2012 Topps First Look - The Inserts

I got a pretty good selection of inserts in the rack pack, hanger box and blaster box I bought last week. Apparently Topps' theme this year is Gold. Almost all of the inserts have "Gold" in their name.

This is a Topps Golden Moments Parallel card. As others have noted it looks sort of like the Liquorfactors from last year. Not quite the same but clearly the same technology. I pulled 5 of these.

Red-bordered parallel cards available from Target. In the past you could find a couple of packs of the Target parallel in each blaster box from Target. Apparently this year only specially marked boxes have the parallels. Of course I didn't know this. The hanger box was labeled as having 2 of the parallels. I guess I'll have to buy a hanger from Wal Mart to get the blue bordered cards. I actually like this card better than the base white-bordered card.

This dropped right out of the rack pack when I opened it. 1987 Topps is one of my favorite sets so I like this insert. I pulled 5 of these.

One of the few inserts which aren't "golden". The card features some game winning hit, such as when Gonzalez tied the 2003 series at two games apiece with a walk-off home run in Game 4. Did you know that Alex's nickname was "Sea Bass"?

Let's get into the "golden" theme. I pulled 4 of these, including a duplicate of this card.

I pulled 3 of these. You may have noticed another theme with these inserts besides gold. That would be space. Most of these inserts have relic, autograph, and relic/autograph parallels. There used to be a time when blasters came with a relic card. Those days are long gone and I didn't get any relics or autos.

There must be a million photos of Tom Seaver. Why did Topps choose to use the same photo for this card as they put on last year's Gypsy Queen?

More gold, more space. I believe that this is the first post-career Albert Belle card I've pulled.

We can debate the sense of manufactured patch cards all you want, but I like this. I'd like it better if it were Mike Schmidt.

Topps has been inserting this sort of card, one featuring two players, sometimes contemporary, for a few years. This year's design is much better than the past few years but I don't really care for the idea. At least this card has a Phillie on it. Counting base cards and inserts, I bought about 180 cards. Only three cards featured Phillies.

According to the back of the card "Each code will unlock either digital golden coins or special limited edition gold chrome die-cut cards or amazing cards containing actual gold". Sounds like a waste of time to me and money. There will be an exorbitant postage charge to get your cards.