Friday, January 7, 2011

My Top 5 Sets of last year. (Yours may differ)

Alright this is going to be a subjective list with no exacting criteria other than I liked it.  This is going to be an all sport top 5 as well.

Here.....we.......go

Coming in at #5 it's a tie and the only Panini products to make the list

Score Football and Hockey.   Why you ask is a $1.00 a pack products on the list? Because you could get hits like this....
I'm numbered to 10!!!


I also pulled a Timmons auto and a Hockey rookie redemption auto.  Plus Score football had lots of fun inserts and numbered parallels that made it fun to open.  The one draw back from hockey was the lack of numbered parallels and the few inserts.  Sorry rookies aren't inserts but still a fun set to put together and cheap.  And it didn't look half bad. Still need a  few Score hockey cards if you have them I sure we can work out a trade.

#4  My other Hockey obsession.  UD Champs Hockey.


I know this was from the 2009-2010 season but it came out around mid April last year.  Just gorgeous cards and on card autos.  The bad about his set was how few cards you got per pack and this is a set builders worst nightmare.  All cards in this set were part of the set.  Mini's, autos, relics all numbered into the set.  There was at least one guy I know from around here that was close to completing a master set but way too expensive for me.  But a great retro design and who doesn't love a set with dinosaurs.  Again looking to complete this set, check out the need list.

And speaking of dinosaurs that leads us into #3


Allen and Ginter.  Always a fan favorite it was highly anticipated and I pulled some nice stuff from it. Which I didn't scan but I got my first rip card from it and I can't believe I didn't rip it.  It was a Hanley Ramierez card and I think I ended up getting about 60 bucks for it so I was happy.  Never did find out what was inside.  Plus I think Monsters of the Mesozoic is my favorite insert set this year.  Plus the cards looked great as always.  I guess the only draw back is that they look very similar to the last 2 years but I love the card stock and these cards are great for getting autographed.  And I do love mini's.

#2 I'm not sure if I can count this as this year or not or if it came out just after New Years but since I won't remember it for next years top 5 I'm going to put it here.


Topps Magic football.  And it's even better this year.  With UD grabbing the NCAA license Topps couldn't use college uni's this year.  So we get our favorite stars in their pro uniforms.  Plus the art work for the cards is great.  I don't care how they did it, photoshop or whatever.  They look great, plus mini's!! I got insanely lucky and pulled an auto out of the first pack I picked up and ripped.  I promised myself I was going to be good and not buy anymore boxes till Series 1 comes out next month but it's so freaking tempting and I'd love to put this set together.  Maybe if box prices fall a few more bucks I might have to take the plunge.

And my #1 favorite set is....


Yep the product that probably should have just been called Stadium Club.
I mean come on these cards are beautiful, the design great, and the hits can be awesome.
A great full bleed photo the name, team logo, and topps logo don't interfere at all.  And the photos are kick ass.

One of my first packs I pulled this..

And then I ended up picking up a pack for a redemption card and pulled this...

Best hit of the year, except maybe for my Score Manning auto. 
I would love put a set of this together but it's way too pricey for me to try.  There is the option of putting a retail set together as it considerably cheaper, but retail cards are printed on thinner card stock.

I was thinking of doing a worst card sets of the year but I think that would be dominated by Panini. 
Lets hear what your top 5 or 1 favorite card products of the year were.

5 comments:

  1. Retail Prime football are printed on thinner card stock? Really? Since it's all I've bought I guess I wouldn't have known otherwise.

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  2. Yep hobby is at least twice as think even in the base cards.

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  3. I really like the topps prime too. They remind of the old Fleer Ultra cards. I didn't realize the price/box difference of the hobby and retail. That is a pretty big difference. $20 vs $80.

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  4. I meant thick in my above comment. And your not going to get the sweet hits in the retail blasters but I did pull a super sweet hit from a pack of Topps Platinum football a few months back so there might be some goodness in retail packs who knows. I did notice that there is a difference in Panini Absolute retail and hobby too.

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  5. I really liked the Champ's hockey as well, or perhaps more accurately my girlfriend really liked that set, because she loves her some dinosaurs. In fact she refers to buying packs as getting a pack of "dinosaurs" instead of "hockey cards". :) But yeah, the sheer size of that set is ridiculous, and I can't even seem to find any bulk "complete your set"-type lots on eBay!

    I also agree on the Topps Prime cards, those look really sharp. I'm glad you warned me about the diffence between the retail and hobby versions, as I was considering buying some jumbo packs from the local Target to possibly start collecting the base set.

    Is it time for Topps 2011 yet? How about now? :)

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