2011 Topps Platinum Football Box Break Recap and Review

It’s Rainbow time for Football collectors as 2011 Topps Platinum NFL Trading Cards arrive.  These are premium cards with an emphasis on the different colored parallels and xfractors.  As with Bowman Platinum for baseball, without the understanding that this is intended for parallel chasers, Topps Platinum Football can appear to be a hugely hit or miss kind of product, when, in fact, it delivers on its intent quite well.

Topps Platinum falls under our premium cards category.  Each box contains 20 packs with 5 cards per pack.  Each box delivers 3 autographs, two of those will be Rookie On-Card Autograph Refractorts and one will be an Autograph Refractor Patch Relic card.

Here are some of the cards we pulled from the box.

 Philip Rivers base, front and back

 More base cards, Drew Brees, Adrian Peterson, Aaron Rodgers and Andre Johnson

 Gold parallels come one to a pack

Maurice Drew-Jones, Matthew Stafford, Larry Fitzgerald and Brian Urlacher

 Green Parallels - Odds are 1 in 10 Packs

Peyton Manning and Brandon Pettigrew

 Red Parallels - Odds are 1 in 20 Packs (we beat the odds)

Cedric Benson and Brandon Lloyd

Calvin Johnson Die Cut - Odds are 1 in 20 Packs

 The best of our rookie cards

Shane Vereen, Von Miller, Jake Locker and Christian Ponder

 Rookie XFractors - Odds are 1 in 4 packs (short 1 which could explain the extra Red we pulled)

 Nick Fairley, Ryan Kerrigan, Marcell Dareus and DaQuan Bowers

Von Miller Blue Parallel #/299

Here are the hits.

 J.J. Watt On-Card Auto #/1550

 Stevan Ridley Green Parallel On-Card Auto #/150

Redemption card for a, or should I say the, Jerod Mayo Auto Superfractor Veteran Patch Card 1/1

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Overall Look

These cards look great.  The design elements on the front walk the fine line of supporting the isolated photos of the players, keeping the card interesting without being too busy.  The backs are complete with everything you would want from bio to stats to personal info.  All the color parallels work well too.

Quality and Variety of Players

At 150 base cards, this list of players is a very nice mix of current greats of the game and incoming rookie class.  Small detail, but I also appreciate that in numbering the set, Topps mixed the rookies in with the veterans, making it one cohesive unit, rather than two groups of players in one set.

Do the Hits satisfy?  Are the cards too base heavy?

On-Card Rookie Autos, Patch Autos, die cut cards and various colored parallels are super hits.  Short of the problems with rookie prospecting, you should be very satisfied.

Will you keep coming back for more?

For Rainbow collectors, multiple boxes of Platinum is easy to see.  If your needs are just a specific player from this set, aftermarket singles are the way to go. 

Rating

 4 1/2 out of 5

2011 Topps Platinum Football should keep both prospectors and rainbow collectors very happy.

2010-11 Panini Dominion Hockey Is Sold Out But You Can Still Win a Box!

This is really exciting news from Panini America that was just released on their blog, The Knight’s Lance.  You know have a chance to win a box of 2010-11 Panini Dominion Hockey cards directly from Panini America.  I’m not going to even try to alter the copy because I want you to read this now and get yourself entered as fast as you can.  It would be great if one of our readers here at All About Cards won a box of these incredible cards.  Please remember, this is Panini America’s contest, not ours, so make sure you follow the rules.

So here it is directly from Panini’s blog.

Well, that didn’t take long.

Panini America officials announced today that the company has completely sold out of 2010-11 Dominion Hockey after just one week on the market. And judging by how well the high-end hobby newcomer has been received by collectors, it won’t be long before the product vanishes from dealer shelves as well.

But luckily for you, you’re friends here in the marketing department have managed to procure two unopened boxes of 2010-11 Dominion Hockey and we’re just itching to give them away. So that’s exactly what we’re going to do. And here’s how we’re going to do it:

Head to your local hobby shop anytime between tomorrow (September 23) and Sunday (September 25) and buy a current HOBBY box of 2011 or 2010-11 Panini America trading cards.

Post a video or pictures of your bust on the Panini America Facebook page by 11:59 p.m. (CST) Sunday night. The video or pictures from your bust need to CLEARLY show the receipt from your purchase for verification purposes.

On Monday morning, we’ll spend some quality time perusing all the eligible entries and select two winners at random to receive one box of 2010-11 Dominion Hockey. It’s that simple.

Doing something you love, supporting the hobby and a chance to win. Sounds like a good way to spend the weekend to us.

Good luck.

2011 Panini Threads Football NFL Trading Cards Box Break Recap and Review

Most media has changed to the letterbox/widescreen format.  2011 Panini Threads Football cards have that feel as every base card is printed landscape, a non-traditional design started last year. What is different from last year is the backs of the cards do not carry that design.  They are printed in the traditional portrait manner

We classify this set as trading cards. You can find them at retail outlets and your local card shop.   Hobby Boxes come with 24 – 8 card packs and you’ll find at least 4 Autograph or Memorabilia cards per box.

Here is a look at some of the cards we pulled from our hobby box.

 Cedric Benson base, front and back

Notice the shift from landscape to portrait

 Adrian Peterson and Nate Burleson photos from their base cards work really well landscape

Numbered parallel #/100 and base of Joe Flacco

 Ahmad Bradshaw and Todd Heap, both #/250

Rookie card for T.J. Yates

 Numbered Parallels of rookies Stephen Paea and Chris Conte, both #/250

 Gridiron Kings inserts of Kevin Boss and Brandon Jacobs

Mark Carrier Heritage Collection

Philadelphia Eagles Triple Threat Michael Vick, LeSean McCoy and DeSean Jackson

 Philip Rivers, DeSean Jackson and Mike Wallace Star Factor inserts

Colt McCoy All Rookie Team insert

Generation Numbered Parallel #/100 and insert of Marshall Faulk and Steven Jackson

And the hits.

Tim Tebow All Rookie Team Memorabilia #/299

Patrick Willis Gridiron Kings Jersey #/299

Miles Austin Prime Patch #/99

Von Miller Rookie Class Nameplate Letter Patch Auto #/300

Overall Look

Football is definitely the sport to print landscape.  Seeing more of the playing field adds to the card but also makes photo selection more difficult.  Isolate a player and the card feels empty. While these are some really nicely designed cards from the front, I’m unsure why Panini decided not to carry the landscape design through to the back of the cards this year.  I definitely like that look better.  The insert cards are really well done, The Heritage Collection, Star Factor and Gridiron Kings inserts are standouts.

Quality and Variety of Players and Subsets.

150 base cards, 150 rookies.  But 50 of those rookies only appear in hit cards.  There are no base rookie cards for Cam Newton, Mark Ingram, Andy Dalton, or any of the other big name players.

Do the hits hold up?

The Rookie Class nameplate autos and Rookie Collection autos are very nice.  The rest of the hits are mostly material memorabilia cards, which makes sense for a product named Threads.  Besides the red-hot rookies, the coveted, rare pulls are the Troy Polamalu autographs.

Will you want to collect them all? 

The 150 player base set and some of the inserts are desirable, but without the important rookies on base cards, you might just stop there.  Unless you are interested in putting together your favorite rookie’s complete nameplate, in which case you’ll be doing a lot of aftermarket shopping.

Rating

3 1/2 out of 5

If all of the elements of 2010-11 Panini Threads Football were as good as the fronts of the base cards and some of the inserts, this would be a tremendous set.  The card back design and lack of regular cards for top name rookies detract from the overall appeal.