Saturday 16 November 2013

2001-02 Wizards of the Coast English Football Champions Title Race


Another Wizards of the Coast Football Champions box, another expansion set.

I guess the reason why my LCS in Beijing held on to two boxes (see previous post) of Football Champions expansion sets for almost 10 years is simply because he couldn’t find one Chinese who wanted to pay money for a box which didn’t contain one autograph or memorabilia. Until I showed up!


Just like the Calciomercato set which I described the other day, the Title Race set is an expansion to a bigger base set. The 2001-02 Wizards of the Coast English Football Champions Title Race set consists of 165 cards: 125 player cards and 40 action cards. That means that there are 45 player cards more and 18 action cards less than in the Calciomercato set. I would call that an improvement were it not for the fact that this set was released 2 years earlier than the Italian set.

I can be very short about the design of the cards: similar to the Calciomercato cards which I described the other day, which will be no surprise. The Title Race cards feel a little more loaded than the Calciomercato cards, probably because extra (curve) lines in the design. Nice on this Title Race set is the logo of the team in the top right hand corner of the card. For the action cards I’ll refer you to the picture, as I honestly don’t know what I should tell about them.
  
I guess the boxes of this set were mainly designed to be used in retail, as a box consists of 36 packs of 7 cards each. That means 252 cards in one box, for a set of 165 cards. Every pack consists of 7 cards: 5 player cards and 2 action cards, so I should have ended up with 180 player cards and 72 action cards.

The big question when opening this set’s boxes is: which foiled premium cards will you pull? The foiled cards come 1:4 packs in this Title Race set, so there should have been 9 in the box. With 25 premium cards in the set, I was guaranteed to be at least 16 cards short of the complete set.

Eventually, I ended up 21 cards short of the complete set.
I pulled 36 different action cards, so I came up 4 cards short of the complete action cards set. I think that’s a bit silly, as I also pulled 36 double action cards.
As Wizards of the Coast promised me, I pulled 9 foiled premium cards, all different ones. Some of the nicer cards included Robbie Fowler (Leeds), Robbie Keane (Leeds), Laurent Blanc (ManU), Alan Shearer (Newcastle) and Joe Cole (West Ham).


So, I am missing 4 action cards and 16 foiled cards… Where’s the other missing card?
I had to check it twice because I couldn’t believe it at first. The 171 regular cards in the box contained 99 different regular player cards, meaning I was one (1!) card short of the complete set. Card #47, Alain Goma, was the only regular card not in the box. Why oh why, Wizards of the Coast?

Anyhow, I quite enjoyed opening the two boxes of Football Champions in the past week. Although the boxes contain way more regular cards than necessary, the chase for the foiled premium cards is quite fun. It’s smart of Wizards of the Coast to include only 1/3 of all the special inserts of the set in one box. It gives a little suspense to the box break.

 

Report

1) Set
Season: 2001-02
Manufacturer: Wizards of the Coast
Competition: Premier League (England)
Set name: Football Champions Title Race
Number of cards in set:  165 in total, consisting of 125 player cards (100 normal cards + 25 foiled premium cards) and 40 action cards

2) Box
1 box = 36 packets
1 packet = 7 cards (5 player cards + 2 action cards)
1 box = 252 cards (180 player cards + 72 action cards)
Inserts: Foiled premium cards (1:4 packets), so box should contain 9.
Cost: CNY 220 (EUR 26.7/USD 36.1/GBP 22.4)

3) Box break
Total number of cards: 252 cards (180 player cards + 72 action cards), as promised.
Total number of inserts: 9 (different) foiled premium cards, as promised.
Set completion: 87.2% (144/165 cards)
Different cards: 144 cards (108 player cards + 36 action cards)
Doubles: 108 cards (72 player cards + 36 action cards)


Probably most expensive card: #101 Alan Shearer (Newcastle) (Foiled)
Most happy with: #122 Joe Cole (West Ham) (Foiled)
Go after complete set? I’ll probably try to pick up the Alain Goma card somewhere, and I might also keep an eye out for the other cards, also because the foiled cards of this set sell a little cheaper than the foiled cards of the Calciomercato set.
Satisfaction rate: 70%

12 comments:

  1. Hi, I've started playing and collecting this since 10 over years ago. Just recently me ad my friends decided it's time to wipe the dust off the cards and start playing again. It seems pretty hard to find these cards or those packs again. Been googling but to no avail.
    Do you happen to know where will I be able to get those cards from?

    Greetings from Singapore! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hi contact me if you has some cards to sell thanks

      Delete
    2. Please contact me if you have extra cards to sell or trade. https://www.facebook.com/alvin.tpc

      Delete
  2. hi if someone has some cards to sell.. please contact me at marco.juventino95@gmail.com thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I do have cards to sell or trade. Do contact me if you are interested https://www.facebook.com/alvin.tpc

      Delete
  3. Looking for a few particular cards:

    Eng 02/03
    1. Henry
    2. Ljunberg
    3. Heskey
    4. Solskjaer
    5. Neil Sullivan
    6. Pablo Di Canio

    Italian 03/04
    1. Edgar Davis

    Italian Title Race 03/04
    1. Kily Gonzalez

    If there is any, please let me know.. Happy to trade or buy, https://www.facebook.com/alvin.tpc

    ReplyDelete
  4. I came across a box with 31 packs in. 1 was opened. But 30 of them was not. I could sell. Mail me at martensson.jimmy@hotmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. Contact me samonhalgate1@gmail.com I have very rare cards I might sell or trade including very rare promos thanks

    ReplyDelete
  6. Looking to sell my collection which includes:
    5x Theirry Henry's
    1x patrick viera
    1x frederik ljungberg
    1x giovanni van bronckhorst
    1x tony adams
    1x ronaldo when he was at inter (itallian)
    1x roy keane
    1x ruud van nisterlrooy
    1x harry kewell
    1x rio ferdinand
    2x teddy sheringham
    1x stephen carr
    1x jimmy floyd hasselbank
    2x shay given
    1x kevin philips
    1x emerson thome
    1x darko kovacevic (italian)
    1x emile heskey
    1x matt le tissier
    1x marian pahars
    2x louis saha
    1x paola di canio
    1 x trevor sinclair
    1 x thomas graverson
    2x fabian barthez
    1x david seamen
    1x gary and phillip neville
    2x david james

    I also have subbeteo cards 2002-2003 season
    3x theirry henry
    1x dennis bergkamp
    2x patrick viera
    1x craig bellamy
    2x keiran dyer
    2x micheal owen
    1x steven gerrard
    1x david beckham
    1x rud vansterlrooy
    1x ian hart

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hello!
    I would like to buy some of your cards. If you see this, please send me a pm on facebook:
    Oliver Grönblad/Oliver Gronblad

    //Sweden

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi I am looking for Roy Keane and Teddy Sheringham from the 2001-02 Base Set
    If anyone have those cards available please let me know
    https://www.facebook.com/kinkiu.yuen

    ReplyDelete