2005 Topps All-American Retired Edition Football
What I pulled--
Parallels:
Silver Chrome - Carl Eller (#432/555), Andre Ware (#522/555)
Gold Chrome - Lawrence Taylor (#316/555), Kenny Easley (#308/555)
Autographs:
Basic - Alex Karras
Silver Refractor - Jim Plunkett (#50/55)
Review:
I love when the card companies do something a little different.
Take All-American Retired Edition, for example.
The concept is simple, yet incredibly effective. Get pictures of some of the biggest names in the
history of the sport in their college uniforms and make a set of 91 cards with them. They are all
here...Namath, Montana, Butkus, Taylor and on and on. All were All-Americans in college and are
immortalized here.
The cards are very simple, yet beautiful, with the picture being the focal point of the car,
surrounded by a silver background. There is a helmet logo in the upper right corner, stating the
school where the player went. The cards are on a heavy stock, like the cards of years ago. Even
the backs are retro feeling, with a small bio of the player's college career and even a cartoon. The
only negative about the card is the coloring - I would have liked to see the framing and the helmet
logo in the colors of each alma mater, rather than there being no apparent rhyme or reason to the
choice. However, that is more than neated by being able to put together a full set with one box.
The parallels are simple, yet attractive. There are two chrome, two gold chrome and two autographs in each box. There are
other levels of refractors that fall at much rarer levels, too, with autographs numbered as low as four (for Barry Sanders) and
19 for a number of others, including John Elway, Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach. There are even printing plates and a few
Elvis relics thrown in, for good measure.
This set gets a very high recommendation. In this age of sets featuring players from the past, it is great to see something that
makes you look at the set a little differently. We are looking at pictures that, in some cases, are 30 or 40 years old, yet probably
have never seen the front of a football card before. There is absolutely no reason to give this set anything lower than an...........
A
