This will serve as your warning, I am going to be on my soapbox here on the blog for a few days. Five Star is my new favorite product of the year, and I think that after seeing some of the early results, it was well worth the wait. Now that we have seen the lackluster previews for National Treasures, Five Star remains the only product of the year where current stars and HOF players sign on card. Not only is this vitally important for collectors like me, but it also displays the best design of the year, hands down.
The funny thing? We havent even started to see all the surprises that should be all over this product. Topps has already talked about redemptions for full size player equipment, and I have a feeling that is only the half of it. The cards maintain the high end look that is needed for a product like this, and I think I might actually end up spending MORE than I expected, buying players I DONT collect. When a product can inspire collectors to buy into players they have no interest in, that is success.
Check out some of the cards posted so far:
2011 Five Star Jerry Rice Base Auto
2011 Five Star Christian Ponder Auto RC
2011 Five Star Andy Dalton Booklet Jersey Auto
2011 Five Star Colin Kapaernick Gold Patch Auto /55
2011 Five Star Von Miller Inscription Auto – Von needs better penmanship, not sure how we get “Orange Crush” from these chicken scratches.
2011 Five Star Ray Lewis/Von Miller Dual Auto
2011 Five Star Aaron Rodgers Jumbo Jersey – Even the jersey cards look tremendous!
Over the last few years, I have said how much I love signed versions of the base cards, as they are usually some of the best designed cards in the set. Five Star takes that premise and runs with it, having hard signed parallels of most of the base cards in the set. These are some of my favorites so far, and I might even go and collect the set as a result. The cards look awesome.
There are drawbacks, dont get me wrong, but they are far overshadowed by everything displayed in the other cards. Collectors will complain about swatch size for the rookies or single colored patches, but I honestly couldnt care less. When the cards are designed with the care and effort that we fail to get in any high end set from the competition, value should be derived from things other than what is in the patches. It isnt like they are game used anyways, so I refuse to assign a wow factor when there is very little connection to the player other than the second or two the jersey is worn at the premiere.
Also, it is tough to judge a high end product by the wax breaks from collectors who go after one box or two boxes. Super high end boxes can produce huge explosions of amazing cards, or they can be duds. Five Star may be one of the best singles driven sets in the history of the game, and I think that once the breaks come out, there might be the normal feelings on value in the boxes. This has never made a difference to me, as I have always bought into players and teams over breaking wax, but it is a factor for many people out there.
Most importantly, I think it bears repeating that this product looks to be an upgrade and then some over its 2010 brother. It is always essential to grow within the market space, rather than wither and die like we have seen with other companies, and I think Five Star is doing that well. Not only that, but when Topps has also shown they are dedicated to making products like Supreme, Platinum, Chrome, and Finest that much better, its sad that collectors still buy other products with bush league work.
Five Star is the crown jewel of the 2011 card season, and I will post more as it is made available. I think we are in for some big things.
5 star box break???
I’m so excited to bust my case tomorrow at my LCS. It’s my first high-end case and I think I picked a great product to rip.
Mr. Gellman, you have a classic case of “can’t see the forest through the trees.” How on earth a company could justify putting 4, single colored white jersey swatches on cards #’d to 10 or less is absolutely positively asenine. Inexecusable. Can’t imagine opening a pack of cards for $500, hitting a Cam Newton #’d to 10 and find out it is four single colored jerseys. Also, the product is way oversaturated. I’ve seen Newton’s #
‘d to 199, 50, 110, 15, and who knows what else. Take a look at the sales prices – no one is buying.
I went through 2 of my 4 cases tonight at my store. It simply looks INCREDIBLE! Best hits were a Rodgers auto dual patch and a Cam auto jersey. I wish I could have bought a dozen direct.
I could honestly care less about swatch size or content. Its about design and composition for me. Do I understand that there are people out there trying to make money on these breaks, of course. I am not one of them, and I value hard signed autographs with single color swatches over sticker autographs with crazy patches. As an autograph collector, that’s my thing. If the cards look great, have awesome photos, and hard signed signatures, the rest is just details.
Jon, you must have missed 09-10 Exquisite Basketball. Every other jersey card was a solid color and that stuff was going for $650/box or more. Not saying it’s right, but it’s not uncommon for high-end stuff to contain uninspiring hits.
Isn’t there a point where these types of products (not necessarily this specific one) oversaturate the market?
By my count, there have been somewhere between 15-20 different FB products released this season focused on rookie autos/patches. Compare that to a whopping TWO “low-end” products focused on the NFL as a whole (Score & Topps).
Most of these players are going to be around for years…its not like swatches of the jerseys and/or their autographs are suddenly going to become scarce, now matter how low they are numbered. At some point, people are going start to realize that they are paying ridiculous sums of money for cards that are not as scarce as they are made out to be, and the market is going to collapse. When you can get autos of all-time greats like Jim Brown, Joe Namath, and Gale Sayers for under $50, its hard to justify paying three (and occasionally four) digit sums for players with only a year or two in the NFL.
I’m with you on this one. I’m sick of everybody bashing 5 Star, as it’s now the ONLY release ALL SEASON with a notable checklist of HOFers/Stars and on-card autographs. Also, anybody ever think that they’ll NEVER have to worry about a counterfeit Cam Newton patch/auto because they’re all one color? No? Probably not, right? Well, with all white or black swatches, you can buy any Cam Newton RC/Patch/Auto from this release and know it’s authentic. Oh, hey, how about that? They solved the fake patch bitchfest that occurs within 2 weeks of any popular product release these days.
The bottom line is, there isn’t much left to choose from anymore. The cost of big-name NFLers to sign ON CARD is very expensive for these companies… or at least the one that puts in the effort to get it done. Sadly, as far as I’m concerned, 5 star is the last option remaining for great autographs, not rookie cards. While the collectors who are chasing just RC’s and fancy patches that no one will care about in 10 years might not like it, for collectors of NFL greats signatures, this is all that’s left. (Until UD gets back in the NFL game)
So excited! I pulled a Cam patch auto /55! And a Bradshaw patch auto /50!
Here’s the Cam. Beautiful card.
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/s720x720/420366_985260428285_24400423_39545163_1527318635_n.jpg
Brian,
Actually, if you collect NFL greats, like I do, there are plenty of other options besides overpriced new releases.
To start with, you’ve got the Goal Line Art series (the FB equivalent of Perez Steele), which is drop dead gorgeous, and featured every single HOFer. Then you’ve got the HOF Signature Series, which is also gorgeous and also quite gorgeous.
And I’ve yet to see any new release that matches up to the 2010 Topps Magic set, which features a nice simple design as well as autos of Sayers, Hornung, Jim Brown, Marino, Elway, Staubach, Emmitt Smith, Franco Harris, Tony Dorsett, Steve Young, Ronnie Lott, Marcus Allen, Fred Biltenikoff, and YA Tittle.
And that’s only the tip of the iceberg…
Do a little research, and you’ll find tons of older releases, with much less expensive HOFer autos.
I agree, those Goal Line Art cards are awesome. I have picked up a few since you turned me on to them.
Still, people will always love new hotness. Its NEW HOTNESS!
That Simms auto looks sexy as hell. Seriously, I want to cuddle up with that card.
Agreed. Five Star is getting bashed and for no good reason. The problem is, unlike you and me and many others, everyone wants to make their money back or double it. That’s not how it works folks. This is a hobby. You win some, you lose some. It really turns me off when people are all about money and greed. If I had the coin to bust a box and hit a Kyle Rudolph (white) patch auto for my main hit? That’s cool because the Vikings are my PC. People need too either not buy high end or stop complaining.
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