2012 Panini Rookies & Stars Football NFL Trading Cards Box Break Recap and Review

Perennial favorite, Panini Rookies & Stars Football, returns for 2012.  The base cards have been revamped, but it still remains one of the better values for you collecting dollar.  While the hits are more about the rookies, the stars are well represented too.

We classify R&S as trading cards. You can find the cards at retail outlets and your local card shop.   Hobby Boxes come with 24 – 8 card packs with 4 Autograph and/or memorabilia cards per box.

Now here are some of the cards we pulled.

Base Set

 Arian Foster, front and back

 Calvin Johnson Jr., Julio Jones, Cam Newton

 Drew Brees, A.J. Green, Peyton Manning

 Antonio Gates, Fred Davis, Brian Urlacher

 Jason Pierre-Paul, LeSean McCoy, Wes Welker

Base Rookies

 Dontari Poe, Melvin Ingram. Dont'a Hightower

 True Blue Base Parallels

Brandon Jacobs, Jermichael Finley 

 Torrey Smith, Jason Witten

Terrance Ganaway, Rishard Matthews, Fletcher Cox 

 Longevity Base Patallels

Hakeem Nicks #/249, Stephon Gilmore #/249 

Inserts

Statistical Standouts 

Marshawn Lynch, Calvin Johnson Jr. 

 Eric Weddle, Matthew Stafford, Ray Rice

 Greatest Hits

 Jon Beason, Patrick Peterson

 DeMarcus Ware, Asante Samuel

NFL Team Pennant (Die-Cuts)

 Minnesota Vikings, Denver Broncos

Player Pennant (Die Cuts)

Ben Roethlisberger

The Hits

 Joe Adams Rookie Materials True Blue #/399

A.J. Jenkins Rookie Crusade Material Red #/199

George Iloka Rookie Card Autograph #/499

 Andrew Luck Rookie Materials Autograph #/499

Overall Look

Last Year Rookies & Stars saw a slight upgrade in design, with an almost zen palate of pure white cards that included a splash of the player with names and team logos used just as accents. While this was a somewhat upscale, sophisticated style, this year’s base cards return some solid layout and design elements.  Now team colors are used for bordering and player names are pronounced and clear.  Team logos are now reserved for the backs of the cards.  Speaking of the backs, all the pertinent information needed can be found.   Standout inserts are the die-cut pennants.  Hit cards are well laid out to effectively display materials and autos.

Quality and Variety of Players.

150 veteran players, 65 rookies.  Certainly a tight checklist for set building. This is a really nice size that ensures quality players.

Do the hits hold up?

You have to like when you have as equal a chance of pulling one of the hot rookies of this year’s draft class as you do puling one of the rookies you have to hope will make it big over time.  For the hits, this set leans towards the Rookies more so than the Stars, but there are still some amazing cards to be pulled.  The box I broke was exceptional, but because of even distribution, not out of the ordinary.

Will you want to collect them all? 

Set builders will be all over this.  If you like the styling of the cards, it is easy to see wanting to collect them all.

Rating 

4 1/2 out of 5

2012 Panini Rookies & Stars Football is a solid base set with some nice hits to boot.