a lot of PT early.
If base sets are your thing, the box comes up short, but as usual, it’s the autos and parallels driving sales. Still, for base set collectors who want a nice looking exemplar of the season, this isn’t a bad choice.
2011 Topps Platinum Football is a beautiful looking product, nice grouping of autographs guaranteed and the few other hits make this a nice box for collectors to take chances. Over 5,000 listings are already on eBay despite the product only being available for a couple of weeks.
There are eight packs in the retail blaster boxes. Look below for a Sports Collectors Daily blaster box video break.
Rich Klein can be reached at [email protected]
