2015 Topps Platinum Football Card Details

By Stephen Laroche | Beckett Media

2015 Topps Platinum Football arrives at a time when the season is starting to wind down and the playoff picture is starting to take shape. The product is a perfect place to find those freshmen and much more.

In fact, each box contains at least two autographed rookie cards that Topps has printed using their chrome refractor technology and each one is hard-signed. As an even greater incentive to bust packs, boxes also contain one autographed patch card featuring a first-year or veteran talent.

What can collectors expect to find in packs of 2015 Topps Platinum Football? Find out after the jump.

Get a full 2015 Topps Platinum Football checklist and price guide access.

2015 Topps Platinum Football packs contain at least three cards from the 100-card veteran rainbow foilboard base set. They also have one of 50 different rookies, which are chrome refractors. There is also one veteran Gold parallel per hobby pack, but there is a wide assortment of rookie parallels to track down. In fact, there is 11 different types that range from the attainable like the X-fractors (5 per box) and Sapphire Refractors (1 per box) up to the reasonable-to-find Pulsar, Purple and Black Refractors (all sequentially numbered) and ending with scarce versions in the Red Refractors (numbered to 25), BCA and STS Refractors (numbered to 10) and the one-of-one SuperFractors and Printing Plates.

With the Autographed Rookie Cards, there are 10 different parallels and the lineup is somewhat similar to the basic parallels. There are no X-fractors, but there is a blue edition and the others mentioned above are included with some slight variance in the quantities they are limited to as the Purple, Black and Red parallels are numbered to 25, 15 and 5, respectively.

Topps was not content to just leave the freshman ink to just one set, though, as there are Dual Autographed Rookies (numbered to 25) and the impressive Hexagraph Double-Sided Rookies which puts six prospects together on a card limited to 10 copies. There will also be Autographed Rookie Refractor Patches that are expected to be a big hit and the 11 parallel editions will contain multi-colored relics. Of these, five are one-of-one versions which could include pieces of NFL shields, team logos, gloves and footballs.

For those that want more than just rookie content, Platinum contains such treasures as Autographed Veteran Refractor Patches (parallels numbered between one and 25 copies) and the puzzlingly-named Dual Autographed Dual Patches (#’d to 25).

Platinum also has some insert collections like Platinum Die-Cut Rookie Cards (1:box) and the BCA & STS Die-Cut Ribbons (1:case). They have signed versions with no more than 10 copies for the BCA and STS cards. Look for other offerings such as Platinum Rookie Autographed Patches (sequentially numbered, 1:case) and Platinum Players Die-Cuts (with a signed one-of-one parallel).

2015 Topps Platinum Football at a glance:

Packs per box: 20
Cards per pack: 5
Boxes per case: 12
Set size: 150 cards
Release date: December 18, 2015

What to expect in a hobby box:

• Rookie Autographs – 2
• Autographed Patch Cards – 1
• Die-Cut Rookie Insert – 1
• Rookie Sapphire Refractor Parallel – 1
• Rookie X-Fractor Parallels – 5
• Gold Parallels – 20

Stephen Laroche is the editor of Beckett Hockey and a contributor to other Beckett Media publications. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an e-mail to him at slaroche@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter @Stephen_Laroche.