December 28, 2016

Time to Hit the Reset Button

It's been an up and down few days since Christmas. I fully intended to just keep plugging along writing the 12 Days of Trade Posts, but then I considered writing about the lack of cardboard I received as gifts. I began that draft and then Carrie Fisher passed away... I immediately began a draft of a tribute post. As I fought with how to express my thoughts/feelings about the loss of my first boyhood celebrity crush, I just stopped. That is when I wandered into Target for the first time since a few days before the holiday. I halfheartedly searched for some cards to purchase figuring that I wouldn't find anything terribly exciting and geared myself up for deciding what to settle on. Then I saw these hanging on a peg:


I knew these were going to be released, but had no idea they were out or that they would be available at the local Target. I figured that posting about this set would be a nice break and an effective way to get me back on track. I hadn't read much about what to expect from this set, so I just dove in.


Let's start with a few goal keepers and some of the more mundane pics of the pack. My first impression is that I need to work on putting this set together. It uses the same design as the MLB set from this season. It's clean and perfect to put the focus on great photography.


Two more rather boring pics of the guys fromEverton, but the Borini and Martial show quite a bit more action. I love the goal celebration shot and the RC designation on the Martial. It is by far my favorite base card of the pack.


The Kane is the final base card of the pack and is back to a boring shot, but he was the top scorer last season. The Vardy is a gold foil parallel. To close out the pack contents, I pulled two cards from the Golazo insert set.

Overall, the base set is relatively small at 100 cards. Hobby boxes sport 16 packs with 8 cards per and promise 2 autos and a handful of inserts and parallels. Therefore, even with good collation it would take a hobby box plus in order to complete the set. Judging from this retail jumbo pack, it would be a fun break. I just might have to jump on in. Thanks for reading.

2 comments:

  1. I got one for Christmas. I'll be posting on it soonish. I wasn't super impressed overall, but most of that has to do with the way Topps designed the collation as opposed to the set itself. I will say that of the 100 cards, I would only consider about 8-10 to be 'Stadium Club' level photography. You got one of them in the Martial (though I'd agree that the Borini is close).

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like the concept of the set generally. I mean, I love soccer and watching the Premier League. But this set has the same issues as Topps's baseball flagship does -- using the same types of photos over and over again. Maybe have Defoe fighting off a couple of defenders. Have Deeney tackling someone for the ball. Just something different than "man runs down pitch."

    The Martial is a nice card, but I guess Topps using the RC designation for him indicates what -- that he's never been on a Topps card before? In baseball, it's clear when a player has made the majors. But Martial played in France for a couple of years before coming to England.

    Oh well, I could pick nits all day, I suppose. I am glad that the Premier League is getting more notice here and that Topps is now issuing cards in the US for it.

    ReplyDelete