2011 TriStar OBAK Football Product Review
Reviewed By Rob Bertrand
Good: Concise history of the game, easily attainable base set, good use of variety to keep each pack rip fresh.
Bad: Collation issues, quality control with regards to “hit" distribution and redundant design elements that collectors have seen the same layouts in the baseball product.
The Bottom Line: The premier edition of TriStar OBAK Football provides an excellent overview of the history of the game. With a 120-card base set that includes 10 short prints, collectors will enjoy reading the card backs, a truly lost art in trading card production. The product answer questions like why is the Hall of Fame in Canton, who is considered the father of modern football, how many US Presidents played collegiate football, what is meant by the term, “The Heidi Game," and more interesting trivia about America's favorite sport.
Card Design: 3.0/5.0
The quirky images and unique colors make for a novel card design despite, having been repeated in multiple years of baseball sets. The use of mini parallels provides a nice chase element and the classic OBAK design suits them well.
Checklist: 3.0/5.0
You aren't going to pull a first round draft pick from this product but you will pull Hall of Famers, a rather unique concept in today's rookie-driven trading card landscape. Because the overall product focus is on history, collectors will find a lot of vintage players and personalities from the game's early days.
Value: 3.0/5.0
TriStar prides itself on doing its best to provide value to collectors and with a combination of 11 hits and inserts that break down as such: four autographs (one of which will be a cut auto), three short prints, two parallels, one mini-parallel and one T4-styled cabinet card. For the most part, collectors should get a decent return, if they don't get double autographs of the same player as we did. With a current SRP of $100, we'd like to see this product in the $80-$85 range, which would make it a true touchdown with its existing pack-out configuration.
The Fun Factor: 3.5/5.0
When you can read a card's back and actually learn something, that's an accomplishment. OBAK Football provides more than just the standard, “Base, base, base, parallel, hit, base" pack mentality associated with too many products. The experience of opening the product is fun for this simple reason. Knowing that you will find three autographs and one cut signature in a break is also fun, although, finding two autographs of the same player is not.
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Following successful releases with baseball, the resurrected OBAK brand comes to football courtesy of TriStar. Highlighting retired stars such as Sammy Baugh, Johnny Unitas, Roger Staubach and Gayle Sayers, the release pulls from multiple generations of stars. Every hobby box gives collectors three autographs numbered to 100 or less and a cut signature card numbered to 75 or less. Each case has a hot box with at least two autographs and tons of extra inserts.
Estimated Release Date: 9/13/11
Product Configuration: 24 packs per box, six cards per pack
Price Point: Mid-End Football Card
Target Audience: Football Card Collectors, Old-Time Football Fans, Autograph Collectors, Set Builders, Cut Signature Collectors
Box Break
- One Numbered Cut Signature Card
- Three Numbered Autograph Cards
- Two Numbered Parallel Cards
- One Numbered T-212 Mini Parallel
- Two Short Prints
- One Numbered T4 Cabinet Card Box Topper
- 145 Total Cards
Product Highlights:
- One Cut Signature card numbered to 75, 50, 25, 5 or 1 in every box. Signers include Jim Brown, Red Grange, Sam Baugh, Drew Brees, Sid Luckman, Jerry Rice and Jim Thorpe.
- Every case has a one-of-one Cut Signature.
- Three autographs numbered to 100 or less in every box. Among those providing signatures for the set are Bo Jackson, Terry Bradshaw, Kurt Warner, Bart Starr and Earl Campbell.
- One Mini Parallel in every pack. Each box has a T212 Mini Parallel numbered to 75 or less. Autographed T212 minis inserted one per case.
- Two numbered parallel cards in every box limited to 25 copies or less.
- T4 Cabinet Cards included as box topper. All are numbered to 80 or less. Each case has an autographed cabinet card numbered to 5 or 1.
- Hot boxes holding ten autographs and at least 25 other special cards fall one per case.
Card Gallery:
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