Topps Precision, the second to last product from Topps this year, hit stores today to much anticipation. After busting a few boxes myself, and seeing what the product has to offer, I think it definitely succeeds in a lot of ways I don’t think a product like this has ever succeeded. Don’t get me wrong, it has drawbacks like any product at this price point, but the success of the design and theme should provide some great singles to chase.

In my two boxes, I didn’t have much luck, but I definitely believe that the cards were high above the quality we saw in any of Panini’s offerings this year. The stock is similar to Inception, and the on card autographs that are paired with game photos look incredible. They made good use of the Gaussian blur on photoshop, and I think the results speak for themselves. The players have absolutely enormous spaces to sign, and the huge autographs are really cool.

The patch and jersey autograph cards succeed where Inception’s failed, as the border has been ditched around the sticker. As a result, the card looks much more complete and visually appealing, especially with a stark white background to the card. There are also a lot of multi-signed cards and books (as usual), and for the most part, it’s a great idea to add more of these types of cards to supplement the huge price point.

I kind of feel like Bowman Sterling and Topps Inception got drunk and hooked up, and this is the result of the night of passionate love making. Sterling has a ridiculous price per pack for sticker autographs, and this product builds on that part of it with more hard signed signatures. Inception was void of veteran autograph content, and had some issues with checklist, but Precision is a huge improvement for 70 extra dollars per box. Not only will you get 3 autos and an auto relic, but you will also get at least one hard signed card.

The signed veteran base cards are pretty impressive looking for stickers, but it is truly unfortunate that this could not function more like SP Authentic of 2009 and previous. The cards would rival content like we saw in Upper Deck’s last licensed run through the calendar, and I am wholly disappointed it didn’t happen.

Here are some of the big hits so far:

Jake Locker 1/1 Auto Patch RC

Cam Newton Gold Ink Auto RC /50
Andy Dalton On Card Red Ink Auto /75

Drew Brees, Colston, Mark Ingram Triple Auto

Eric Dickerson Base Auto – Definitely a welcome return for Dickerson.

Jimmy Graham Base Auto – About time Graham got a good looking auto like this.

For what this box costs, there is definitely a lot to expect, most of which it will deliver. With pack price delivering a guaranteed auto, I think there is good reason to try at least one or two. Like Tier One in baseball, the format may be prohibitive to buy a whole bunch of packs, so it may be just as good wait for singles. I was definitely impressed with the look of the cards, even though my boxes were lackluster in terms of players.

I will definitely be waiting for more to be posted to start buying, however. Without a doubt, it will soften the fix I need before Five Star hits in late February.

National media attention does weird things to the hobby, which is exactly why I cant fault Topps for going to this level of extreme on their 2012 product. Although there is zero chance these prices continue to be replicated, the new Skip Schumaker Rally Squirrel SSP variation cards has already reached ridiculous heights on eBay.

Check out the auction here.

Lets take a time machine back to 2007, with the release of Derek Jeter’s Mickey Mantle/GW BUsh card that was “slipped accidentally” into the base set. The card got national media attention, and like this rally squirrel card, soared to astroniomical prices on the secondary market.

Fast forward to today, here.

Bottom line, this card will no doubt be on the level where some of these gimmicks are for now, but later it will be much different. Does that mean I dont like that these cards are included in the set? Not at all. I think its a great idea to have them as a way to drive value above and beyond normal. However, these prices will not be reflective of what is going to happen in the long run. If you happen to pull one, obviously get it up NOW.

By the time this part of the season rolled around last year, we were already well past products like Topps Magic. Although 2010 Magic was pretty much a way for Topps to rid their stores of all the extra stickers they had lying around, I thought it was a great looking product. I couldnt bring myself to spend the amount of money on a box, but I did want to chase a few of the singles from the guys I collected. Im a huge fan of the painted looking cards, and I thought the way these were done made good use of that techinque. Magic was not going to be the football version of Allen and Ginter, but many people did like the fact that it was a similarly constructed pack format.

This year, Topps took the idea for Magic last year, and combined it with some of the ideas that Panini put into the Rated Rookies box set. It was only being offered online through their site, and as we can expect, its going to take a miracle to get any money back on the 20 dollar pack price. Even at 1 autograph per box, the good autographed rookies must come at ridiculous odds. They are so uncommon that I have to believe some of these prices wont seem out of sorts because of how SPed these cards are:

2011 Magic Cam Newton SSP Auto RC – Sticker Version – A lot of Newton collectors will be looking for this card, and frankly there will not be many of these.

2011 Magic Mark Ingram SSP Auto RC – Inception Cut Version

2011 Magic Christian Ponder SSP Auto RC

One of the best parts of this set should have been explored a lot further, possibly as a way to give collectors more for their money at no extra cost. There are a list of SP variation cards that are inserted randomly into packs, and these cards feature painted versions of the game photos instead of ones from the premiere. I have always supported SSP base card variation, and I think a product like Magic should focus completely on this component of the set.

The cards do look very similar to last year, but there are two specific things that are DEFINITELY bothering me.

First is the colors Topps used for the borders around the pictures. Although I understand they were trying to create a retro styling, I dont like the colors or the way it looks. They should have used team colors or normal production colors instead of the pastel pinks, more to create a good looking card over one that defies normal color schemes.

Second is the use of cut up inception cards for some of the autographs. Bottom line, this should never happen. I can tell that Topps has to know this isnt kosher, because I get that feeling in talking with them. Not only do the cards look ridiculous, but I dont understand why they would be done this way. We know that some of the Inception cards had chipping problems, and were probably sent back for replacement, so this could be the only way to get further use out of them. Regardless of the reasoning, when pulling one of these autos I kind of feel like I know the present I just got is re-gifted. Lets hope they give up on this awful idea.

Magic will be a non-factor this year in more ways that it will be successful. I know they will get orders because of the promise of one auto at 20 bucks, but I have to say that I miss the cool cards from last year. The Chrome refractor autographs were awesome, and I am still chasing the Peterson to this day. This stuff? Ill pass.

The next few weeks have a battle that many products have approached and few have succeeded with winning. The fight between Panini’s Contenders and the latest crop of rookie products is a very hard one to win, if not only because of collector loyalty. We know that visual appeal, design and look has nothing to do with one product’s success over another, and contenders is a prime example of this. The name itself drives value, and its only because it has been around since before Peyton Manning.

This year, Topps is creating a new set that is going to go head to head with Contenders, even though the configuration is a bit different. With 2011 Topps Precision, they are pairing hard signed content, with the normal cards that have been a successful staple of the recent calendar. I would say that Precision’s feel will be like Ineception with added veteran content, and with how awesome Inception was, this is NOT a bad thing.

As a self confessed card photography snob, I love seeing the game pics on cards that have hard signed autographs. As good as it is to have photo shoot pics earlier in the season, at this point in the year, the game shots add a level of collectability. There are only so many shots they can use from their time at the shoot, and action on the field during an actual game is always going to trump that.

More importantly, for Precision, Topps correctly decided to give the players maximum space to sign their autograph, something Panini has wrongly decided on with Contenders, Plates and Patches and National Treasures. Because sports signatures are known for being dynamic and beautiful, why limit that expression? Not only does it give room for some of the inscriptions that I love and chase, but it also gives the player the optimum place to make the card unique.

I still dont understand why companies continually opt for the cookie cutter approach rather than giving collectors a reason to buy one product over another. If each product cannot bring something new and unique over another product on the calendar, why have both? It makes no sense. Panini has opted time and time again, to make each of their products EXACTLY like the others, and as a result, I wont buy any of their junk.

For 2011 Contenders, you have a product that not only looks awful, but no longer has any reason to exist. The complexity of the rookie autograph checklist is now forced into every product of the year. Scrub autos dominate so many of the checklists these days, that Contenders is no longer special in that way. It can only function on its name and its design. This year, the design is so terrible, that Panini better hope that they can make it work. Last year’s ticket design was probably one of the best ever, a definite need after 2009 was probably the worst. 2011 looks to be somewhere in between disgusting and horrendous, and that is not good with a product like Precision delivering 4 great looking autos per box at a similar price.

Here is a gallery of the visual train wreck from Panini’s site.

I completely understand that Contenders could be signed notecards and it would still sell, but I have to have faith that eventually people will figure out how much design and composition means to cards and growth of the hobby. When cards look like ones I could create on MS Paint, it takes away from being worthy of display. If you cant display, I dont buy. With disposable income no longer being spent on stuff like this due to the recession, it may take something drastic, and they better have something up their sleeve other than video cards.

Without many exceptions, I have hated those gaudy inserts that were popular back in the late 1990s. Although many people love them above all else, spending the price of a car to buy some of the rarer ones, I cannot stand the busy designs and the awful foilboard. Again, they are some of the most valuable non-autographed cards in history, but it was a different time and a different hobby back then.

When 2010-11 Totally Certified Basketball was released, it was a popular product for the main chase of the first Panini video cards. Since that time, the product has severely cooled off, only to start back up with the resurgence of the low numbered parallels selling like crazy on eBay. In fact, they are selling at such ridiculous prices, that I don’t even have an explanation as to why.

Check out some of these prices:

Blake Griffin Totally Certified Emerald Base Card /5

LeBron James Totally Certified Emerald Base Card /5

Kobe Bryant Totally Certified Gold Base Card /25

With so many cards being numbered these days, including some products where EVERY card is numbered, I don’t get the appeal. I understand that the cards remind people of ones like the Precious Metal Gems, but the fact that so many things have changed should negate that situation. Numbered cards don’t mean anything anymore, and it is completely shocking how much these cards are on fire.

Usually, it will take a low numbered Chrome refractor to be a valuable non-autographed card, but these basketball cards are succeeding where EVERY other has failed. This is all despite a terrible name for the set, a terrible design, and nothing more than collector nostalgia and contrived rarity to drive price.

Maybe someone who knows more about basketball can fill me in. Is it that so few people bought this product? Color me stumped.