Field Level Review: 2012 Topps U.S. Olympic Team & Olympic Hopefuls

June 1, 2012

Release Date: May 2, 2012
Price Point: Approximately $4/pack or $80 box at Blowout Cards.
Product Loadout: 8 cards per pack, 24 packs per box, 12 boxes per case.
Hit Ratios: Each box will contain 1 autograph, 1 relic and 1 commemorative relics. Every other box will contain 2 autographs.

Product Information:

100 card base set
Opening Ceremony (26 cards, 1:24 packs)
Games of the XXX Olympiad (25 cards, 1:4 packs)
London 2012 Olympic Venues (30 cards, 1:12 packs)
Heritage of the Olympic Games (30 cards, 1:8 packs)

Autographs, Relics and Parallels:

Bronze Parallel (1:1 packs)
Silver Parallel (1:2 packs)
Gold Parallel (1:3 packs)
Base Autograph Parallel (50 cards)
Bronze Autograph (#’d to 50)
Silver Autograph (#’d to 30)
Gold Autograph (#’d to 15)
Gold Rainbow Autograph (1/1)
U.S. Champions Autographs (12 cards)
Cut Signatures (25 cards, 1/1)
Team Relic Cards (41 cards, 1:24 packs)
Bronze Team Relic Cards (#’d to 75)
Silver Team Relic Cards (#’d to 50)
Gold Team Relic Cards (#’d to 25)
U.S. Olympic Team Patch (100 cards)
U.S. Flag Team Patch (100 cards)
Olympic Games Pin (100 cards)
U.S.O.C. Pin (100 cards)
Olympic Stamp (30 cards)
Commemorative Medals (3 cards)

Box Contents:

147 total cards
100/100 base cards, 24 doubles
24 Bronze Parallels (Including Nastia Liukin, Phil Dalhausser, Walter Dix, Brendan Hansen, Shawn Johnson, and Misty May-Treanor)
12 Silver Parallels (Including Dana Vollmer, Missy Franklin, Ryan Lochte and Todd Rogers)
8 Gold Parallels (Jason Lezak, Tucker Dupree, Carrie Johnson, Katie Hoff, Gwen Jorgensen, Carli Lloyd, Sarah Robles and Anna Tunnicliffe)
6 Games of the XXX Olympiad (Nastia Liukin, Katie O’Donnell, Margaux Isaksen, Kayla Harrison, Mary Whipple and Hope Solo)
3 Heritage of the Olympic Games (Antwerp, Stockholm and London)
2 London 2012 Olympic Venues (The Mall and Greenwich Park)
1 Opening Cermony (Tokyo 1964)
1 Champions Autograph (Mark Spitz)
1 Base Autograph (Abby Wambach
1 U.S. Olympic Team Relic (Jerome Singleton)
1 Olympic Games Pin (Kayla Harrison)

With the 2012 Summer Olympics coming in about a month or so, Topps pulled off a really solid idea with an Olympics-themed set. There’s a 100-card base set featuring some very solid Olympians and hopefuls as well as a solid set of autographs and some really creative uses of manufactured relics. Granted, it’s going to be interesting to see how big of a jump some of these cards get during the Olympics, and having these on store shelves beforehand can do nothing but good for the product.

What I liked: A lot. This is one of my favorite products of 2012 so far. The art work is very nice, where they’ve taken photos of the athletes and made them look like sketches. The manufactured Olympic pins are extremely cool and really the only thing I could have asked for was fewer sticker autographs and perhaps actual Olympic pins from previous years. The on-card Champions autos are great as well. I mean, c’mon. Mark Freaking Spitz.

What I didn’t: Other than the sticker base autographs, the only real issue I had was with the inserts. Some of them are fine, but half of them were impossible to determine as far as what they were. How are you supposed to know that the insert is Games of the XXX Olympiad? It doesn’t say it on the card back, and the front is more about the athlete than the sport itself. Better labeling would have been much better here, in my opinion.

Overall Opinion: While prices on this product aren’t doing hot on eBay right now (for the most part), strong showings during the Olympics can cause some of these cards to have both short-term and long-term boosts. This is a solid product to pick up now and possibly resell during the Olympics. It’s a very solid product by Topps and definitely is one of the best ones of the year so far, if not overall. Kudos to Topps all around.

Collation: 5/5
Pizazz: 4/5
Design: 4/5
Total Score: 4/5 (rounded down)

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