Product Review: 2012 Topps Chrome Football Hobby Box

Late last week Topps Released their 2012 edition of Chrome Football. As soon as it hit the shelves boxes were bought up. Collectors wanted to rip these open and in volumes. The demand for the product still a week later is still as high when the product came out. I really enjoyed the Chrome Baseball this year and decided to be one of the many interested in buying this product.
So the run down for 2012 Chrome Football is as follows; 24 Packs per Hobby Box, 4 cards per pack which include at least 1 Rookie per Pack. The configuration of the Hobby boxes are that you will receive 1 Rookie Autograph, 1 Prism Refractor, 2 Tall Boys, 1 Quarterback Rookie Reprint, 1 Red Zone Rookie, 4 1984 Retro Rookie Reprints, and 2 1957 Retro Rookie Reprints. Parallel's are plenty as well with all the colors of the Chrome Rainbow along with new Camo, Pink and Prism Refractors. These are subjected to odds of 1:3 for the basic Refractors to1:5165 for the Non-Autographed Refractors.

With the Rookie crop this year and the way autographs of Griffin and Luck have been hitting this is a very big product to try and obtain any of them or the top picks playing well currently. The cost of the average Hobby box is anywhere between $69.99 - $99.99 depending on where you buy it from. Still looking at under $100 for the box, but this could go up due to the demand for the rookie autographs in this product.
Most of the Rookie Autographs I've seen have been on-card which is great, however I have seen a couple with sticker autographs for the duals and some of the relic/auto cards. And yes Topps has added in some relics to the rookie autographed subsets to chase down, so lots of rookie product in this 2012 edition.
The Base cards follow the previously released 2012 Topps set and provide 220 cards including the rookies to collect. This design along with the chrome technology really provides a quality product to the collecting community and should rank up with one of the best of the year. As for how I did with my 1 Hobby box as are the results:

Base cards: 34 (no duplicates)

Rookie Cards: 37

Refractors: 9 (4 RC's)

1965 Tall Boys: 2 - Jeffery, Pead

1957 Retro: 2 - Randle, Hill

1984 Retro: 4 - Andrew Luck, Doug Martin, Osweiler, L. Miller

Red Zone Rookies:  Michael Egnew

Quarterback Retro Rookie: Frank Tarkenton

Prism Refractor: Chandler Jones /216

Camo Refractor: Ryan Fitzpatrick /499

                                         BCA Pink Refractor: Vernon Davis 399

Black Refractor: Ryan Broyles /299

1957 Retro Rookie Refractor: David Wilson /99
Rookie Autograph: TJ Graham (on-card)

I have to say I am very pleased with this 2012 Chrome product. The design, Refractors, the cards coming out of the packs in a normal shape and not bent anymore, things are looking really great for Chrome products going forward. I did pretty well for my box overall. The T.J. Graham Autograph is not the best pull for this year and was hard to even know it was an autograph on the card with his signature. I love the Refractors from this box, Black, Pink, Camo and Prism are all extremely nice on this design and make me want to try to obtain more to build a set. The Retro Rookies look even better in the Chrome product than they did in the Regular Topps series. The Red Zone Rookie Die-cuts are great as well, very sharply cut and set off the product in a great way.

I think it goes without saying that I'm a very big fan of this product. It really is a great mid-value product that compares to the big boys as a top contender for Football line of the year. Topps has again stepped up with their Chrome products and made this 2012 Football edition one of the best in recent years that will be hard to beat going into 2013. If you haven't had a chance to pick up a box yet you better do it soon. The stock will run short in no time on this product and make sure to pick one up and enjoy ripping open the packs like I did.


Gambler Overall Rating: 4.8 out of 5
Cost: 5/5
Autographs: 4/5 
Parallels: 5/5

Design: 5/5

Rookies: 5/5
Fun Aspect: 5/5