by Rich Klein
When I was growing up we usually only heard the word ‘supreme’ in two ways. The first–the one we learned in school–was that Dwight D. Eisenhower was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces during World War II. He was the leader of the allied nations versus the axis forces. The other usage of the word involved the famed Motown signing group featuring Diana Ross for most of their peak years. Nearly forty years after their final appearance in the top 40, people still remember many of The Supremes hits with fondness.
Topps, on the other hand, is using the Supreme name to try and set its high end football cards above all the other products. The 2011 Topps Supreme product, which has been selling in the $80-95 range, features four cards in a pack/box so you are spending a minimum of $20 per card. Each box does contain the four cards, of which two are a base card, one is a parallel and one is your big hit.
My local store, Triple Cards in Plano, Texas, did sell out at $100 per box but is not in any rush to re-order. The card design is re
asonably attractive with a player photo set against a solid background with the Topps Supreme logo The card’s serial numbering is near the bottom along with the team logo, the player’s name, position and uniform number. The back has a large team logo on top along with some biographical information as well as a brief informational blurb.
It’s one of those “not for the conservative collector” type of products, but obviously there are some highly sought after cards hiding in these packs. It doesn’t take long to rip open a pack. Here’s how we did:
Base Cards (#d to 429): Edmond Gates, Tony Dorsett
Sepia Parallel (#d to 30): Torrey Smith
Eight Piece Relic (#’d to 20): Swatches from Jake Locker, Andy Dalton, Cam Newton, Colin Kaepernick, 
Mark Ingram, Jordan Todman, Daniel Thomas and Kendall Hunter.
And that is it. No autograph in this box, but that’s the chance you take. The hope is that on the eight piece relic at least three of the quarterbacks and two of the other players make it big so the card will be truly strong at some point. One of them is being offered on eBay right now at $175 with no takers so far. Many similar booklet cards are bringing far less.
2011 Topps Supreme Football is in stores now having been released during the middle of January. Here’s what’s available now on eBay.
Rich Klein can be reached at [email protected]
