2013 Topps Football Retail Box

I stopped at a random Wal-Mart on the way home recently and saw this retail box of 2013 Topps Football for only $14.99.  I couldn't pass up that deal for 192 cards.  I was very happy with my pull and it was quite a bit of fun.  The box and set had plenty of variety to include inserts, parallels and subsets.  I had a great time with this fun surprise of a box.  Even with a 192 cards there were plenty of players I didn't pull to include Peyton Manning, Julio Jones, Larry Fitzgerald and Matt Ryan just to name a few so I'd give one of these a second shot if I run across it.  There are also photo variations but I didn't pull any of those.  

Plenty of stars of course with a box this big including a couple of quarterbacks who've both been in the conversation for league MVP.   

Some great photos of emotions from defensive players.

These inserts are definitely my favorite.  Pulling Tom Brady and Deion Sanders, two of my all-time favorites, made the pulls made it even sweeter.

I wish there were more cards honoring the past years champions like this one with a photo from the post-game celebration.  Maybe with photos from the game itself but I'm not sure why we don't see those kinds of cards anymore.  I was always a fan of the 1000 yard cards even though I always thought Topps should have adjusted with the advent of the 16 game schedule and made it a larger number (I know 1000 sounds cooler).  Topps added 4000 yard cards somewhere in the past. That number seems an appropriate throwing milestone for today's game. 

An RC card, Wal-Mart 1959 Continuity Blue RC, and the Robert Griffin III Rookie of the Year card.

A nice Antonio Brown card even if he is wearing the bumble bee uni.  An All-Pro J.J. Watt and Kansas City Chiefs team card as well.  

Included here is the Tom Brady bass card, a couple of All-Pro cards and a cammo parallel team card #'d to 399.  I didn't scan any of the gold parallels but those were #'d to 2013.

1959 Mini

BREAKDOWN:

192 – Total Cards (16 Packs X 12 Cards)
38 - RC
13 – Team Cards
10 – All-Pro
5 – 1959 Minis
4 – Future Legends
4 – Legends in the Making
4 – 1000 Yard Club
3 – 4000 Yard Club
3 – Wal-Mart Blue 1959 RC
2 – Gridiron Legends
2 – Gold Parallels (#/2013)
1 – Super Bowl XLVII Champions
1 – Camo Parallel (#/399)
1 – Rookie of the Year

Review: 2013 Topps Football Trading Cards

I've picked up four packs of the basic 2013 Topps football set over the last few months and want to share my thoughts.  First impressions are very good.  I like the basic design as well as the special cards.  The front of the cards have a white boarder with the Topps logo embossed in silver in the upper left hand corner.  At the bottom is a wavy colored decoration in the player's team colors with the team logo in the middle.  Embossed on the appropriate cards are special designations such as All-Pro on the Vince Wilfork card or League MVP and Player of the Year on Adrian Peterson's card.  I enjoy this feature on these cards as well as the other sports.  Fairly simple design and I like it.  Plenty of room for the photo with little distraction.

The back of the basic cards have a white border and have a wavy trim on both sides of the card somewhat similar to the front.  At the top is the card number in black.  Below that is the player's name set on an oval colored in one of the team's primary colors.  Under that is the player's position and team.  Next is the ht, wt, and college with the player's draft position and how acquired on the next line (big plus for me).  The line after that has their birthdate, home and twitter handle.  After that is a small blurb about the player on a primary colored background.  Next are the stats.  These are of course different for each position but I didn't see any major omissions.  Most of the players had all their career stats but for some reason the Peterson card only had last year's stats and his career totals.  Maybe because the card is special?  Don't know but that is as good a guess as any. 

 

I pulled quite a few of the insert cards to include, but not limited to, Calvin Johnson and Tom Brady "Legends in the Making" cards, teams cards of the Saints and Pats, a Ronde Barber mini, Andre Reed "Gridiron Legend", Wal-Mart Continuity card of E.J. Manuel, and a gold bordered Mark Barron.  I like the Legends in the Making, team and legends cards.  Anything retro works for me of course but the Making cards look nice and I like the team cards which have team leaders and highlights of the season on the back. 

 I highly recommend this set to everyone.  As always the price point on the Topps basic set makes it an easy pickup and these cards look good and have quite a few inserts to keep it interesting.  The most different item about this set for me is the twitter handle on the back of the card.  I'm not the most techie of individuals but I like that.  Looking at the checklist (see links below) there are quite a few cards I'll look to pick up - lots of retired types for me to enjoy.  This is a very solid set - check it out.

 

LINKS:

Set checklist here.  Pictures of base and variant cards side by side here. 

Official Topps checklist in PDF format here.