Topps’ 2012 football boxes have been trickling into retail outlets over the past few days and on Wednesday, hobby shops are expected to take delivery of the product. The company’s base brand offers some new insert sets including a number of autograph elements and another online redemption game called Topps Gametime.
Among the cards Topps has been touting are retro-inspired insert sets including Quarterback Rookie Reprints, which offers 21 signed reprints of the first-year cards of legendary stars like Joe Namath, Joe Montana, Bart Starr, John Elway, Roger Staubach, Steve Young and Warren Moon. Only 25 of each exist.
Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III Continuity Cards: Exclusively designed autographed cards featuring the two hottest draft picks in years will be featured throughout all of the Topps Football products this season. These special cards make their debut in 2012 Topps Football.
The 1965-themed Tall Boys are back, this time featuring a set of 140 with signed versions randomly inserted. The cards have been updated from the original sell sheet to show players on their new teams, like the Tim Tebow pictured at right.
Quarterback Immortals is another insert set and New Field Generals will offer military-style medals inside the cards.
Plaques, Jumbo Relics, Medallions, Rookie Premiere content (some of which will be the players’ first autographed rookie card) and other “special unannounced treats” will be inside boxes, according to the company.
Topps packed exclusive Golden Draft Tickets in both Hobby and Retail boxes of the 2012 football product. Finders of these draft tickets will receive an autographed Andrew Luck or RG3 Football from the 2012 NFL Rookie Premiere and one lucky collector will get his or her own rookie card in 2013 Topps football.
Look for special Kickoff Weekend Redemption Cards in Hobby Packs of Topps NFL Football. If you find one, redeem the card at your favorite Hobby Store during NFL Kickoff weekend, (September 5th through September 11th ) and you will receive an exclusive five-card kickoff pack, which may include autograph cards from NFL Legends and Rookies.
Topps Gametime will offer collectors the chance to win special die-cut autographed rookie cards and tokens they can redeem for prizes. Similar to its Diamond and Golden Giveaways in baseball and last year’s Super Bowl legends game, the virtual game will have collectors typing in the codes found on special cards randomly inserted into packs to reveal what they’ve won. The website is scheduled to go live sometime next week according to Topps’ Twitter account.
Also new this year–the Breast CancerAwareness Pink Parallel Cards and Military Camo cards, with each numbered to just 399. Each would seem to have strong potential because of their emotional appeal to those who might not normally collect as well as hard core collectors chasing all variations.
There will be 36 pack Hobby boxes (ten cards per pack) retailing for about $65/box and Jumbo boxes with ten 50-card packs at around $100/box as well as the eight-pack Topps 2012 retail or ‘blaster’ boxes at Target and Walmart for $19.99.