2011 Topps Platinum Football Box
Topps Platinum Football is always a sweet looking set and I'm excited to get a chance to rip and review the 2011 version of the product.
Set Features:
Configuration: 20 packs per box. 5 cards per pack.
Each Hobby Box contains:
2 On-Card Rookie Autographs
1 Autographed Patch Refractor
PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS:
- 150 Card Base Set - 100 Veterans, 50 Rookies
- Rookie Parallels: X-Fractor (1 in 4 packs), Green #/499, Blue #/299, White #/99, Gold #/50, Red #/25, SuperFractor #1/1, Printing Plate #1/1 (4 Colors),
- Veteran Parallels: Gold (1 in 5 packs), Emerald (1 in 10 packs), Ruby (1 in 20 Packs)
- 50 On-Card Autographed Rookies
- Parallels: Green #/399, Blue #/99, White #/50, Gold #/10, SuperFractor #1/1, Printing Plate Auto - #1/1 (4 Colors)
- 35 Rookie Autograph Patch Cards
- Parallels: Green #/199, Blue #/99, White #/25, Gold #/10, Superfractor #1/1, Red Refractor NFL Shield Patch #1/1
- 25 Platinum Die-Cut Cards (1 per Box)
- 35 Jumbo Rookie Patches
- 20 Dual Rookie Autographed Refractors #/25
- 20 Dual Rookie Autographed Patch Refractors #/25
- 10 Triple Rookie Autographed Refractors #/10
- 3 Hexagraph Rookie Autographed Refractors (6 rookie autos, 3 on front and 3 on back of card) #/10
- 30 Autographed Platinum Patch Cards #/5
- 15 Autographed Veteran Platinum Patch Cards
- Parallels: White #/25, Gold #/10, SuperFractor #1/1
Here's what we pulled in our box of 2011 Topps Platinum Football.
Base and Veteran Refractors
As you've come to expect from Topps Platinum, the cards are beautiful. Back in the 90s, Upper Deck cornered the market on foil cards. Topps has very much done the same with their "chroming" technique. Every card is incredibly clear and the player just pops off the card. As always, the players are featured in action shots and the photography is second to none. Each pack features 3 base cards, 1 Rookie and 1 thicker stocked Veteran Gold. The odds I found suggest there was a Gold in every 5 packs, but this box featured one in every pack (accept the pack with our Patch auto, this pack only featured 2 cards.) You can see on the Brees and AP card, the gold tint...that is not a scanner error, that's the shading on the card. The base set is 150 cards, 100 veterans and 50 rookies. In our box, we received 54 of the 100 Vets, with no duplicates. If you've read my reviews before, you know how much I love a box with no duplicates...so once again Topps delivers.
Rookies and X-Fractors
The rookie cards in this set are the real star though. The base rookies look like refractors of the past and are incredibly sharp this year. For the most part, they caught the rookies in action shots in their pro uniforms. A handful show them in shorts in practice, but the majority are wearing the new team unis. There are 50 rookies in this set and we brought in 11 of the base rooks, with no dups. With 1 rookie per pack and 1 pack taken out of the mix for the patch auto, you're looking at a maximum of 19 rookies per box. After you throw in the 5 X-Fractors we received and the 2 autos and 1 Green Refractor you'll see in a moment, that gets us up to the 19 rookies per box. Unfortunately, our box did not hit many of the big name rookies. Julio Jones and Andy Dalton are the biggest names of the rookies that we received. Our X-fractors were a bit disappointing as well, but as you can see from the scan, they are pretty sharp looking cards.
Colored Refractors
I wondered why the one-sheet for this product listed the odds of pulling a colored veteran refractor instead of listing what they were numbered to. Well, it's because they're not numbered. Stated odds called for 2 Emerald refractors and 1 Ruby refractor per box and as you can see, we hit that amount. As you can see, the tint on the cards is either green or red and actually scans very nicely. I will say, I was a bit disappointed with the veteran colored refractors, but the rookies are VERY sharp. As you can see above, we received a Jordan Todman Green refractor #/499. You can tell that Topps really put a lot of effort into the rookies this time around, while giving the vets a very minimalistic treatment.
Platinum Die-Cut
A new feature in the 2011 Platinum set are Die-Cut cards. 25 different players were selected to have die-cut cards made and they are being inserted at a rate of 1 per box. As you can see, our die-cut is of Eagles superstar, Michael Vick. I probably date myself when I say that I love die-cuts going back to the days when a die-cut was the best insert in a box. The looks of these cards are real sharp. On the scan, you can see little chunks of black, that's where the card is cut. These are sharp enough that I would suspect some people will definitely want to put together the entire 25-card set. With names like Gabbert, Newton and Dalton in the set, though, I'd wager it won't be a cheap set to complete.
Autos and Patch Autos
Each box of 2011 Topps Platinum promises 2 rookie on-card autos as well as a patch auto. In our box we pulled Rahim Moore (Broncos Safety) and Tandon Doss (Ravens Wide Receiver). Part of the card is faded out leaving a very clear spot for the players to sign and the signatures are very nice. I LOVE what they did here, they essentially left space as though a sticker would go there, but asked the players to sign the cards themselves, so what we get is a very nice rookie auto. You can see that it doesn't appear that each player has the same number of autographs as Doss is # to 1725 while Moore is # to 1000. Our patch card is of Miami Dolphins wide receiver Edmond Gates and features a 4-color patch with 2 sets of stitching. Easily one of the nicest patches I've ever pulled. This patch is a base patch auto # to 475.
Final Thoughts on 2011 Topps Platinum Football
I always look to the release of products like Platinum as the real beginning of the football card trading season. The actual NFL season is just starting and these are the sets that usually set the bar for quality on the young season. While I prefer the higher end releases, like Finest, the lowest price I could find for a hobby box of Platinum is $89.90 while Finest is at least $20 higher and they only go up from there. For a cost conscious collector, Platinum is an awesome set to invest in. I mean look at that patch! That's affordable quality right there. As with most Topps products, the influx of parallels make the sets hard to collect, but because there are so many options, there are several parallel sets to collect as well as mini-sets, like the die-cuts. Also to be found in this product are dual, triple and 6-auto cards, so there are some very high level cards to be found in this set. Overall, I had a blast ripping this box and when I head out to the hobby shop with money in my pocket, I would have no problem dropping it on more Topps Platinum.
Here's how I would rate this product, based on what we experienced during our break
- Value = 5
- Innovation = 4 (love the die-cuts, don't love the veterans)
- Fun and Experience = 5
- Rebuy Value = 5
I rate this product an A- for Topps. Better treatment of the veterans in this set would have made this a solid A.
NPN Information
Mail to:
NPN 2011 Topps Platinum Football
PO Box 765
Pittson, PA 19640
I would like to thank Topps and Trader Retreat for giving me the opportunity to review this new product.
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