Saturday, December 17, 2011

2011 Topps Triple Threads Football Box Break Recap and Review


For 2011 Topps Triple Treads Football there is a major change that parallels the change for the baseball version of Triple Threads, an additional hit per mini box. Referred to as unity cards, because you can put together a series of three similar cards to complete a background picture, this brings the total number of hits per master box to four.  This also means that each mini box now contains one autographed relic and one relic card.

Topps Triple Treads Football fits our premium cards category.  Each box contains two mini boxes with 7 cards per mini. In addition to the autographed relic and relic card, each mini contains sequentially numbered base cards in regular and shorter printed parallels.

Here are all of the cards we pulled from our box.

 Maurice Jones-Drew, front and back

 BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Josh Freeman

 Doubles of Tony Gonzalez

This really nice Gale Sayers

Sepia parallels of Matthew Stafford and Santonio Holmes #/300

 Emerald parallels of Brett Farve and Junior Seau both #/250

The hits.

Robert Meachem Emerald Unity Relic #/18

Mikel Leshoure Sepia Unity Auto Relic #/75

Julio Jones Ruby Triple Threads Relic #/3

DeMarco Murray Sepia Triple Threads Auto Relic #/70 Redemption Card 


Overall Look
The base card design here works really well. Once again, kudos to Topps for the additional hits to this product, the unity cards with interlocking backgrounds. The returning hit cards have that classic Triple Threads feel while changing the single player Triple Threads Relics to vertical rather than horizontal design.

Quality and Variety of Players
Triple Threads football does have a “rookie lean” but the majority of the checklist is high quality and in line with the feel of Triple Threads from years past. 

Do the Hits satisfy? 
There are some big hits to be had here but even if you don’t pull one of the booklets or white whales, your hits should be nice ones.  In a move to keep the hits low numbered, most players have multiple cards, generally in two to three different versions.

Will you keep coming back for more?
Triple Threads is always fun to open.  It is a product you will return to time and time again.

Rating
 
4 out of 5

2011 Topps Triple Threads Football delivers more hits and some solid cards this year.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Double Rainbow All The Way Across The Blog. A Different Kind Of Rainbow Collecting With 2011 Topps Heritage Baseball - Part 2

About a month ago we introduced you to a different kind of Rainbow collecting discovered in 2011 Topps Heritage Baseball. Normally Rainbow collecting is limited to parallels of the same exact card, but with Heritage’s 500 base cards, there are 13 player’s base cards that appear in every parallel version available (Blue, Green & Red tint) and every Chrome parallel possible, (Non-Chrome Black Border, Green Refractor, Chrome, Chrome Refractor, Black Border Chrome Refractor) that are identical, front and back except for the card number.

Short of the Babe Ruth reprint card, the most valuable of the 13 Heritage Rainbows you can collect is Miguel Cabrera.  There is also something extra special about Cabrera’s Rainbow that we will talk about after you take a look at it.  So here is the 2011 Miguel Cabrera Topps Heritage Rainbow (cards 150 & C4) along side the Brad Lidge Heritage  Rainbow (cards 111 & C22) we originally posted to form a double rainbow all the way across this blog.  It’s so intense! 
Base Card
Green Tint
Red Tint
Blue Tint
Non-Chrome Black Border
Green Refractor
Chrome #/1962
 Chrome Refractor #/562
Black Border Chrome Refractor #/62

The 2011 Miguel Cabrera Topps Heritage Rainbow

Now here is what is special about the Cabrera Rainbow.  In 2011 Topps Chrome Baseball, one of the inserts is an additional 100 Topps Heritage Chrome cards.  There are some new player’s cards that did not get the Chrome treatment in the original release of Heritage and there are some cards that are repeated, like this one.
The 2011 Miguel Cabrera Topps Chrome Baseball Heritage Chrome, card C163, front & back, which is identical to this card...
the 2011 Miguel Cabrera Topps Hertiage Chrome, and this card...
the 2011 Miguel Cabrera Toppe Heritage Base card #150, except for two details.  The card number and the Topps Heritage/Topps Chrome logo on the upper left of the front of the cards.

The new Miguel Cabrera Heritage Chrome card is  #/1962 and has two parallels...
the Chrome Refractor #/562 on the left and the Black Border Chrome Refractor #/62 on the right.  Put these new cards from Topps Chrome with the ones from Heritage and you have a Rainbow made up of different releases like this.
I’m referring to this as a “Cross-Release Rainbow.” 

Here is the kicker.  Miguel Cabrera’s card is the ONLY one you can Cross-Release Rainbow using the Heritage format.

Perhaps looking at Rainbows like this will give you something new to chase.  We will have another Cross-Release Rainbow using Football Cards coming up soon.

Monday, December 12, 2011

The Complete Brady Bunch Trading Cards Set Releases This Wednesday


We had trouble getting our hands on Rittenhouse Archives Star Trek Movies Heroes & Villains.  Reasonable when you consider the base set alone was limited to 550 copies.  So I’m giving you the heads up on a set that will have even less copies than that, 500 in total. 

These cards are based on the story of a lovely lady who was bringing up three very lovely girls.   Stop me if you heard this one. 

On Wednesday, December 14, 2011, Rittenhouse Archives will release The Complete Brady Bunch Trading Cards. Each set will cover all 117 episodes on 59 cards and include individual autograph cards of all the Brady Kids... except one.

Marcia!  Marcia!  Marcia!!!

Not a big shocker here that Maureen McCormick is a no show but it should not detract from the finished product when you've got 5 autograph cards, one each from Greg (Barry Williams), Jan (not the one from the Variety Hour, the original, Eve Plumb), Peter (Christopher Knight), Cindy (Susan Olsen), and Bobby (Mike Lookinland) in every set.

A nice addition to the mix comes in the form of an Ann B. Davis autograph card that is a bonus for purchasing two sets. 

So with the holidays just around the corner, you could always pick up two of these sets, pocket the Alice auto and gift the extra set to a good friend, although I have a feeling Mike Brady might frown upon that and advise you to give your friend the Alice auto too.

Hopefully we will not miss out on this one so we can have a review for you after the release.  But if you are a fan of the Brady Bunch, you might not want to wait.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

2011 Panini NFL Stickers For Week 14 And Players To Watch This Week


We are in week 14 of filling in our 2011 Panini NFL Sticker Collection Album and the football season.  Last week was the worse week ever for our players to watch.  Matt Forte was out of the game early with a MCL sprain after rushing for 12 yards, LeGarrette Blount managed 19 yards on 11 carries and Deion Branch was the best of them receiving 3 passes for 37 yards.

Here are the three players to watch this week

Philip Rivers of the San Diego Chargers has not been putting up the numbers we’ve come to expect from him.  But he has shown signs of life lately.  With a match-up against a Buffalo Bills pass defense that has been prone to giving up touchdowns in the air, this could be the kind of day that turns things around.

Preseason, it seemed the Philadelphia Eagles had an almost unfair advantage with all the tremendous talent they picked up to compliment an already solid team.  At this point the Eagles look like a team in colapse with the only bright spot coming from their running back LeSean McCoy.  This week McCoy faces a resurging Miami Dolphins team with one of the best defenses against the run in all of the NFL.  Can McCoy still carry the load for the team?

Calvin Johnson is the Detroit Lions’ primary wide receiver.  This week he faces the troubled Minnesota Vikings pass defense.  Johnson could see some big numbers today.

In addition to the players to watch this week, here are the stickers going into our album.

Jake Locker, Andy Dalton

Blaine Gabbert, Buffalo Bills, Jonathan Baldwin, Les Richter

This week we have 6 more completed teams and the Hall of Fame Class of 2011.

The Buffalo Bills

The Cincinnati Bengals

The Tennessee Titans

The San Diego Chargers
 
The Philadelphia Eagles

The Detroit Lions

The Hall of Fame Class of 2011

Be on the look out for more additions to our sticker album next week.