Topps to make USA cards for 2012 Olympics (updated)
By Chris Olds | Beckett Sports Card Monthly Editor
If you already collect the Red, White and Blue in Topps‘ USA Baseball cards, you’ll have even more to collect this year.
As in, every other Team USA sport.
The U.S. Olympic Committee announced on Tuesday that Topps will be the exclusive trading card maker for the 2012 London Olympics and the Paralympic Games.
“It is an honor for the company to commemorate the pinnacle of sports and this country’s best athletes,” said Doug Kruep, Topps GM of sports & entertainment. “We look forward to offering supporters of Team USA athletes a truly unique keepsake and collectible.”
A card set to be released on May 5, 2012 U.S. Olympic Team & Hopefuls, will include cards of 100 Olympic hopefuls, with 40 of those athletes signing autographs to be found, as well as some stars from past Olympic events. Some of the notables to be included in this debut set will be Missy Franklin (swimming), Lolo Jones (track and field), Michael Phelps (swimming), Hope Solo (soccer) and Jordyn Wieber (gymnastics).
Each 24-pack box will include three hits — at least one autograph and two Relic cards. Each pack will include seven base cards and one parallel — either Bronze, Silver or Gold.
“We are excited to partner with Topps to highlight Team USA athletes ahead of the London Games,” said Peter Zeytoonjian, USOC managing director of consumer products. “Trading cards are a great way to support and learn more about the amazing athletes who will represent Team USA in London next summer.”
Autographs will include as many as 50 Olympians and hopefuls with each of their cards paralleled in Gold (/15), Silver (/30) and Bronze (/50) foil as well as 1/1 Gold Rainbow cards. Other autograph sets will include U.S. Champions autographs — past medal winners — and Cut Signatures from as many as 50 past greats, each 1/1s.
Other cards will be embedded with Olympic pins, patches and replica medals, while a portion of each purchase goes directly to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams’ funds. Specific other Relic cards will include Team Patch and Flag Patch cards and Stamp Relics.
Aside from manufactured Relics, there also will be as many as 50 athletes who will have pieces of their equipment cut and embedded into cards. These will be paralleled (Bronze, Silver, Gold) and also have a Gold Rainbow parallel.
There will be four insert card sets in the product, including Games of the XXX Olympiad (current athletes), London 2012 Olympic Games Venues (current venues), Heritage of the Olympic Games (past years) and Opening Ceremony cards noting notable past openers.
Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.
[…] topps olympics this looks interesting , i think the two cards shown look very nice. just wondering if these will be in hobby boxes (packs) or be sold as a set and you randomly get a auto per set. i would rather open packs , what about you guys ? Beckett News Topps to make Team USA cards for 2012 Olympics […]
Upper Deck had a set come out called Winter Champions.
All were hard signed, not sticker. They had about the same number of signers too.
disappointing execution from Topps/USOC on this product. I was excited about it until I read it was going to be releasing this spring. I would rather have it released in September right after the games and feature USA athletes who actually participated in the games (not just a mix of participants and hopefuls), memorialize a lot of USA’s glory with actual photos from the medal competitions, and have autos and preliminary competition round clothing relics from actual medaling USA athletes.
Richard: I can’t find the set you reference in the Beckett database. Can you post an example??
2010 UD “The Champions”.
It existed both as an insert within Champions Hockey and regular hockey.
The ones from the regular Hockey having an embossed stamp.
Just look on Ebay for 2010 UD The Champions Auto* and you should see some.
I don’t remember where I originally saw the term Winter Champions, it might have been
a sales sheet.
Great product! Just busted a blaster that had an SP auto, a relic and a Misty May-Traenor Pin. Nice hits for $20. Also the SP medal cards are awesome!
I agree with Robert above, especially regarding the relics. In all of them I’ve seen, the fabric looks the same. So, what did Topps do? Hand the athletes a T-shirt for them to put on for 5 seconds, to create an instant relic? The disclaimer on the card doesn’t help much – it indicates they are not from any specific event, which implies that they are manufactured relics that didn’t really belong to the athletes. Since Topps wasn’t clear about these, I don’t feel like I have anything worth owning. Would have been VASTLY superior to have relics from the actual olympic events, corroborated by photos.
Yes, I would like to know how many of the gold medal cards were produced, also what are the chances of having ALL of The Michael Phelps cards plus the gold medal ty