How to Spot an Authentic Panini Jersey Card. An All About Cards Consumer Tip.

The hobby of Card Collecting is made up of a community of kind people, willing to help you complete sets, build your personal collection and share information.   But as is often the case, there can be a few people who try to take advantage of other's kindness.   Sometimes they will even go so far as to alter or produce fake cards for profit.

One method that is used involves jersey cards, sometimes using a base card, imbedding a fake jersey swatch onto it and sometimes replacing a one color jersey swatch with a fake multi-colored patch in hopes of increasing the cards value.  

Fortunately, Panini puts an authentication identifier on their Jersey Pieces to ensure the piece of memorabilia on the card is real.   But identifiers can not be seen just by looking at the card.   

Here is a quick video tip with one method to see if the Panini jersey piece you have is a real.

Direct Link to the Video


This is not the only method.   Panini also provides an authentication service that uses the KODAK Traceless System for Anticounterfeiting.   If you have any doubts,  use this link to have your card checked out.  

Mysterious ARod 2011 Topps Heritage Card Surfaces on eBay.

We just did a box break of Heritage blaster and pulled 3 High Numbered Short Prints.

 Johnny Cueto card #450

Alexi Ramirez The Sporting News card #469

Alex Rodriguez card #490

Last night I did an eBay search to get an idea of just how short printed these cards are and stumble onto this auction that stopped me in my tracks

It was not the bid amount that made me take a pause, its was this.

Let me put these side by side for you.

ARod is flipped but the Yankee logos are not.   Have we stumbled across a super short print or an additional short print error card?

Perhaps this will provide a little help in figuring this out.   Card #490 from the original Topps 1962 release

Here is a portion of the back of the card.

and the 1962 Boyer next to the 1961 Boyer.

The 1962 Boyer was never corrected.   But this still doesn't answer how many of the lefty ARod cards there are compared to the Non-error righty Short Prints.

I'm still waiting to hear back from Topps.  I'll let you know what they have to say.

Our 2011 Topps Heritage Baseball Blaster Box Break on the first day of Hobby release.

It's live.   2011 Topps Heritage Baseball is available in all forms now so the chase is on.   To kick things off we ripped into a blaster.  Here are the results.

Direct link to the video

Grand Prize From Our Contest Provides Plenty of Mojo and Some Really Sweet Hits

It is better to give than to receive, at least most of the time.  To be honest, we've been giving away a lot of stuff that we would have been just as happy to receive.   On Super Bowl Sunday, we gave away our All About Cards 2010 Sports Card Awards Grand Prize Package, that you see above, to one of our readers.   All eight of the boxes you see went to Dodgerbobble, the lucky person selected at random from over 700 entries. 

As you can imagine, it took a little time for him to rip open all those boxes., but he's completed all eight and we are happy to report that there were some really nice hits.   Here is a gallery of the highlights from his pulls.   To see all of the hits plus video of the box breaks, use the following links to check out his blog (which is well done BTW and will be perfect for you Dodger and/or Bobblehead fans) and make sure to check back with us for more contests because we really do like giving away hits like these, especially to appreciative collectors like Dodgerbobble.

His First Baseball Card Pulls

More Baseball, NASCAR and Basketball

High End Football and Hockey

Gallery of Hits

 From Upper Deck Artifacts

 From Topps National Chicle

 From Panini Prestige Basketball

 From Press Pass NASCAR Racing

 From Topps Update

 From Panini Limited Football

 From Panini Limited Hockey

2010-11 Donruss Hockey NHL trading cards. An All About Cards review.

When Panini took over Donruss’ license, collectors were waiting to see what they would do with it.   With the release of  2010-11 Donruss Hockey, collectors can breathe a sigh of relief that the franchise is in great hands.  This set of hockey cards works so well, it is clear why it is the winner of the All About Cards 2010 Sports Card Award for Best Hockey Trading Cards.

2010-11 Donruss Hockey has a deep base/insert card foundation, so it is categorized as trading cards for the purposes of our review.  Each hobby box contains 24 – 10 card packs. Let’s take a look at the cards we pulled from the box.

First from the base set

 Alexander Ovechkin Base card front and back

 Jamie McBain Rated Rookie

From the inserts

 Felix Potvin Les Gardiens 

 Jamie Benn, Mikael Samuelsson and Teddy Purcell Boys of Winter

 Justin Bieber Fans of the Game

 Joey Kocur Tough Times

 Mike Bossey and Gerry Cheevers Ice Kings

 Jaroslav Halak and Zach Parise The Ultimate Draft

Our Hits were

 Rene Bourque and Peter Budaj Boys of Winter Jersey Cards

Montreal Canadiens Michael Cammalleri, Scott Gomez and Brian Gionta Line of the Times

Overall Look

These cards feel like an upgraded set while still retaining enough homage to Donruss releases of the past.   By combining Rated Rookies, Ice Kings and Donruss Elite lines, this set has a lot to offer.  The base card photography is great and the layout of the graphics and type is fantastically designed.  Les Gardiens acetate see through design is very cool and Ultimate Draft cards are as informative as they are attractive.  Ice Kings and Tough Times stand out as special cards.

Quality and Variety of Players and Subsets

300 players between the base and Rated Rookies and. great stars players of the past on Ice King cards make for a perfect lineup.  

Do the Hits hold up?

With the Line of the Times cards, Rookie Showcase cards, and plenty of autos, this set has some great hits.

Will you want to collect them all?

This is a strong entry for set builders and hit seekers alike.   Attempting to collect all of the base and insert cards is within range and could prove to be an exciting task. 

Rating

4 1/2 out of 5

2010-11 Donruss Hockey is an impressive first Panini/Donruss release and makes us excited to see what the future holds for Panini/Donruss products.



Review box provided by Panini

2010-11 Donruss Basketball trading cards. An All About Cards review.

Panini is trying new things while bringing back old names like Score and reinvigorating the Donruss franchise.  One approach has been producing modern cards with a bit of nostalgia that throws you back. With 2010-11 Donruss Basketball, Panini has produced a set of cards that will completely throw you back.  So much so that if you didn’t catch the small touches of foil and see players like Lebron, Kobe and John Wall, you just might file these away with your vintage wax.

2010-11 Donruss Basketball is categorized as trading cards because of its reasonable price point, and base/insert card foundation.  Each hobby box contains 24 – 10 card packs with the promise of 3 autograph or memorabilia cards per box, with at least one of those being an autograph.   There are also more that 20 die-cut and parallels per box.  Let’s take a look at the cards we pulled from the box.

First from the base set

Kobe Bryant base front and back 

Eric Bledsoe from the Rated Rookies

Die-cut versions of Yao Ming and Damion James base cards

From the inserts

Allen Iverson Jersey Kings die-cut

Eric Gordon Gamers die-cut

LeBron James Craftsmen

Chris Paul and Chris Bosh Production Line 

Our hits were

Joe Johnson Craftsmen Jersey

LeBron James Production Line Jersey

Ekpe Udoh Rated Rookie Auto 

Overall Look

This takes throwback to a new level.   You will definitely feel like you are holding Donruss cards of years past.  They’ve even added a slight sepia tone and washed out some of the colors to enhance the cards and give them an aged look.  The back of the card is vintage too with cardboard feel, vintage colors and old time font type.  The inserts are nicely designed and die-cuts work well here.

Quality and Variety of Players and Subsets

With 295 players, Rated Rookies, tons of parallels, die-cuts and seven insert sets you are covered.  Production Line cards are nice and Duos SP’s are great to chase.  Gamers is also a nice line of inserts.

Do the Hits hold up?

Three hits for an entry-level product is very nice.  There are some big names to go after so the thrill is there but the types of hits are constant with the products price point.   All in all, the hits hold up.

Will you want to collect them all?

There is enough here to keep set builders busy with the base cards alone. Adding the inserts, and parallels to the mix and this is a release that will keep basketball card collectors busy and happy.

Rating

4 out of 5

2010-11 Donruss Basketball is a great set to build for both new and seasoned

collectors,



Review box provided by Panini