First look: 2012 Bowman Sterling Football

By Susan Lulgjuraj | Beckett Football Editor

Before you rip open packs in 2012 Bowman Sterling Football, collectors should take a look at the box toppers. There are opportunities to get oversized autographed cards of the top players from the 2012 NFL Draft.

There will be up to five oversized (4”x 5.5”) cards with four rookie autographs and patches.

Other box toppers include Jumbo Rookie Patches, which will fall one per box.

That’s just how Sterling will start, which will come out in December, but what about the middle and the end?

If collectors keep ripping, they’ll find six packs in every box with five cards per pack. Every pack will have three Rookie Cards, one rookie autograph and one jumbo rookie or veteran relic.

Every box will yield four rookie autographs, one rookie autograph relic, one rookie autograph patch card, five jumbo rookie or veteran relic cards, and one jumbo patch rookie or veteran. Case breakers can look for a Prism Refractor Dual Autographed Relic card.

Some of the names on the big hits include Alshon Jeffery, Andrew Luck, Brandon Weeden, Coby Fleener, David Wilson, Justin Blackmon, LaMichael James, Robert Griffin III, Ryan Tannehill and Trent Richardson.

The base set will consist of 100 Rookie Cards. Parallels for these include Blue Refractor (#’d to 99), Black Refractor (#’d to 75), Gold Refractor (#’d to 50), Prism Refractor (#’d to 25), Superfractor (1/1) and unframed Printing Plates (1/1).

There will also be up to 10 cards made of Sterling Silver of some of the top rookies (these cards are 1/1).

Up to 60 base subjects will be featured in an autograph parallel set with six variations: Blue Refractor (#’d to 99), Black Refractor (#’d to 50), Gold Refractor (#’d to 25), Prism Refractor (#’d to 15), Superfractor (1/1) and Printing Plates (1/1).

The Autographed Rookie Relics will have up to 40 subjects on the checklist with five variations: Blue Refractor Patch Relic (#’d to 99), Gold Refractor Patch Relic (#’d to 55), Prism Refractor Patch Relic (#’d to 30), Superfractor Patch Relic (1/1) and Printing Plate Patch Relics (1/1).

When considering Sterling this year, it’s not just about one autograph. It seems as though Topps is really putting together cards with multiple autos.

The dual signed cards will have up to 10 pairs of a combinations of veterans and rookies. These cards will be numbered to 25. There are also dual autographed patch relic cards, which are numbered to just five.

There are also triple signed cards (#’d to 10), quadruple signed cards (#’d to 5) and cards with six autographs (#’d to 10). These checklists will have up to five cards and will also have patch variations that are numbered to 5.

Relic cards will play a prominent role in Sterling.

There will be one Jumbo Relic card per box and all cards will sequentially numbered.

The Jumbo Veteran Relics will have to 15 subjects with six parallels: Blue Refractor (#’d to 75), Black Refractor (#’d to 50), Gold Refractor Patch (#’d to 25), Prism Refractor Patch (#’d to 15), Superfractor Patch (1/1) and Printing Plate Patch (1/1).

Jumbo Rookie Relics are going to get a similar treatment. Up to 40 subjects on this checklist and, again, all cards will be sequentially numbered. The parallels include Blue Refractor (#’d to 99), Black Refractor Patch (#’d to 75), Gold Refractor Patch (#’d to 60), Prism Refractor Patch (#’d to 35), Superfractor Patch (1/1) and Printing Plate Patch (1/1).

Susan Lulgjuraj is the editor of Beckett Football magazine. You can email Susan here with ideas, comments and questions. Follow her on Twitter here.