2010 Topps Platinum football retail blasters (2)

To celebrate Michigan's 4-0 start this year, I hopped down to the Meijer by me to grab two blasters of 2010 Topps Platinum football to see what all the fuss was about.  I've seen a ton of breaks over at the BlowoutCards forums and seen some cool stuff get pulled.  Have a look at how I did:




 


Purchased from/price:  Meijer, $20 each
Packs/cards:  16 packs / 4 cards (two total blasters)
Set size:  165 base cards
Key features:  You like rookies?  We got rookies.  Plus some sweet patch/autograph/RCs
Key cards:  This year's rookie class, basically
Wolverines:  Tom Brady, Braylon Edwards


Set completion:  60/165 (36%)
Extras:  0

Sample front (and the only Wolverine, so, two birds with one scan)

Sample back

Pack-by-pack:

Box 1:
Pack 1:  Wes Welker, Ed Reed, Drew Brees, Mardy Gilyard RC
Pack 2:  Darrelle Revis, Vince Young, Demaryius Thomas RC, Willis McGahee
Pack 3:  Steve Smith (Giants), Philip Rivers, Mike Kafka Refractor #256/499, LaDainian Tomlinson
Pack 4:  Ray Lewis, Fred Jackson, Mark Sanchez, Ndamukong Suh RC
Pack 5:  Jason Campbell, Kenny Britt, Greg Jennings, Gerald McCoy RC
Pack 6:  T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Matt Ryan, Golden Tate RC, Joe Flacco
Pack 7:  Eddie Royal, Ben Tate RC, James Starks Thick Variation RC, Brandon Jacbos
Pack 8:  Lee Evans, Jon Beason, Jordan Shipley Autographed Patch Refractor #125/500, Arrelious Benn RC

Box 2:
Pack 1:  Brandon Marshall, Troy Polamalu, Steven Jackson, Armanti Edwards RC
Pack 2:  Mike Wallace, Ryan Grant, Montario Hardesty RC, Matt Forte
Pack 3:  Ronnie Brown, Calvin Johnson, Thomas Jones, Jimmy Graham RC
Pack 4:  Mohammed Massaquoi, Matt Schaub, Andre Roberts RC, Kellen Winslow
Pack 5:  Cadillac Williams, Braylon Edwards, Marques Colston, CJ Spiller RC
Pack 6:  Dallas Clark, D.J. Williams, Taylor Price RC, Hakeem Nicks
Pack 7:  Adrian Peterson, Kevin Kolb, Jonathan Dwyer RC, Michael Turner
Pack 8:  Tony Romo, Anquan Boldin, Anthony Dixon Thick Variation RC, Dexter McCluster RC 

Mike Kafka Refractor

James Starks Thick Variation

Anthony Dixon Thick Variation

Jordan Shipley odds-buster

Inserts:

• Thick Rookie Variations:  Anthony Dixon, James Starks (1:6, 2 expected)
• Refractors:  Mike Kafka (1:27, 0 expected)

Autographs:  Jordan Shipley Refractor/Patch/Autograph #128/500 (1:860, group B)
Relics:  None (none expected)
Best pack:  Let's go with the one with the ridiculous Shipley card, shall we?
Worst pack:  I'll be fair here, nothing was really terrible

Quality control:  9/10 Some of these cards were a bit dinged.  Nothing terrible, just noticeable
Collation:  10/10  No doubles, all inserts guaranteed and THEN SOME
Value:  5/10  A big ding here:  without that Shipley, I would have had some great base cards and a couple inserts, but not a whole lot for my $40.  NOTE:  Out of the two boxes I had three "thick" packs.  Two were the ones that had the variations, which are essentially 1:box, and the other had the Shipley.  So if you buy one of these and pull two "thick" packs, you could theoretically open those and sell the remainder (not that you'd do a thing like that...).  Anyway, a rookie per pack was nice value-wise
Set design and player selection:  8/10  A few things here:  first, I generally like the set design.  These are clearly premium cards and the chrome-like design works, even if it's prone to fingerprints.  I don't love the backs because they only show a year of stats plus career totals.  The design I like best (and wish was used for the base) is the Refractor insert (which only appears to refract around the player's outline, but still looks cool).  All that said, the Rookie patch/autographs are sweet.  Mine had an actual one-color jersey piece, not an actual "patch", but I value the autograph more anyway.  I also don't mind sticker autos as long as they don't look ridiculously out-of-place.  Finally, my one biggest gripe:  this set is a 165 card combination of veterans and this year's rookies, and yet you didn't have room for Brandon Graham, a FIRST ROUND PICK?!
Inserts and extras:  8/10  A big fat MEH to the "thick" rookie variations, but I guess it's better than getting a blank decoy card.  The Refractors look great.  The hits look awesome.  Not much else here to find, though

Overall score:  40/50
Not bad at all, though again, without that hit these boxes don't look as nice.  I'm holding onto the base cards for now in case I want to finish it.  The inserts are for trade, and so is the Shipley (as I mentioned on BlowoutCards, so there may be interest there as well), which I'll trade for a comparable Michigan card

Wolverines?
No extra Wolverines section, I pulled one of the freaking TWO in the box and already scanned it above