Product Review: 2008 Topps Football

Well, Topps is here. Yay. I saw a case of jumbos busted at a shop here and I must say this has to be the biggest money burn-fest I have seen in a long time. You seriously will have better luck playing the lottery than hitting something big with this stuff.

Either way, lets get on with it.

THE GOOD

The design of the cards is pretty nice. Its sleek and clean and it works well with a lot of the colors in the pictures. They have included a lot of nice looking insert sets again, including some new ones like the dynasty tributes, and all of them look pretty good. Personally, I think this product would be a lot better with some chrome cards included, but I guess we will have to wait for those.

It was also nice to see every rookie from the premiere decked out in their digs, and the Rookie Premiere Autographs will definitely be the only reason to buy this product once again. Seriously, there is not a single reason to buy a hobby box of this over the jumbos unless you are collecting the sets. The RPAs are jumbo exclusive, and I think Topps is stupid for not making more of them and not putting them in the hobby too.

THE BAD

I dont know who took all the pictures for the rookies at the premiere but someone needs to tell him a few things:

1. You dont need to shoot the ENTIRE body of the player - closer shots are good.

2. QBs can be shown in more than one pose.

3. There is no reason to show anyone in the heisman pose

Also, I can tell that these cards are pretty much going to have the exact same effect on the hobby this year as last (nothing at all), so I think its about time for Topps to think about adding a little more value to this set.

THE UGLY

As the guy was busting his case, he came across a card that contained a medal of a player that was in the war during that time frame. No one really cared who the player was, but we were all a little preturbed that the medal was just some cheap knock off from Topps. Why the fuck would you include these in the product? These could be the stupidest idea for a card since Topps put out presidential letters to cash in on that craze. Seriously, why would anyone want to purchase the equivilent of a manufactured letter card in the form of an army medal - no auto included? For god's fucking sake, slap a sticker on there.

They also have cards of the chest logos and patches from the uniforms, and all I have to say is that Topps should not cash in on this stuff. Its just dumb for a football card.

Secondly, the performance highlight autos, which no one cares about anyways, are back and they are uglier than ever. Plus, all the rookies are in their college jerseys? Ba-wha? Why? God, this seems like a fucking rush job if I ever saw one.

To this day I have no idea why any company releases rookie based products before the regular season. That way they have more than enough time to get game photos and use those rather than the cop out college jersey shot.

To the would be buyers out there: DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY.