Thursday, February 16, 2012
2011 Panini Limited Football Video Box Break With Some Nice Mojo
2012 Topps Tribute Baseball Gets Even Better With Big Name Autographs And Encased Hit Cards
Last year Topps Tribute Baseball was one of our favorite products. It was loaded with big
name pulls at high percentages and we benefited from that by scoring a Hank Aaron Triple Bat Relic Autograph card.
Now the chances of pulling your own Hank Aaron auto have
increased. Topps announced
today they have included an additional 100 Hank Aaron buyback autographed
cards, all of which will be extra hits.
That was good enough news alone, but there is also word that
Topps has decided to encase all of the hits, Autograph and Relic cards, found
in this year’s Tribute and seal them with a Topps Tribute Authentication
sticker. An example of that is the
Sandy Koufax Autograph encased card pictured above. This takes an already premium product and makes it even
better.
In addition, Topps has been previewing special 1/1 on-card
autographs that include an inscription directly from the player on their
Twitter account. Once again, a
great reason to follow them @toppscards on Twitter if you aren’t already and
while you are at it, you can follow us @allaboutcards too.
And to sweeten the deal even further, there have been
several new additions to the on-card Autograph checklist like Albert Pujols,
Cal Ripken, Ken Griffey Jr., Ernie Banks, Carl Yastrzemski and Frank Thomas.
With the familiar 3 autograph and 3 relics hits per box,
2012 Topps Tribute Baseball releases March 7th. By all signs, Tribute Baseball should repeat with a jump in
price shortly after the release date due to demand, so make sure you get your
preorders in now.
2011 Panini Plates & Patches Football Video Box Break
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
2011 Panini Plates & Patches Football NFL Trading Cards Box Break Recap and Review
What happened to Plates & Patches? Last year it was such a solid product,
nicely packaged in a wooden box with a slabbed hit. 2011 Panini Plates & Patches has done away with the
upscale packaging and encased hit which would be OK if what ever those cost
saving entail were thrown back into the cards to make them even better this
year, but unfortunately that is not the case here.
Plates & Patches falls under our premium cards
category. Each hobby box contains
10 cards with a promise of three autographs and two memorabilia, but our box
was shorted one card, which happens to be one of the autograph hits.
Here are the cards we pulled from our box.
Roddy White Base #/299, front and back
Sidney Rice #/299, Stanley Havili #/100
Kenny Britt #/50, Peyton Manning City Limits #/249
Mason Foster Autograph #/199, Knowshon Moreno Dual Jersey #/50
MarK Sanchez Jersey #/299, Jonathan Baldwin RPS Rookie Signautres Redemption #/499
Calvin Johnson Prime Jersey Logo #/5
Overall Look
There is a lot of foil here and all of the lettering is
embedded in it. The white marble
background is a nice choice but the City Limits cards were better last
year.
Quality and Variety of Players
Rookie prospecting is all the rage in Football, but as a
post-season product this checklist is overloaded with these first year
players. This checklist could and
should have been pared down. There
are even names within the 36 Rookie Premiere group that could be dropped at
this point, but most likely Panini is contractually obligated to keep them, but
then why add an additional 100 rookies, most of whom had little impact, to the
mix, especially when the majority of the autographs are coming from that
pool. No question, there are some
big name pulls within the other cards, but those tend to be extremely low
numbered case hits.
Do the Hits satisfy?
Unfortunately the emphasis on the non Premiere Rookies here
detracts from the overall impression of the other hits. Yes there are some big pulls to find,
but the majority here seem to be rookie autographs.
Will you keep coming back for more?
This is one of those momentum builder products, hit a good
box off the bat and you probably will be dipping in for seconds.
Rating
2 1/2 out of 5
2011 Panini Plates & Patches Football might work better
early in the season when expectations are high, but as a post season product
when player values have been determined, it feels out of touch.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
2011 Panini Limited Football NFL Trading Cards Box Break Recap and Review
Limited Football returns this year holding on strong to its
familiar configuration. It is a
slight bump up from last year’s offering with cards that are a little more
aesthetically pleasing. 2011
Panini Limited Football is a nice and easy box break.
Limited Football fits nicely into our premium cards
category. Each hobby box contains
8 cards with a promise of one autograph, one memorabilia card and one other
autograph or memorabilia card per box. Here are the cards we pulled from our
box.
Knowshon Moreno base #/499, front and back
LeSean McCoy #/499, Jom Otto Legend #/499
Niles Paul Phenoms #/499, Chad Ochocinco Spotlight #/50
Steve Bartkowski Legend Materials #/99
Jerel Jernigan Initial Steps Materials #/99
Mark Ingram
Overall Look
If you like shiny mirror foil, these are the cards for
you. Players really stand out
against the mirror finish with nice muted background images that enhance the
design.
Quality and Variety of Players
This is one par for a limited offering. It relies heavily on the 2011 Rookie
Class but still offers up some big name hits.
Do the Hits satisfy?
Are the cards too base heavy?
The star hits here continue to be the Material Phenoms
Rookie Cards. They look great and
if you hit the right rookie, it will quickly ascend to one of your best pulls
of the year. Hit one of the
legends autos or the nice lineup of big name autos and you will be quite happy.
Will you keep coming back for more?
Limited is definitely one of those products that is a
multiple box purchase.
Rating
4 out of 5
2011 Panini Limited Football delivers a familiar, solid box
of cards with the potential for some big pulls.