2015 Topps Football Retail

I haven't seen a pack of Topps Football up here yet so why not.  This is a retail pack picked at random from a blaster box.

I'll assume since this is the last year, for the foreseeable future, that Topps is going to be producing football cards they decided to go a little outside the box.  The design looks more like something you'd see out of the Bowman brand.  I'm guessing Topps was going for a futuristic look.  It just seems really busy to me and out of place for Topps flagship, but I don't hate it.  I also don't really love it. Maybe it'll work better in Chrome.

I like the card number being up and center on the back, this will make box collating easier, overall the backs are pretty typical Topps with stats, facts, and a blurb.  Here are the rest of the cards in the pack.

Topps increased the size of the set from 440 cards to 500 this year.  Did they add more players?  Nope they brought back the art of the subset.  There are plenty in this years set like Matt Forte's Fantasy Studs card and Marshawn Lynch's Topps 60.

Team cards gotta love them team cards.

The pack promises one rookie per pack.  I ended up with two.

Every pack comes with an insert as well.  I ended up with this Megatron 1000 Yard Club insert.

2015 Panini Prestige Football Hobby

I picked up a few packs on my last visit to Don's Sportcards here in Anchorage.  I've always liked the Prestige brand and this year is another great looking set.  Panini has this obsession with cropping players out and putting them on foilboard, but this set is more reminiscent of an Upper Deck set than Panini.  I'm not sure what's up with the misty borders, but at least you get a borderless photo with some background.  The backs are kind of blah, with a few stats and a black and white version of the front photo.

I think you get one Rookie card per pack, I got an undrafted rookie, DeAndrew White.

I did get another Rookie card in the pack and it was autographed.  This is one of the base sticker autos.  I had to look Jay up, I was not familiar with him.  He is currently on the IR for Miami.

2015 Topps Star Wars Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Retail)

I don't know about you, but I can't wait till Episode 7 comes out.  Of course I'm going to reserve the right to go back on that after I see the movie, but I really think JJ Abrams will bring the franchise back to it's full glory.  The movie card set is set to drop right around the time the movie comes out, but Topps has put out this set leading up to the movie.  If you love inserts and parallels you are going to love this set.

The base set has 110 cards.  And mimic the original set from 1977.  The base cards have the blue starfield background.  Out of my 6 card retail pack I only got 2 base cards.  To be honest after opening the pack and looking though it it reminded me of opening the original UD Goodwin Champions cards.  Lots of things other than base cards in the pack, the only thing missing was a tobacco size card or other mini insert....mmmm there's something to think about Topps.

The first parallel card I pulled was this Black Starfield.  These are seeded 1:2 or every other pack.

Next we have what I believe to be the Jabba Slime Green Starfield.  These aren't listed on the pack, but the set list over at Cardboard Connection lists these as one per pack.

I also got 2 other inserts, Power of the First Order.

And a Heroes of the Resistance.

What a Wookie!

There are all sorts of other inserts and autographs you can pull from the set.  Overall I really like the look of the set.  I think we could have done with a few less parallels and inserts, but the classic card stock is nice and the cards look good.

2015 Topps Football NFL Commemorative Super Bowl Coin Retail Blaster Coin Card Pack

I ended up picking up a blaster of this years football specifically to see what these coins looked like and that there are 4 maybe 5 coins I'd want to add to my Packers collection.

The coin is pretty well done.  The card is thick and heavy and the coin rotates within the card.  The card itself is pretty plain, would have been nice to have the team logos or the super bowl logo, or something other than nothing.

2014 Upper Deck Conference Greats

Once again, we random all my scanned folders and today we get a pack of Upper Deck Conference Greats. Upper Deck, not going down without a fight, put out what they could with the NCAA license they had prior to Panini signing a ton of exclusive deals with the schools. As we are all aware, going exclusive with a manufacturer is not the best thing. That being said, this is probably a set that shouldn't have been produced anyway.

Ye-ow is that pack design a snoozer. Very collegiate font at least. You can get hits - 1 auto and 2 relics per hobby box. Away we go....

While black and white, that is not the norm of this set. What team was Anthony Miller with? I am going to guess Tennessee based on the orange. Wikipedia says I am correct. This is the design, folks. There is no mention of the school on the front, unless the player happens to be wearing it in the photo. The only foil is in the upper left with the logo and that bar. There are colored parallels, where the foil will change.

No shopping on the cards yet as it was releases while UD had full NCAA rights. That brown box at the bottom is annoying and unnecessary. Ditto on the lame CG logo.

I believe this is a pewter foil. I didn't note it down when I scanned, but the foil does appear to be a different color.

Decent photos, as always with UD, but the design is dreadful.

Let's play "how many marks of the beast can you find".

Recycled image on the back. Since this is a college release, you get the 4 years of stats tops. Little bio at the bottom, but no mention of his pro location or life. Last card, and I did get one of the hits from the box.

Well hey now - not too shabby. Compare this image with the one of Stafford. Who supplied the uniforms while Manning was in school? No clue. Not numbered, and you have to assume this is a college player worn swatch, but the back doesn't clue you in of the exact origin of the fabric. I still have this card, so if anyone is interested, click my name on the right panel to get my Blogger contact info.