Topps On-Demand Brock Lesnar Red Parallel

Last October I wrote about the 2017 Topps On-Demand WWE SummerSlam set. Not a lot of sets were ordered, so each set included several low-numbered parallels. Around the same time, I looked around a bit on eBay to see if I could pick up any of the parallels on the cheap.

I put in a few bids here and there, but the only one that stuck was for this Brock Lesnar Red parallel from the set. This one is numbered # 03 / 10. I am not a huge Lesnar fan, but I work with a guy who wrestled on the same high school team as he did, so I'll pick up a card of his here and there.

2017 Topps On-Demand WWE SummerSlam Set

Topps has several print-to-demand programs going. In addition to Topps Now programs for various properties, Topps also does Throwback Thursday sets and a program called On-Demand. Throwback Thursday is basically what it sounds like, a fresh take on an older Topps design. On-Demand is kind of a grab bag, with ideas that may not warrant a full product release. There have been On-Demand sets for Star Wars, baseball, a boxing match, a cartoon, Garbage Pail Kids, and WWE.

The WWE set was based on a SummerSlam theme, and offered a 30-card base set, 2 autographs, and a chance at randomly-inserted parallels. I think the original solicitation listed parallels numbered up to # / 99, but only 125 copies of the set were ordered (most people on Facebook and Twitter seemed to think the autograph list was too weak) and the parallels and autographs were changed so that the max print run on them was 10 copies apiece.

The base cards all have that swirly blue and orange background, with a big SummerSlam logo and the wrestler's name at the bottom. The backs have a write-up of the wrestler's SummerSlam exploits. I think it's a pretty fun set, and it's pretty cool that there are only 125 of them out there.

Due to the low ordering, my set was packed with four parallels. I got three Red parallels, featuring Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe, and Nia Jax. They are all serially-numbered # / 10. I was happy to pull the Nia Jax card for my collection of her cards. I wish the other names had been a little bigger. I also got a Black parallel of Big Cass numbered # 4 / 5. You can see the backs have a suffix on the card number that denotes the parallel type.

My two autographs were of the Red variety, again numbered out of # / 10. I mentioned in the comments of an earlier post that these are more initial-graphs than autographs, as Dean Ambrose and Luke Harper put the smallest amount of ink they could on these stickers. I think I would have preferred just about anyone else on the autograph list over these two, but those are the risks you take when you order this kind of product.