Topps releases its first football cards for 2011 with Rising Rookies. It should be a great year for Topps football judging by these cards. If you’ve followed 2011 NFL Draft along with us here on the blog, these will be familiar names and faces already. In addition to the recently drafted rookies, there are 100 base cards for returning star players.
We classify this set as trading cards. You can find them at retail outlets and your local card shop. Hobby Boxes come with 24 – 10 card packs and you’ll find at least 4 Relic or Autograph cards per box.
Lets take a look at some of the cards we pulled from our hobby box.
Peyton Manning base, front and back
Blaine Gabbert Rookie base, front and back
Rookie base cards also come in color and numbered parallels
Gold Rookies
Blue Rookies #/1339
Colin Kaepernick Orange Rookie
From the returning players inserts
Rashard Mendenhall, Jordy Nelson, Ray Lewis and LeSean McCoy Playmaker
Matt Hasselbeck, Michael Bush and Champ Bailey Draft Selections
From the Rookie Inserts
NFL Draft Rookies featuring Cam Newton, Jake Locker and A.J.Green
Combine Competition featuring Mark Ingram and Mikel LeShoure
The hits for the box were
Antonio Gates Playmaker Game-Used
Tony Gonzalez Draft Selections Game-Used
Kendall Hunter Draft Rookies Autograph #/260
Prince Amukamara and Ndamukong Suh Dual Autograph #/25
Overall Look
There are nicely designed cards with equally nice photography. The inserts are also well done.
Quality and Variety of Players and Subsets.
100 base cards, 100 rookies. That’s about as Rookie heavy as you are going to get for a release, but this is Rising Rookie so its appropriate.
Do the hits hold up?
Some really nice on-card autos and jersey swatches make these hits more than hold up. As a matter of fact, some of these hits could easily fit into a Premium release.
Will you want to collect them all?
Small checklist, desirable players, and rookie prospecting provide a great mix so you’ll want them all.
Rating
4 out of 5
As an opener to the Football Card collecting season, 2011 Topps Rising Rookies Football comes on strong, showing good signs for the year ahead.