In recent years Topps Platinum football has established itself as a regular part of the Topps line. With a reasonable price point, a relatively early season release and the guaranteed hits in each box, it’s done pretty well. Of course, it does help a product when the rookie class is really strong such as in 2012.
This year, Topps is still using the same formula but as discussed many times, their biggest issue with 2013 products is going to be a weak skilled position rookie class. 
Although it was good to see E.J. Manuel pull out a last-second victory and the Jets are forced to make a commitment to Geno Smith, the star power hasn’t shown up in the early going.
The 2013 Topps Platinum football brand fits right into the pattern of the past few years. The base cards have a color player photo set against a background which matches the team’s colors. The player’s name and position is on the bottom. The backs include biographical information, a brief blurb as well as seasonal and career stats. In an interesting twist, the 
veteran players basically only have “Sapphire” or thicker cards as a parallel while the rookie cards have several parallels as part of their line.
Platinum football comes in a 20 pack box with five cards per pack. Current on-line pricing is between $85-90 per box. Each box promises two on-card autographed rookies and an autograph patch relic.
We ripped open a box recently and here’s what we pulled:
Base Cards Veterans: 56 of 100
Base Cards Rookies: 12 of 50
No Duplicates in either grouping
Sapphire (or thicker) Cards: Justin Blackmon, Dawyne Bowe, Reggie Bush, Fred Davis, Vernon Davis, Antonio Gates, Rob Gronkowski, Calvin Johnson, Chris Johnson Jeremy Kerley, Andrew Luck, Clay Matthews, LeSean McCoy, Hakeem Nicks, Carson Palmer, Tony Rice, DeMarcus Ware, DeAngelo Williams,Kendall Wright
Rookie: X-Fractors: Ezekiel Ansah, Aaron Dobson, Tyrone Goard, Landry Jones, Theo Reddick
Rookie Black: Markus Wheaton
In my opinion, it would have been nice to have any and all of these parallel cards labeled as they are not always obvious to collectors.
Rookie Autograph: Cobi Hamilton
Rookie Autograph “Frost” (#d to 50): Zach Ertz
Autograph Rookie Refractor Patch (#d to 250): Tyler Wilson
Platinum is attractive overall despite the use of some nondescript photos from the NFL combine. The average cost is about 85 cents per card which is something collectors can live with. You’ll have a nice-looking base set should you try to complete one. It was nice to pull one of the Frost parallels. The three hits and some extra goodies make this a smooth product to break for the 2013 football season but we may have to wait awhile for much star power from the rookie class.
Rich Klein can be reached at [email protected]
