Two Asymmetrical Packs of Topps Prime Football

Over the last two years, the recurring set that has surprised me the most is Topps Prime Football. Every year, though the design has changed, it has remained a well formed, picture-driven set. I loved the 2010 version, and last year's wasn't bad either. Let's see how this year's does in comparison. I picked out two rack packs--one standard, the other a four-packer.

Rack-pack 1-

120- Rob Gronkowski. And, already, I get a Patriot. Thrilling.
37- Patrick Willis, one of the nicer guys in pro-football.
100- Peyton Manning, pictured as a Bronco. A potential MVP candidate, too.
86- Joe Flacco. He's a Jersey guy. Funny story, one time I saw him leaving a California Pizza Kitchen I was eating at.
129- LeSean McCoy, who I wish was having a better season.
67- Isaiah Pead RC
46- Kendall Wright RC
31- Ryan Mathews, trying his best to make the Chargers relevant
32- Mike Wallace, unrecognizable from his 60 minutes days.
68- Marshawn Lynch.
44- Alex Smith. Having a great season.
10- Cam Newton. His team's bad season is not his fault. He's still a great QB.
5- Nick Foles, who's actually been doing pretty nice for us.
9- TJ Graham

Reg. Pack 1-
3- Jason Pierre Paul, one of the few Giants I met earlier this year
56- Hakeem Nicks, who was with JPP
41- Marques Colston, whose Saints have fallen a bit
95- Jermichael Finley, bound to be released by the end of the year.
Primetimers insert of Ndamukong Suh. Funny, because the last time he was on prime time he kicked Matt Schaub in the nuts.
109- Dontari Poe RC
136- Ryan Broyles

Pack 2-
118- Percy Harvin, who was having a great season until he got hurt
8- Dez Bryant
54- Tony Gonzalez, a Future Hall of Famer for sure
80- Arian Foster
55- Adrian Peterson, having an amazing season.
38- Alshon Jeffery, who did my fantasy team a detriment this season
107- Melvin Ingram

Pack 3-
146- Frank Gore
24- Andre Johnson.
35- Laurent Robinson. I thought this was Maurice Jones-Drew. Shows what I know about the Jags.
20- Eli Manning. What a great QB.
22- Tim Tebow. PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
34- Mohamed Sanu
96- Dwayne Allen

And now, the three paralells-
97- Michael Vi...(facepalm). Okay, I wanted an Eagle, just not that one.
146- Frank Gore.
96- Dwayne Allen

This is a pretty nice set, overall. Very well designed. It's like Topps' tribute to Sweet Spot.

NFL Experience: Awesome Swag from Topps

Yesterday, being that I was in Dallas the day before the Super Bowl, I ventured out to the NFL Experience, which is basically Comic Con for Football. Topps had a boooth, and had a bunch of football cards on sale. However, my dad works with a guy who also works with Topps, and does some business with them. So all we had to do was say the word, and Topps would give us some swag. Well, thanks to the very nice people at the Topps booth, we were given three hobby boxes:

2010 Topps Chrome Football
2010 Topps Prime Football
2010 Topps Magic Football

Delightfully, I ripped all three. Here are my reports from the box breaks:

Chrome:
You know the deal. Chrome was crappy this year because some of the cards were bent. Still, I was guaranteed a bunch of refractors, inserts and an auto.

Lineage: 6 (Harvin, LaFelkl, Best, McCoy, McCluster, Addai.
Bowman: 2 (Tebow, Edwards)
Rookie Reprints: 4 (Montana, McCoy, Dorsett, Marshall
Refractors: 7 (Tony Gonzalez, Percy Harvin, Joe Flacco, Julius Peppers, Jonathan Stewart, Andre Roberts, Jimmy Graham.
Blue Refractor: Javier Arenas rookie
Autograph: Armanti Edwards rookie.

Overall: Not too bad. At least I've heard of Edwards, but I could've done better.

Prime:
This product is the definition of a premium set. There were no packs, there were heavily protected mondo packets. I regard these as "Cards for the Kings". I was guaranteed 1 Auto, 2 relics and 1 auto/relic.

Numbered to 999: 3 (Earl Thomas, Golden Tate, Sean Lee)
Numbered to 699: 2 (Rolando McClain, Mike Kafka)
Numbered to 199: 1 (Kellen Winslow)
Numbered to 75: 1 (Joe McKnight)
Single Insert: 2 (Marcus Easley, Ben Tate)
Double Insert: 2 (Dwyer/Sanders, Tebow/Thomas)
Triple Insert: 4: (Peterson/Johnson/Jones-Drew, Spiller/Mathews/Best, McCoy/Hardesty/Mitchell, Tebow/Cooper/Hernandez)
Quadruple Insert: 2 (Bradford/Tebow/Bryant/Thomas, Bradford/Tebow/Spiller/Mathews)
Autograph: Jordan Shipley of the Bengals, #'d to 599.
Single Relic: Armanti Edwards, #'d to 420.
Quadruple Relic: Tim Tebow/Sam Bradford/Jimmy Claussen/Colt McCoy #'d to 175. Wow.
Relic/Auto: Demaryius Thomas #'d to 399.

Overall: Not bad at all. That Quad relic is going to be worth a lot if all of them are great. Good box.

Magic:
This is not a set for relics and autos- this is mainly about design and collectability. I wasn't caring about the hits, mainly because I love this set because of the design, and the packs.

Black Border Minis: 5 (Benson, McCoy, Gibson, Gonzalez, Harrison
Numbered Mini: ADRIAN PETERSON Numbered to FIFTY!!!! WOW!!!
Rookie Stars: 4 (Gronkowski, Benn, Gresham, Mathews)
History's Best: 2 (Elway, Brady)
Magical Moments: 7 (Greene, Favre, Romo, Wilson, Brees, Tomlinson, Jackson.
Autographs: James Davis of the Browns, Quan Cosby of the Bengals, MARSHAWN LYNCH of the Seahawks.

Overall: Very nice set, and impressed with not only the Lynch auto, but the Peterson numbered.

Thank you to Topps for supplying me with these boxes, aall three were very good, exactly what I expect from Topps.

(BTW- If you're interested in any of these cards, drop me a line. I can decline, if I want to keep some. But if you really want one for your team collection, I can make that happen.

Tonight: THE SUPER BOWL! Pictures included!