2014 Topps English Premier Gold Soccer hobby box

Sport:  Soccer 
Product:  2014 Topps English Premier Gold Soccer hobby box 
Break Date:  September 12, 2015 
Hit Breakdown:   Five autographs and five jersey cards

 

Summary:  My family and I took a quick trip down to my parents' house, so I decided it may be fun to open a box as a family – me, my brother, my father, and my son. My brother is a big EPL fan (Chelsea), so I thought it may be fun to crack a box of Topps Premier Gold. I got a decent enough deal on the 2014 set, so that's what I had shipped to my folks' house (I had it shipped there instead of to me to avoid the temptation of opening it before the trip LOL). 

I knew the checklist for 2014 wasn't as good as the previous year, but I'm not quite sure I expected the repetition in cards. I didn't read/watch any box breaks prior to ordering the box, so I maybe should have anticipated a lot of overlap between jersey and auto cards, because that seems the norm. 

The box has five guaranteed autos and five jersey cards, and out of the ten hits, there were three that had both auto and jersey cards (Mark Noble, Darren Bent, and Fraser Forster)...and with a weaker checklist, that was pretty tough to see unfold. If the names that we hit both auto and jersey had been some of the stronger names – Diego Costa, Didier Drogba, Meszut Ozil – it may not have been as bad. 

Secondly, there were doubles of an insert in the box (John Stones Future Stars). That should never happen in a box with so few cards in it, least of all from an insert. Pretty absurd.

On the plus side, We did hit the case hit - the Crowning Achievement die-cut auto, but it was Kasper Schmeichel...not too exciting. If it had been his dad, Peter...well, then it would have been cool. There was also a printing plate - Phil Jagielka. While I generally don't love plates, at least it's a 1/1. Lastly, there was a low-numbered orange parallel - to /11; not sure who Vito Mannone is, but at the very least it's pretty rare.

Overall, I like the amount of parallels that came out, and hit some decent purple parallels (out of /50) with Lampard and Van Persie. But, the hits were pretty rough, and there were 10 in the box. Out of those 10, none that really excited me (or us) that much, even with the case hit. 

The major enjoyment was in opening the box together - not so much the hits themselves because they were pretty unforgiving.

Grade for the product:  B-

Grade for the break:  B 

Crowning Achievement Die-Cut Autograph /50:  Kasper Schmeichel 

Premier Autographs Green /99:  Darren Bent 
Premier Autographs:  Fraser Forster, Mark Noble, Bobby Zamora 
Football Fibers Relics:  Darren Bent, Fraser Forster, Mile Jedinak, Adam Lallana, Mark Noble 
Printing Plates Cyan /1:  Phil Jagielka 
Orange /11:  Vito Mannone 
Purple /50:  Tom Heaton, Frank Lampard, Robin Van Persie 
Future Stars Purple /50:  Jon Flanagan 
Captains Green /60:  Jose Fonte 
Captains:  Mikel Arteta, Fabricio Coloccini 
Future Stars:  Marc Muniesa, John Stones (x2), Connor Wickham 
New Signings:  Mario Balotelli, Romelu Lukaku