2012 Panini Elite Football NFL Trading Cards Box Break Recap And Review

How do you know a company is listening to its customers?  When direct feedback is incorporated into their products.  That is exactly what has happened with 2012 Panini Elite Football.  Besides dropping the Donruss name, Panini has removed what collectors felt didn't work and added some nice touches with some new inserts to make this a group of stylish looking cards and a product full of desirable hits.

Elite Football fits nicely into our premium cards category.  Each hobby box contains 20 – 5 card packs with a promise of four autograph and/or memorabilia cards per box with at least 2 of those hits being autographs. 

Here are some of the cards we pulled.

NOTE- As usual, shiny and mirror finishes are always difficult the scan.   These base cards look much better in person than can be captured in pictures.

Base Set

 Eli Manning, front and back

 Arian Foster, Troy Polamalu, Cam Newton

 Ben Roethlisberger, Marshawn Lynch, Clay Matthews

 Tom Brady, Tim Tebow, LeSean McCoy

 Matt Forte, Ray Rice, Von Miller

Philip Rivers, Reggie Wayne, Frank Gore

Base Set Parallel 

 Darren McFadden Aspirations Die Cut #/80

Rookies

Russell Wilson #/799, Ronnell Lewis #/999 

Chandler Jones #/999, Tommy Streeter #/999 

 Inserts

Elite Series #/999

Russell Wilson, Arian Foster, Antonio Gates 

 Melvin Ingram Rookie Hard Hats #/399

Jason Witten Craftsmen #/999, Aaron Rodgers Prime Numbers #/999 

The Hits

 Raghib "Rocket" Ismail Back to the Future Prime Memorabilia #/49

LaVon Brazill Autograph #/399, Stephon Gilmore Autograph #/599

 Case Keenum Rookie Hard Hats Autograph #/199

Overall Look

The mirror foil finish on the base cards is well done, players really stand out.  The backs of the base cards are stylish.  Lettering on the Rookie Cards is more refined as is the update of the Craftsmen inserts.   Have to love the clear acetate Rookie Hard Hats and the Prime Numbers inserts with their cool looking laser cut numbering. 

Quality and Variety of Players

With 100 returning veteran players the checklist is tight but full of talent.  The 100 rookie cards are great for prospectors.

Do the Hits satisfy?

There are some tremendous hits to be had in Elite.  The Passing of the Torch dual sided autographs look great and have amazing player combos.  The Rookie Hard Hats Autographs look fantastic.  It is hard to find a hit in this product that wouldn’t be a great addition to anyone’s collection.

Will you keep coming back for more?

Elite definitely feels like a two box purchase with aftermarket single searching.  For the more adventurous, deep pocket collectors, a case break could be easily justified.

Rating

4 1/2 out of 5

2012 Panini Elite Football has plenty of big hits and delivers a stylish looking set.