Just when you thought there were enough parallels, Topps brings their "Tek" line to Star Wars. Another cash-grab with nothing new under the sun.

I never heard of this Tek line before.......

1 box is 1 pack of 8 cards?

Yes, the Tek cards are actually really good looking, but ultra high end. Each baseball pack/box has 8 cards consisting of 1 on-card autograph, 1 parallel card and 6 base cards. They are on acetate card stock and foil-like backgrounds. There are several pattern variances and some patterns are rarer than others. The Star Wars cards may not be produced the same way, but that is the Tek line, so I assume it will be the same or close. I think these cards are something new for Star Wars and if you want the high end products Tek is usually a big seller.

However what Topps should have done was announce this sooner, instead of making Masterworks look like it was going to be the only top of the line set. The photos are also not showing any new characters yet, so if this is another solely retro set it is covering badly worn ground. For those reasons I don't know how many card collectors are going to want to chase these, but I do think the cards themselves will look great.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Raven,

Yep. 1 Box = 1 Pack = 1 Auto or Sketch, 1 Parallel, 1 Insert, and 5 base cards.

Autos are On Card. Sketches are framed like Chrome.

This is a VERY popular baseball series, so it has potential to bring over some of those guys as well.

My biggest problem is that it is coming out the same week as The Force Awakens Series 1. Seriously? January looks good for this one.

And I agree that it needs the new characters to flourish. The original and prequal trilogies have been done to death. Unless, of course, they get one or two of the perennial holdouts to sign cards.

Ed

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Raven:
The photos are also not showing any new characters yet, so if this is another solely retro set it is covering badly worn ground. /QUOTE]

Well the latest box break shows that this does indeed include new characters from TFA, so that will provide a big draw.

With a series that is just about all "hits", pity the poor checklist creators.

"Base" cards have ten different pattern variants each, and some are scarcer than others across the 112 base cards. There are 6 numbered parallel base sets, with #5 and #1 with only some (unspecified) patterns. There are alternate image cards A and B for at least a dozen of the base cards.

Autographs are on-card and the card image is the same as base cards, apparently with pattern variations for unnumbered and 6 parallel auto sets.

If you call the autos parallel base cards that are signed, the number of different parallels is at least 23, maybe as high as the 80's if you have pattern variants for most of the numbered base and auto items. Finally we have a Master Set that might be approaching 10,000 items!

There are three "insert" sets totaling 40 cards where every card is # to 50. Sketch cards have at least three variant border patterns, and because they didn't provide a place for the artist to sign, it's tough to figure out the artist or if they spread their art across the variant card designs.

Not only that, the checklist I saw from Topps had faulty numbering. I think this might take me a while. (Aw gee, it already has ...)

quote:

Originally posted by allender:
With a series that is just about all "hits", pity the poor checklist creators.

"Base" cards have ten different pattern variants each, and some are scarcer than others across the 112 base cards. There are 6 numbered parallel base sets, with #5 and #1 with only some (unspecified) patterns. There are alternate image cards A and B for at least a dozen of the base cards.

Not that it makes it much better BUT...each base card has only five patterns. #1-56 has one set of five and #57-112 has another.

But if only it were that easy, they're available in varying quantities.

From what I can tell, there's at least one mistake on Topps' checklist for the patterns. The Death Star Exterior is with "Form 1" and TIE Fighter Wing is "Form 2". A couple patterns I still can't figure out the names based on the ones provided.

There are also photo variations -- five cards have one, five cards have two. These look to only have one pattern.

As chaotic as this is, it's nothing to the original 1998 Topps Tek Baseball. Each card had 90 patterns.

As confusing as it can be, I've enjoyed the chase of Tek for certain players in the past and I'm not normally into parallels. I'm also a sucker for acetate.