Field Level Box Break / Review: 2011 Topps Precision Football

Release Date: February 1, 2012
Price Point:  $45 per pack or $145 per box at Blowout Cards.
Product Loadout: Four cards per pack, four packs per box, 6 boxes per case, 12 boxes per master case.
Hit Ratios: Each box will contain four autographs.

Product Information:

• 100 card base set (1-100)

Autographs, Relics and Parallels:

• Rookie Autographs (37 cards, 101-138)
• Rookie Autographs Red Ink (#’d to 75)
• Rookie Autographs Gold Ink (#’d to 50)
• Rookie Autographs White Ink (#’d to 25)
• Rookie Autographs Precision Ink (1/1)
• Precision Autographs (57 cards)
• Precision Autographs Red (#’d to 99 or less)
• Precision Autographs Gold (#’d to 50 or less)
• Precision Autographs Green (#’d to 25)
• Precision Autographs Precision (1/1)
• Precision Dual Autographs (25 cards, #’d to 25)
• Precision Triple Autographs (15 cards, #’d to 15)
• Precision Quad Autographs (10 cards, #’d to 10)
• Precision Autographs Six (5 cards, #’d to 5)
• Precision Autographs Eight (3 cards, #’d to 5)
• Rookie Dual Patch Autographs (15 cards, #’d to 5)
• Rookie Jumbo Relic Autographs (36 cards)
• Rookie Jumbo Relic Autographs Red (#’d to 50)
• Rookie Jumbo Relic Autographs Gold (#’d to 35)
• Rookie Jumbo Relic Autographs Green (#’d to 25)
• Rookie Jumbo Relic Autographs Precision (1/1)
• Tim Tebow Comeback Autographs (6 cards)
• Veteran Patch Relic Autographs (10 cards, #’d to 15)

Box Contents:

• 16 total cards
• 12/100 base cards (Marcus Colston, Roddy White, Peyton Manning, Ryan Mathews, Marshawn Lynch, Frank Gore, Santana Moss, Drew Brees, Jermichael Finley, Ahmad Bradshaw, Roger Staubach and Owen Daniels)
• 2 Rookie Autographs (Jerod Mayo and Randall Cobb)
• 1 Precision Autograph Red (Jermaine Gresham 55/99)
• 1 Rookie Jumbo Relic Autograph (Shane Vereen)

When I first realized that 2011 Topps Precision was nothing more than the football version of 2011 Topps Marquee, I was ready for it to be a horrible waste of a product, just like I felt the baseball product was.  That was before I opened the box and realized that it features four autographs instead of lots of single-colored swatches.  Topps apparently looked at what worked and what didn’t in Marquee and arranged for Precision to be the best of that product.

The base cards, as with Marquee before it, are solid, featuring a white background other than some sort of halo effect around the players.  There aren’t any parallels which means that a base set can be possibly built without having the chase hordes of parallels of each player.  The focus of the set are on the autographs.  While Topps is again using sticker autographs on this product, they’re clear and don’t detract from the overall base design.  While I didn’t hit any of the big rookie or veteran autographs in the set, I did hit two rookie autos as well as a numbered parallel on the veteran autograph.  The jumbo relic, on the other hand, looks very similar to what we’ve seen before in Finest, Platinum or any other mid-range product.  At least they didn’t use jumbo swatches by themselves.

The overall drawback is just that, like the sets it tries to duplicate and emulate, they’re not really worth $40-50 per pack.  This is a solid set, but needs to be a bit cheaper for it to really be worth buying on a whim.  If this settles down to about $100-120, it might be worth picking up simply for the sheer chance of hitting Cam Newton.  Otherwise, though, this is not really the best product out there for your money.

Pizazz:  3/5
Design:  3/5
Total Score:  3/5

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