I interrupt this group break for some football!

I was so excited about the coming 2012 NFL season that I jumped head first into Topps' flapship football release earlier this month.  Dennis from Too Many Verlanders / Too Many Manninghams was equally excited and we decided to help each other out.  We were both building the base set and each of us were tackling different insert sets.  He bought a metric crap load of retail and I bought a hobby box and some retail.  In the end we were able to help each other out quite a bit.  After this trade I now only lack 22 base cards!

What's funny about this trade is that on Wednesday I got a big flat package from him.  I was scratching my head while standing at the mail box because I knew it didn't contain the cards we agreed upon trading for.  I took it inside the house and opened it up in the kitchen while my wife was making dinner (crock pot lasagna!).  Much to my surprise I pulled these out from in between 2 pieces of cardboard:

Wow!  I forgot all about these big 8x10 Donruss Studio cards!  I never bought any of the Studio football cards so I haven't really seen these before.  I like the extra Portrait Proof parallel.  Too bad my scanner cut off the holographic foil boarder around the big card.

Most of the cards I got in return were base cards I needed to fill in some holes, but earlier he had pulled this BCA Pink parallel.  BCA stands for Breast Cancer Awareness if you didn't know...that's why the cards are pink.  Now I know a lot of fans and collectors are already complaining about these in the football set and now they are complaining about them showing up in 2013 Topps baseball.  I may be in the minority here, but I really like these.  I like the flat sparkly pink border and the pink foil.  It helps they are #d to 399 as well.  Charles Johnson here is 284/399.

In addition to the Kerry Collins extras Dennis also sent some extra Carolina Panthers and some Atlanta Braves.  I mistakenly mixed them into my "to catalog" box before I had a chance to scan them.  I am continually blown away by certain bloggers generosity when it comes to trading.  A huge thanks to Dennis for such a fun trade!

Who wants to trade 2012 Topps football?

I just finished collating my hobby box and tons of retail packs that I've bought.  Did pretty well on the base set, but I still have a few needs.  I also have LOTS to trade - both base cards and various inserts. 

You can find my updated trade list here and my want list here.  Let me know if you want to work out a deal.

Pack Break - 2012 Topps Football (Jumbo Pack)

Released 4 days early I stumbled upon some 2012 Topps football on Saturday (08/04/12) while picking up a few bubble mailers at Walmart.  At the time I didn't know these had been put out before the street date of 08/08/12, but it wouldn't have mattered either way as I can't wait for the start of the '12 NFL season!

I've pretty much been so wrapped up in watching my Braves and working on various baseball card sets that I've completely ignored all of the pre-release information about this product so I went in blind...but I walk away very pleased on all levels.

I noticed the price of the hanger boxes were increased to $14.99 this year so I opted for a rack pack jumbo pack for starters.  The odds on the various inserts were a lot better when compared to the single packs (loose or in the blasters).

I was hoping to pull some Carolina Panthers - particularly Cam Newton after his impressive rookie campaign last year.  He totally electrified Charlotte and the rest of the Carolinas.  Enough of my ramblings - let's take a look at a few base cards and the inserts I pulled.

One of Cam Newton's offensive weapons last year.  Look at the stretch by Olsen.  Great photo Topps!

 

One of Cam's many rushing TDs from last year caught on cardboard.



I'm NOT a Patriots fan by any means, but Topps caught Deion Branch celebrating in the end zone.  I like how you can clearly see the referee signaling a TD as well as the guy holding the blue sound dome thinga-ma-bob.

  

The boring gold parallels make their return along w/ the crappy black numbering on the back.





Topps did all the older reprints in their baseball sets recently so why not do the same w/ football?





The retro "tall boys" are my favorite insert this year...well amongst the non-hit/manufactured type that is.  I may have to try my hand at building this set.





It wouldn't be complete without having some sort of combo card with retired players.  This year's contribution is called Paramount Pairs.

  

Prolific Playmakers round out some of the more common inserts this year.

I really like what Topps has done this year.  First of all I love that they went with a unique design and that they didn't simply recycle this year's baseball design (now if only they'd follow suit w/ their WWE set).  There seems to be a good mix of rookies, inserts, autographs and different styles of manufactured cards first made popular in the flagship baseball sets.  The value seems pretty good too with 12 cards per each $1.99 retail pack.  Hobby boxes are under $50.00 from what I've seen.  I'm sure there will be tons of different football products to choose from as we go forward, but Topps has put together a great effort to kick off the collecting season.