2011 Topps Rising Rookies Football Box
2011 Topps Rising Rookies Football is Topps first NFL release of the 2011 season.
Set Features:
Configuration: 24 packs per box. 10 cards per pack.
Each Hobby Box contains 4 autographs or Relics.
Each pack contains:
- 5 Base Cards
- 4 Rookie Cards
- 1 Rookie Parallel
PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS:
- 100 Card Base Set
- Parallels: Printing Plate #1/1
- 100 Card Rookie Set
- Parallels: Gold 1/pack, Orange not #d, Blue #/1339, Red #/99, Green #/25, Black #1/1, Printing Plates #1/1
- 100 Autographed Rookies
- 40 Autograph NFL Rookies #/260 or less (Each card has the NFL logo on it)
- 40 Autograph NFL Shield Rookies Serial Numbered (Each card has an auto and an NFL Shield Patch
- 40 Autograph Draft Rookies #/260 or less (Each card has the 2011 NFL Draft logo on it)
- 40 Autograph Draft Shield Rookies Serial Numbered (Each card has an auto and the NFL Draft Shield Patch)
- 40 NFL Draft Rookie Inserts (Same design as the autos, but with no auto or patch)
- 50 Topps 2011 RR Draft Selections Inserts These are inserts of veterans, not the current rookies.
- 30 Topps 2011 RR Draft Playmaker Inserts These are inserts of veterans, not the current rookies.
- 30 Topps 2011 RR Draft Playmaker Swatches #/25
- Parallels: Jumbo Relic #/1o, Jumbo Patch #1/1
- 30 Topps 2011 RR Draft Playmaker Autographs #/25 or /20
- 30 Topps 2011 RR Draft Playmaker Autograph Relic #/25
- Parallels: Patch Auto #/1o, Jumbo Auto Relic #/5, Jumbo Auto Patch #1/1
- 30 Topps 2011 RR Draft Selection Swatches
- 35 Topps 2011 RR Freshman Impression Autopgraphs (Autographs of 35 of last year's best rookies)
- 35 Topps 2011 RR Freshman Impression Relics (Relics from 35 of last year's best rookies)
- 35 Topps 2011 RR Freshman Impression Autograph Relics #/25 (Auto-Relics from 35 of last year's best rookies)
- Parallels: Patch Auto #/1o, Jumbo Auto Relic #/5, Jumbo Auto Patch #1/1
- Topps 2011 RR Dual Autographs (Dual autos featuring one 2010 Draft Pick and one 2009 Draft Pick)
- Topps 2011 RR TRiple Autographs (Triple autos featuring 3 of 2010's hottest Draft Picks
Here's what we pulled in our box of 2011 Topps Rising Rookies Football.
Base and Rookies
The first 100 cards in the set are base veterans. I really like the look of these cards. They're very clean and for the most part, have great action shots. They have all of the 2nd year guys you would want to see and all of the superstars. The back of each card features last year's stats as well as a Rookie Rising fact, giving us a small recap of that player's rookie season. Out of these 100 cards, we pulled 88 of them with 9 duplicates. I really don't like dups, but this was a pretty low percentage and is acceptable. I do wish I could have gotten a full set out of the box, but 88% is not too shabby at all.
The second 100 cards in the set are the 2010 rookies. The one thing I don't like about the early season sets is that there hasn't been any time to get any photos of the rooks in their new uniform. With the lockout going on this season, there has been no chance to get real pictures of the players in their new colors. So the rookies in this set are basically all head shots, with the team name and what round they were drafted in in a box underneath the photo. The back of the rookies also has last year's college stats as well as a small tidbit about the upside of the player. Of the 100 cards in this set, we received 87 of them with 8 duplicates. 2 of the 13 we're missing we did get as parallels. But again, an 87% set is pretty stellar. We have all of the big names in our box: Newton, Gabbert, Peterson, Mallett, Jones, Bowers, Green, Locker, Ponder, Ingram and many, many more. I do appreciate a set that features this many rookies, as you get cards of players that many sets will not feature as they're not "sexy" enough draft picks.
Parallel Cards
As promised, there was at least one parallel rookie card in every pack. The majority of which were un-numbered gold parallels. Among our golds are Peterson, Von Miller and Ingram. We didn't get a parallel of any of the really big names, so that's a bummer, but as you'll see down the page, the box made up for it. We did get 3 Blue parallels all numbers to 1339. We also received an Orange version of Missouri End Aldon Smith. While not numbered, a quick search of Beckett would suggest that the Orange version is a little tougher to get than the Blue, so that's pretty cool. All in all, we were promised 24 parallels in this box and we received 25...so we're ahead of the game there.
Inserts
There are 4 different insert sets in this product, not including autos and GU. The first of which is a 2011 Draft card. This is a 40 card set featuring some of the more prominent rookies. We received 8 of these inserts, including AJ Green and Cam Newton, so I'd say we did pretty well there. Again, the lack of pro photos forces Topps to stick with a headshot and fill in the rest of the card with the NFL Draft logo. Ultimately, I'd prefer an college action shot of the player with an NFL Team Logo to the closeup shot with the filler off to the side. The next insert set is a 13 card set called Combine Competition and features action shots of 2 players from the NFL Scouting Combine. As it's a "Competition" card, the 2 players are (were) vying for the same position. We received 6 of the 13 cards in this set, the most noteworthy being Jake Locker and Christian Ponder. The backs of these cards are split down the middle and highlight each player's Combine stats like 40 times, vertical jump, bench press and shuttle run. (For those of you wondering, Locker outperformed Ponder on everything but the 20-yard shuttle.)
The last 2 insert sets feature veteran players. The first is the Draft Selection set. This is a 50 card set featuring 50 prominent current NFL stars and highlights how their draft went for them. We only received 3 of these, the most interesting of which is the "out of nowhere" star of 2009, Brandon Lloyd. He was the 124th selection of the 2003 draft by the 49ers. Exciting, right? In all seriousness, these are pretty sharp looking cards featuring plenty of foil lettering as well as some nice action shots. The final insert set is called Playmakers. This is a 30 card set of the best playmakers in the NFL. The back of each card features the moment when these players became the playmakers that they are today. We only received 3 of this 30 card set, but we got some good ones. Joe Flacco, Roddy White and Braylon Edwards. All of the insert sets (save the Combine duals) have GU and/or Patch versions as well as autographed versions.
Autographs and Relics
Speaking of autographs, this box had a few. We were promised 4 hits (autos or relics) in this box and we certainly hit that mark. First up is the Game Used version of the Playmakers insert set. The playmaker we received is Maurice Jones-Drew. It's basically the same card, but with a cutout for a jersey swatch, in this case a nice Jaguar teal swatch for Mr. Drew.
Our first auto is one of the 35 Freshman Impression autographs. In our box, we pulled Emmanuel Sanders. This is a nice looking sticker auto featuring a review of the player's rookie season in 2009. The next auto is a Rookie Auto of RB Alex Green of the Green Bay Packers. The sticker auto takes the place of the team name on the base rookie card. IN our case, Alex Green has a small signature, so it is framed very nicely on the sticker. Our final auto is a version of the NFL Draft insert set. Instead of the draft logo, this card features the player with the NFL logo. In our case, we received Stevan Ridley, a RB for the New England Patriots. This on-the-card auto is serial numbered to 260. And there we have it, the 4 hits as promised by Topps. But wait, there's more...
Rookie Auto Patch
Looks like we got a lucky box here as we got a 5th hit. And it's a beauty. We received a Draft Patch Auto of Kansas City WR Jon Baldwin, serial numbered to 40. The card is exactly like the NFL Draft insert set, except instead of a Draft Logo graphic, it features a Draft Logo patch. This is also an on-the-card auto, making it that much nicer of a hit. I love the look of the thick card, die-cut to accommodate a very nice 2011 NFL Draft patch. Without a doubt, this is the hit of the box. The card is a real beauty and was quite a treat to pull out of a pack.
Final Thoughts on 2011 Topps Rising Rookies Football
The lowest price I could find for a hobby box of Rising Rookies is $71.95. For a product that features this many rookies and offers 4 hits per box, I would say this is a very nice first set of the year for Topps. There's not too many bells and whistles here, I'm sure they're saving that for Triple Threads, Finest and the like. But when compared to the first sets of the other card makers, I think Rising Rookies rates very well due to the number of rooks and the quality of the autographs. I also VERY much like a 24-pack per box product that gives me the majority of the full set of cards. When you're looking at about 212 total base cards in a box, if you can come close to completing a 200 card base set, I'd say you've opened a pretty solid product. Based on our break, I would highly recommend Rising Rookies to both set collectors and rookie and autograph collectors. These cards are real sharp looking and considering we got the box a little later than normal, they're already booking and they seem to have a pretty good book value going on. Thumbs up to Topps on their first release of the year. The bummer for them is, now all their other products have to top this.
Here's how I would rate this product, based on what we experienced during our break
- Value = 5
- Innovation = 5
- Fun and Experience = 5
- Rebuy Value = 4
I rate this product a solid A for Topps. I like the look of the cards, I love the autos and gamers. My one knock on the cards (lack of photos of rookies in their pro uniforms) is really not in Topps' control, so they get a pass on that one. While we're waiting for the lockout to end, I'd suggest going out and getting a box...then you can send me the cards I'm missing for the full set!
NPN Information
Mail to:
2011 Topps Rising Rookies Football
PO Box 2036
Duryea, PA 18642
Postmarked by August 24, 2011 and Received by August 31, 2011
I would like to thank Topps and Trader Retreat for giving me the opportunity to review this new product.
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