2000 Playoff Prestige: "Alma Mater Materials" Insert
2008 Upper Deck SP Authentic: "Rookie Jersey Numbers" Insert
1997 Proline: "Emerald Autographs" Insert Set
2000 Playoff Prestige: "Alma Mater Materials" Insert
Jay's Football Cards
Topps: Five Stars
Topps: Five Stars Collection (Updated December 25th, 2025)
In 1991, Topps added its "Super Premium" title to counter Fleer's "Super Premium" brand that had entered the hobby, titled Fleer Ultra. In 2010, they upped the ante again with the Topps Five-Star title. I felt this title was a little late to the game. Upper Deck released their Upper Deck Ultimate title in 2003. And just like this Upper Deck title, the Topps Five-Star title wasn't for kids. These cards are for the adult collectors. The base cards are #'d to a extremely low number of 79. The cardstock is firm, and the photography is unique (See the 2010 Topps Five-Star "Adrian Peterson" #10 left). Due to the high cost of producing a set like this, the set size is smaller than most sets, 180 cards. I guess Topps wanted to make sure that the title was a hit first before it spent too much on a larger set. One hundred and eighty cards is pretty low. They did however, spend a lot of money putting together 8 high quality insert sets.
2010 Topps Five-Star: “Adrian Peterson” #10*
Since I haven't collected the 2010 through 2012 sets yet or any of their insert sets yet, I'll stick to the base set write-up only.
*Note: I do not own the card above. Unfortunately, I haven't taken the time to put this set together.
Topps followed up the small '10 release with a slightly larger release. And I do mean, slighty. It was 183 cards. The 2011 release contained 183 cards. I can only guess that the '10 release was a success due to the
slight uptick in the number of cards in the '11 release. Again, the cardstock was solid and really added to the durability of the cards (See the 2011 Topps Five Star "Philip Rivers" #144 right). And again, the real gem here, were the insert sets. Twelve insert sets. And all of them were either jerseys, patches and autographs. High end Stuff. Not priced for kids.
2012 Topps Five Star: “Malcolm Floyd” #47*
*Note: I do not own the card above. Unfortunately, I haven't taken the time to put this set together.
The 2012 Five-Star release really jumped up in set size this year. Obviously, this new Ultra Premium adult title was surpassing all predictions and estimates. It moved from 183 in 2011 to 190 in 2012. The release in 2012 had the same style as its predecessors, a player cut out and pasted onto a themed background. This was Topps' Five-Star title routine (See the 2012 Topps Five Star "Malcolm Floyd" #47 left). The '12 release keep the insert titles pretty much the same, all Jerseys and autographs. The insert sets went from 12 to 13. That is a huge number of sets, especially when they are all high-end cards, such as these.
The 2013 Topps Five-Star was the same as all the previous Five-Star releases. A player cut-out on a themed background. This release did have a significant drop in cards to 145 cards, (See the 2013 Topps Five-Star "Patrick Peterson" #54 right).
The rookie memorebilia cards for this set are a gem. (See the 2013 Topps Five Star "Dion Jordan" Rookie Jersey Autograph #110 left below). The jersey swatch is a solid size and they are numbered to a pretty nice number...94. No idea why that number was chosen.
2011 Topps Five Star: “Philip Rivers” #144*
*Note: I do not own the card above. Unfortunately, I haven't taken the time to put this set together.
2013 Topps Five Star: “Patrick Peterson” #54*
*Note: I do not own the card above.
2013 Topps Five Star: “Dion Jordan” Rookie Jersey Autograph #110
The real treasure with this title is the insert sets. And there are 12 of them. These insert sets are high-end cards that are perfectly designed and laid out.
The first set I'd like to talk about is the general Jumbo Jersey Relic set and the Gold parallel set (See the 2013 Topps Five Star "DeAndre Hopkins" Jumbo Jersey Relics #FSJJR-DH below left). The Jumbo
Jerseys have been a part of the hobby for a while now, but they are always nice to include in a release.
2013 Topps Five Star: “DeAndre Hopkins” Jumbo Jerseys Relic #FSJJR-DH
Another awesome insert set was the SPx "Peter Warrick" Rookie / Jersey / Autograph #161 below right). Upper Deck increased the SPx set size in 2000 from 135 to 162 and bumped the rookie cards up to a whopping 72. Upper Deck also increased the # of insert sets from 7 to 8; the extra insert set comes from the Winning Materials autograph set, (See the 2000 Upper Deck SPx "Travis Taylor" Winning Materials Autograph #AWM-TT below left). I guess Upper Deck had such a positive response about the 2 autographed cards from the previous release that they made a bigger stand-alone autograph set the following year.
The 2001 Upper Deck SPx set took a page from the '99 Skybox Premium release and that was, not just having "Short Printed" rookie cards, but 2 rookie cards for each and every rookie, (See the 2001 Upper Deck SPx "Justin Smith" Platinum Blue Rookie #133PB below right) and (See the 2001 Upper Deck SPx "Justin Smith" Gold Rookie #133G below left). The one thing you'll notice
2013 Topps Five Star: “Keenan Allen / Manti Te'o” Futures Dual Autograph Patch #FSFDAP-AT*
*Note: I do not own the card above.
However, the rookie cards didn't stop there. The Upper Deck Spx '01 release also included the "New" standard' that is, Rookie / Jersey / Autographs. And to spice that up an extra level, Upper Deck included 2 versions of those cards, as well, (See the 2001 Upper Deck SPx "Richard Seymour" Rookie / Jersey / Autograph #104PB below right). You'll notice that as we progressed into the new millennium, these sets became more and more about "Rookies" and the '98 season with it's "Short Printed" rookies were just the tip of the iceberg.
2013 Topps Five Star: “Manuel / Smith / Glennon / Barkley” Futures Quadra-Graph Book #FSFQ-1
However, the rookie cards didn't stop there. The Upper Deck Spx '01 release also included the "New" standard' that is, Rookie / Jersey / Autographs. And to spice that up an extra level, Upper Deck included 2 versions of those cards, as well, (See the 2001 Upper Deck SPx "Richard Seymour" Rookie / Jersey / Autograph #104PB below right). You'll notice that as we progressed into the new millennium, these sets became more and more about "Rookies" and the '98 season with it's "Short Printed" rookies were just the tip of the iceberg.
2013 Topps Five Star: “Zach Ertz” Futures 4-Piece Autograph Book #FSFA4-ZE*
*Note: I do not own the card above.
In closing, the "Topps: Five Star" brand was just an awesome extension to the Topps family. Yes, it was a totally different brand, definitely with a different age group in mind (those of us like me, older with a little more lunch money), but in reality, the Topps Five-Star brand was such an upper-tier title. I really wonder where we can go from here? What is there left to do? Regardless of your opinion, it's safe to say the collector should feel safe that if they are going after either this title or, say, the Upper Deck Ultimate title, they are truly getting a lot of bang for their buck!! Yes, the set sizes are horrendously small, but the insert sets are truly amazing!!
I have complete sets:
Topps Five Stars:
1) 2010 Topps Five Star - Do Not Have
2) 2011 Topps Five Star - Do Not Have
3) 2012 Topps Five Star - Do Not Have
4) 2013 Topps Five Star - Incomplete ( 15 / 146 )
A) Futures Dual Autographs Insert - Incomplete ( 8 / 29 )
B) Futures Dual Autograph Patch Book Insert - Incomplete ( 1 / 30 )
C) Dual Patch Insert - Incomplete ( 5 / X )*
D) Futures Quadra-Graph Book Cards Insert - Incomplete ( 1 / X )*
E) Jumbo Jerseys Insert - Incomplete ( 49 / 50 )
F) Jumbo Jerseys Gold Insert - Incomplete ( 18 / 50 )
G) Rookie Autograph Quad Jersey Insert - Incomplete ( 5 / 30 )
H) Rookie Quotable Autographs Insert - Incomplete ( 1 / X )*
7) 2014 Topps Five Star - Do Not Have
*Note: I'm not quite sure how many cards are in this set.
