2011 - 12 Panini Elite Hockey Box Break Recap And Review

2011 - 12 Panini Elite Hockey Box Break Recap And Review

If you like shiny things, 2011 - 12 Panini Elite Hockey will make you very happy.  It frustrates me, but only because it is nearly impossible to scan the mirror finish base cards for review.  (If anyone has tricks for scanning foil, mirror, chrome cards, by all means, please pass them along.)  But other than the scanning issue, there is a lot to like here.

Elite Hockey falls into our premium cards category.  Each hobby box contains 20 – 5 card packs with four memorabilia or autograph cards per box.

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

Base Set

Alex Ovechkin, front and back

Rookies

 Aaron Palishaj, John Moore, Lance Bouma

Diecuts - Red

 Corey Perry, Pierre Marc Bouchard

 Ryan Getzlaf, Ryan O'Reilly, Saku Koivu

Die Cuts - Gold

Ryan O'Reilly

Inserts

 Gabriel Landeskog Rookie Stars, Martin Brodeur Starts

 Steve Yzerman Elite Series, Joe Sakic Elite Series

The Hits

 Brendan Smith New Breed Relic, Gabriel Landeskog Elite Materials Relic

 Paul Postma Rookie Auto, Ed Belfour Prime Numbers Autograph

Overall Look

While it is hard to tell from the scan, the base cards have a mirror finished that looks nice in person.  Fans of diecut cards will enjoy the ones found here.  In many ways the inserts look better than the unsigned relic hits, but all of the auto hits look great.

Quality and Variety of Players

The checklist is definitely rookie centric with 80 in total and 20 of the top being SPs.  With 200 veterans in the base set there is a nice selection of the top names in the game.  Retired stars can be found mostly in the autograph hits.

Do the Hits satisfy?

The hits here mimic the checklist with at least one hit being a rookie auto.  Just like with my box of Panini Dominion where I pulled a 1/1 printing plate, "Eddie The Eagle” Belfour comes through for me with a sweet looking Prime Numbers Auto.  It motivates me to want to complete the interlocking set but that will be a tough task.  Belfour’s set is based on his 484 wins which breaks down to 400 cards for the first relic card, 80 copies of my middle auto card, leaving 4 auto relic cards to complete the set.  Here is what the complete set would look like.

 At least it is not Patrick Roy’s set based on his 551 wins.  Only one collector will be able to put complete set together.  Other standout hits include the Social Signatures, which feature players autographs along with their Twitter handle, Elite Signings and Passing The Torch Autographs.

Will you keep coming back for more?

This is a set build for collectors who are hunger for hits within a reasonable price points so multi box purchases are well within reason.

Rating

4 out of 5

2011 - 12 Panini Elite Hockey does a nice job of taking Elite to the next level.



Review box provided by Panini