We were able to get in a box from Topps of their premiere product of the UFC! Sixteen packs per box, 8 cards per box, the hits for it as stated on the box are three autographs and three relics per box. There are gold, black and red versions of the cards. We hit the stated odds for the autos and relics and even hit a 1 of 1, keep reading to see our review.
You can see the images above of what we pulled. I hit one of the big autographs in Georges St. Pierre. I also beat the odds and hit a 1 of 1 of the Top Fights of 2008 Subset. This has been a pretty popular set so far with boxes on Blowoutcards.com going for 129.99. The sales of the St Pierre or Gracie autographs has been close to $100.00 each.
The Look – Topps had some obstacles with this being the first set and having to rely on some photography from UFC’s early events that may not have been up to todays card standards. The Gracie card from UFC 1 is a perfect example of the lackluster older pictures. The Georges St. Pierre autograph however is a fantastic photograph, and the pictures from recent events are fantastic. The full bleed design slightly reminds me of the older non-sports images from Topps, but work in the context of the UFC. I give the look a solid B.
The Value – If you are buying this you are a UFC fan, with only a 100 card base set, you do well with that. You also get six nice hits per box, and with the clear stickers even the autographs do not look bad. The relics are pretty nice looking, and I know my UFC fan friends were pretty impressed seeing pieces of the Octagon on cards. If you are dropping the 130 on this box you love UFC, and you can not do much better value wise than in this set. I give it a solid A.
The Total Package – This is a set that a lot of hardcore sports collectors may scoff at, but think back to when people first heard that Basketball cards were coming out from Fleer and laughed at that value. This is a set that as UFC’s popularity builds could be an enormous success. You get a design that is what UFC fans want, you get a good deal of hits from a box, and the sale values on the cards are doing well. I give this set a solid B+ overall. There is room for growth with the product, but for a first release from Topps this is a very nice looking set that should hold, if not increase in value over the years.
I will be adding to this review later with the ammount I got for the base set and the number of hits for the parallels.
Popularity: 40% [?]
