No matter how good some sports card products are in terms of content, there is little chance they will be popular in the secondary market. This is a major issue with just about every 2013 football release as there have been no real breakout rookies as we reach November. Even Geno Smith, who took over the quarterbacking duties in New York from Day One has not really exploded because he has been more of a game manager than a game changer in the manner of Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III or Russell Wilson in 2012. Topps Prime football is the latest example of a rookie based brand which could be more popular if there was a better rookie class.
Topps Prime Football was released in 10 pack cards with six cards per pack. Each box states there is one autographed card, one autographed relic card and two relic cards per box. That means a collector has a 40 percent chance of getting a hit out of any box which is a fairly reasonable gamble.
The base cards are full-bordered with a color action photo taking up the card with the Topps Prime logo in the upper left corner and the player’s name and position at the bottom. The backs consist of biographical information, a brief note along seasonal and career statistical information. When I stopped in my local card store (Triple Cards, Plano TX) he mentioned sales were slow at the $97.50 box level but he thought this would be a nice seller over time. Meanwhile leading on-line retailers are between $70-80 per box.
Here’s what we pulled:
Base Cards: 46 of 100. This means one needs two hobby boxes at the very least to be in a position to complete a base set.
Veteran Gold Parallel Cards: (Note these are not serial numbered): Antonio Gates, Doug Martin
Rookie Copper Parallel (#d to 350): Ace Sanders
Silver Rainbow Parallel (#d to 50): Ace Sanders. Yes we got two parallels of Sanders, the Jaguars rookie receiver/return man
Primetimers: Colin Kapernick, Cam Newton
Prime Performance: Nick Foles
Prime Rookies: Stedman Bailey
Dual Relics Combo (#d to 99): Jonathan Franklin
Dual Relics Gold (#d to 75): Geno Smith
Autographed (#d to 250): Stedman Bailey
Autographed Relic (#d to 200): Matt Barkley
Bailey and Barkley have yet to make an impact so our autograph pulls were not exactly stellar and apparently we hit the Ace Sanders jackpot. We certainly hope Geno Smith develops into a fine quarterback and not into a punch line as his counterpart Mark Sanchez was. We hope that there is no butt fumble in Smith’s future and hopefully in the next couple of years one of these rookie relic or autographed cards will join Smith as a future star.
