2021-22 Topps Finest UEFA Champions League Details
Topps Finest UEFA Champions League is back for it’s 4th year. This year’s design is going to be either loved or hated. It’s even more loud than last year’s design but it is definitely different and with some many Topps cards looking the same this year that will be welcomed by some. Let’s take a look at the breakdown and see what you can expect if buying.
Checklist – HERE
Hobby (Master) Box Makeup (Buy On Ebay) – 2 autos, ~4 non auto color parallels, 4 base refractors, 2 1998 Centurions per case (1:4 boxes)
Print Runs – ~5680 cases, ~45000 Master boxes, ~1100 of each Centurions, 1727 color parallels of each base card.
Prized Footballers Fusion Print Runs – Blue/Gold ~80, Yellow/Red ~60, Blue/Red ~50, Orange/Red ~40, Green/Red ~30, Pink/Red ~20, Red/Red 5, Black/Gold 1, Rose/Gold 1
Rookie Breakdown – The rookies are pretty much the same as the ones in Topps Chrome. You can see a breakdown of those rookies HERE. There are 38 rookies in the 100 card checklist.
SCHQ Review – Finest this year is in an interesting spot. It’s near the back end of the release calendar. Pretty much the same rookies have been used in every version of the Topps UEFA checklist so far this year and there has been plenty of it. The big advantage that Finest has over the Topps Chrome UEFA checklist is that it’s half the size at 100 cards compared to 200. Topps did Finest a solid by keeping most of the top rookies in the checklist. That means that of the 100 cards that were cut most were non rookies that didn’t add much value to the set. In that regard it is very similar to last year and you will have a much better chance of hitting rookies in this than other 2021-22 sets.
There are even more similarities to last year’s product. The auto list is plentiful and not especially strong. 1998 Centurions (Search On Ebay) replaces 1997 Masters as the 2 per case hit. For me the Centurions are the best looking card in the set so it’s good they are somewhat “short print” at only 1100. Sadly, I think that counts as short print for 2021-22 sets. They do have 10 extended base cards this year compared to 5 last year. The extended base checklists are all legends again this year. In previous years that had current players including the popular Erling Haaland BVB rookie card. Prized Footballers is back although the rookies they chose for it leave something to be desired. Prized Footballer Fusions, which happen to be one of my favorite short print cards in the hobby, are back. I am not as big of a fan of the design this year compared to the previous 2 but they still look decent. They are the case hit and the total print run of those to 287. Read more out more about Prized Footballer Fusion print runs. I also personally don’t love how base color parallels are designed but that could just be personal preference.
The big retailers are preselling this at around $290 but there are Ebay listings around $260/box (Buy On Ebay) and $2100/case (Buy On Ebay). 2020-21 boxes currently sell in the $350 range (Buy On Ebay). With the box makeup being pretty similar you have to decide if the checklist is worth that difference.
If you have any questions just shoot a DM on Twitter @SoccerCardsHQ or IG @SoccerCardsHQ You can also join the FaceBook Group and ask questions.
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