2011-12 Topps Authentics Premier Gold

Topps have recently released another Premier League premium collection with the 2011-12 return of the Topps Authentics brand. If you ask me this product is a real breath of fresh air from that nefarious Match Attax crap. This time around it appears there are no newly issued auto & jersey cards, at least no sign of them as of yet. The collection consists of 50 cards total with 10 being foils and the remaining 40 regular cards. It looks a solid set but unfortunately it appears as though the collection will only be obtainable in the UK via some type of promotional giveaway from British bank Barclays. Looks like eBay's the best option to pick up a set for those of us who not residing in the UK.

Trading Card Games Suck

Panini and Topps are at it again with their soon to be released Adrenalyn XL and Match Attax branded Euro 2012 collections. The preliminary images I've seen show the same old tired, boring, fugly design we've come to know from these two card makers. I would post an image but it's not even worth it. I suppose they'll stop milking this TCG crap when people stop buying... Surely I'm not alone in my hatred for this shit?

Soccer Cards Desperately Need Upper Deck's Touch

Upper Deck has a bit of a shady history with past incidents ranging from their production of counterfeit yu-gi-oh cards to unauthorized baseball cards as well as the Beckham "error" autographs from 2010 World of Sports. Despite these troubles as far as I'm concerned they generally produce the best quality trading cards of any manufacturer around. Unfortunately at the moment the only soccer license UD hold is with MLS. Obviously for collectors that's not the most attractive league around, however in terms of card content, collectibility and quality UD's MLS offerings are vastly superior to the garbage TCG products from Panini and Topps (who both have the trading card rights to all major football leagues and competitions around the World). Just take a look at what's available on eBay from Panini and Topps.

Both Panini and Topps have actually released nice looking higher-end products within the last year, Panini with their Premium Champions League set and Topps' Authentics Premier League brand but unfortunately these types of products lack high end cards of the top players that everyone wants as well as being very poorly marketed and distributed, (Topps Authentics is a direct order only product) not to mention these collections seem to be an afterthought for both manufacturers. UD on the other hand produced some of the better collections ever seen with their excellent Manchester United collections among several others. I for one sorely miss UD's presence in the market of international football cards and hope they can soon get back into the global game.