Last year, Topps really brought a great product with Finest. It had a great looking base design, the autos were well designed with a few exceptions, and the value in the box was high. This year, not only are they bringing a similarly well designed product, but they have fixed all the problems from the set last year.
First, they have gone to at least one hard signed rookie autograph set in this product, which only goes to show that Topps is FINALLY committing to moving in the right direction unlike Panini. This product, per facebook is being released in August, so these previews are incorrect in showing the non-pro uniforms. Rookie hard signed cards in a product like Finest make me salivate over how great they will look, even more so when it looks like Chrome will be produced on card as well!
Second, I absolutely love the look of the jumbo patch cards like the Brees they previewed. It looks better than it did last year, and it is one of the coolest looking sticker auto cards I have seen in a long, long time. It looks as if Topps understands how to improve upon the development areas for old designs when they rehash them, again completely unlike Panini. If Peterson has a card in this set, I am going to be all over it.
Lastly, I am soooooo happy they went with a horizontal orientation for the rookie patch cards. Last year’s were a complete disaster, and these look a million times better. I think if you get one on card signature a box and one of these patch cards per box, you have a great product again for 2011.
On to the stuff that isnt so good, the duals like the Bradford/Gabbert are a train wreck, much like they were for 2010. The stickers overlapping on the player pictures look beyond awful, and the tiny photos do nothing for the card. Blechhhhh.
Im also still not sold on the Atomic cards, as gaudy looking confetti refractors werent even good looking back in 1996. At least this year they will have some autographs, which I think improves a little bit on these cards.
Overall, this product is going to be a winner just because of the added on card autos. When you factor in all the other stuff, it becomes that much more of a superstar for the entire year.
Here are the photos:
Wow this is a great loking set! I haven’t bought a new product in some time but I will grab some singles from this. The atomic cards are cool with me thoug. I am a sucker for “bling”. But ur spot on with the duals,Topps please fix those.
Nice set I can’t wait til these get released
The rookie cards look good, but the jumbo auto looks way too much like the 2010 Topps Unrivaled jumbo patch auto cards, except with the patch and auto windows flipped.
That’s the way to do it.
The base set looks sharp and ON CARD… Thank God.