At the beginning of this year, we had the culmination of the 2010 card season with three of the highest of the high end products being released around the same time. Of the three products, I loved two (Exquisite and Five Star) and hated one (National Treasures) for very specifc reason relating to design and content of the product. One of the sets stood above the rest as one of the best looking products of the last few years, delivering 100% on card signatures and many cards that definitely lived up to the standard set by the name. I want to revisit Five Star, now almost six months later, because I think it should be used as a road map for higher end products this time around.

On Card Autographs

Panini is infamous for their relative allergy to on card autographs. Even in their highest end product of the year, there were a total of ZERO hard signed cards from veteran and retired players. Five star was the only licensed product during the WHOLE card year to feature hard signed autographs from players like Brees, Peterson and others, and I hope that the focus Topps has placed on avoiding stickers allows for a lot more similar content on the checklist this year. Topps has already made HUGE, HUGE strides with their rookie auto content already in products like Rising Rookies, Inception, Finest AND Platinum, and it is sure to continue on. The one thing I would hope that a set like Five Star dictates is that the older players should not be left out of the mix. Looking back on this set now, I can see how important the hard signed signatures were to the success of the product, and its easy to see how much more collectors value hard signed cards like the product delivered.

Inscriptions

The Five Star inscription cards were awe inspiring. I don’t even have any other way of talking about the reaction these cards instilled in me. When I saw the Adrian Peterson, my heart almost stopped from excitement. I had never seen cards like that make such a splash, and if Topps has anything at the top of their list below getting more on card sigs, its getting more inscriptions. I think it adds a level of superiority to autograph cards that have become commonplace in the hobby, and when you see some of the things they were able to get the players to write, its ridiculous. Clay from Topps told me in an interview earlier this year that they were working on some amazing things, I hope these are in that category.

Design

If I am going to pay through the nose to buy boxes and singles of a product that costs as much as five star did, it better look ornate, classy, and professional. It cannot look anything like the crap that Panini crammed into a horribly weak looking National Treasures set. Five Star’s patch auto cards were some of the best of the year, simply because Topps focused on delivering the best possible simple design and letting the photo and autograph speak for itself. No need for swatches that take up half the card, just enough to make it worth the while of the collectors that buy them. The base autos even looked tremendous, something that Topps has struggled with over the years. Lastly, in terms of the booklets that have sieged set after set from all the companies, these looked better than any other that I had ever seen. Full photos, classy looks, and hard signed autos make for great looking cards.

Drawbacks

Five Star wasn’t all peaches and cream unfortunately, somewhat due to the amount of time Topps had to put it out. First, the checklist was small, to the point where some of the games top players were not included. No Aaron Rodgers, Dez Bryant or Mike Williams, and no retired stars like Barry Sanders and Joe Montana. Of course, this was completely opposite of guys like Danny White and Billy Sims like company that populated an over-inflated National Treasures and Exquisite checklist. There is a happy medium here, and I think Topps needs to find it before the end of the card year rolls around. Letter autos and tag autos were also horrible, looking under-appreciated and under-designed. I think they may have learned their lesson, but we will find out this July when the first letters appear in 2011 Topps Flagship. Lastly, there needs to be a wow factor to some of the pulls from this set, and I don’t think we reached the level we usually do. There needs to be a 1/1 subset for the veterans that includes some logos or some great autographed cards that include amazing looking patches.

Hopefully, this year is going to be a banner year for this stuff, but you never know until you know.