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Review: 2012 Panini Rookies & Stars Football

By Sports Card Blog | August 29, 2012 - 8:39 pm | Football Breaks, Football Reviews

A product that I didn’t get a chance to preview, 2012 Rookies & Stars is a product that’s been coming out for years that features just as the product states, Rookies & Stars. The product features at least 2 autographs per box with 4 hits total. It also features a rookie card per pack and a bunch of numbered inserts and some parallels. The box itself boasts “find rookie material signatures featuring autographs and oversized swatches of event worn jerseys from the 35 rookies who participated in the 2012 NFLPA rookie premiere!” At 8 cards per pack and 24 packs per box, you get a ton of cards in the box. How about we see what we found in our box?

Design:

I have a love-hate relationship with the design of this product, but ultimately, my better side won the argument on whether I liked the design or really didn’t care for it. When I opened the product, the first thing I thought of was this product reminds me of the 2011 Threads design from last year. The top of the card features a stripe of the team colors, sort of like Threads from last year which featured the team colors on the side. Every time I looked at the stripe I thought of last year’s product, which kind of bothered me a bit. But the bottom half of the card looks great with a great use of foil on the letters and a cleaner design. There are some fantastic inserts as well like the die-cut pennants, Crusade and Greatest Hits insert set. Again, inserts like Statistical Standouts looks like it came from Prestige this year or Contenders last year. This product feels like it’s elements are just taken from other products which kind of annoys me. But in all, it’s not a terrible looking product at all and I actually like most of it.

Checklist:

This year, I make the same point as I made last year. This product should be called Panini Rookies. Just take out the “Stars” part of it. I received my four hits with all but the one jersey card being rookie autographs. This product seems to be filled with more rookies than anything else, and I like more of a mix of rookies and veterans, especially when this product’s title also mentions stars. I was lucky enough to receive 3 autographs in my box with product guaranteeing at least two. That’s great and all, but I would think if you were to hit 3 autographs at least one would be a veteran. Here’s a recommendation for the product, if you’re lucky enough to receive a 3 autograph box, have at least one of them be a veteran. Just saying. I’m usually critical of the rookie per pack thing, but in a product that has “rookies” in it’s name, I can accept that.

Value:

The breakdown of four hits for around $100 isn’t so bad. As I stated above in the checklist area, I’d love to have the extra third autograph in the 3 auto boxes to be a veteran autograph. Rookies come and rookies go, sure one of these could be worth a lot one day, but having the majority of your hits being rookies makes you feel like you aren’t getting anything bad. Unless of course it’s a top rookie, but those are harder to come by in general. A veteran autograph would really even things out a little bit here. Most of the inserts aren’t numbered either and I think that effects value a bit as well, but it’s not something huge. There are some sweet patch autographs in this product which should add some great value for some of the upper tier rookies, but I wasn’t lucky enough to pull them. Trying to find value in sports cards is usually a gamble, so I’m sure there are much better boxes out there than this one.

Overall:

Overall, it’s an average to very slightly above average product based on those factors. The design is solid, but it brings back too many memories of products from last season. Some may call that a bit lazy or uncreative, but there are inserts and elements I really do like. The checklist is generally solid as usual, but the product feels like it’s more rookie centered than a “Rookies & Stars” as the product describes itself. The value is a bit lower because of the large rookie population of cards, and although we didn’t hit a big rookie, getting 3 rookie autographs is a bit of a letdown. It would of been nice to have that bonus autograph be a veteran autograph to really showcase the “Stars” in the set. You can’t just have the only focus of the Stars in the product be in the plain jane inserts and plain jersey cards. I’d like to see more Stars content in this Rookie focused product.

As always, a big thanks goes out to Panini America for providing this box for review. You can find them online on their official site, blog, Twitter, or Facebook pages.

And here’s what may be in the typical box…

(Not shown: Rookie Material Autographs Dwayne Allen)

Review: 2012 Panini Score Football

By Sports Card Blog | August 24, 2012 - 7:08 pm | Football Breaks, Football Reviews

3 Comments

A low end hit from last year, according to this blog, is back again this year bringing one of the best values in sports cards. The $1 per pack product is back again for the 2012 season with a new design and some of the first rookie cards on the market for the new season as well as some of the easiest to collect. You get at least 1 rookie card per pack and at 36 packs per box, you get a ton of rookies. It is a product for all ages and collector types. Want to see how this product stacks up this year and what we pulled from our box…well, here it comes.

Design:

I’m not huge on the design of this product this year. It’s kind of boring and looks like a few 2011 products from Panini with the regular base design. The rookie design I just can’t stand. If they were closer to the hockey designs, I would have felt a bit better, but the rookie cards really need some color. The grey lines really don’t stand out at all and are kind of boring. There is nothing else that really stands out in the product either. I mean, it’s all decent looking but what the product is really missing is some color. It’s missing some vibrant color as the colors are just plain. In the Zone and Hot Rookies are very good looking cards, but everything else is just average. It was kind of a letdown. Also, I thought Panini was numbering the parallels this year? And what happened to all the other parallels?

Checklist:

You know what to expect with this checklist. There really isn’t any surprises. All the rookies you could want. All the veterans you could want. Even a few autographs you have the possibility of pulling. The insert ideas this year are pretty good, but I was holding out hope they would use my insert idea of touchdown dances. That’s just me though. If they used my idea, I would of snuck in an extra star. But again, another great product for set collectors, hit collectors, and everyone in between with the huge checklist.

Value:

Again, with the basic formula not changing, the value of this product is great. $1 per pack with rookies and the chance for autographs. I don’t know how many times I’ve said this but Panini really knows how to do low end products. I can pretty much copy and paste this area for every Score product as they all follow the same formula. How can you ever be disappointed with the price of this product? If you are, you need to re-evaluate collecting cards.

Overall:

Overall, of course this is another very good lower end product from Panini. The design was kind of boring to me this year, but I must admit I do like a few things about it. It reminded me too much of products from last season and the regular rookie cards are just a bore. The checklist is fantastic as always. With such a large checklist, it’s the perfect product for every type of collector out there. And every type of collector could afford it too. It’s $1 per pack which means how can you complain about it? Good work again by Panini on putting together and extremely affordable and fun product for all ages.

A big thank you goes out to Panini for providing this box for review. You can find them online on their official site, blog, Twitter, or Facebook pages.

Let’s see what the cards look like, shall we…beauty is in the eyes of the beholder:

Review: 2012 Panini Elite Football

By Sports Card Blog | August 23, 2012 - 4:09 pm | Football Breaks, Football Reviews

1 Comment

One of the staples of the Panini football season is long since released in 2012 Panini Elite football and I’m finally available to give you the review it deserves. Yeah, I’ve been away from the world for awhile touring in Europe for my honeymoon, but I’ve been wanting to write this review for quite awhile now. When I opened the box before I left, I had really hoped to be able to provide a review sooner. Weddings and honeymoons really get in the way of other plans sometimes. But needless to say, I have the review ready for everyone. It’s a bit late in the game with other products about to come out, but it’s still worthy to check it out. Let’s see what we got here…

Design:

To say Panini improved upon the design this year after last year’s product is an understatement. In fact, you could say Panini annihilated last year’s product and the product looks completely different. This looks fantastic and is something to build upon for the season. I enjoyed just about every facet of this year’s product from the awesome acetate cards that I’ve been bugging the industry about for the last year, to the Prime Numbers with little holes cut into the card, to even the solid base set. I’m not sure exactly what Panini did over there to get all these improvements done so fast, but I like it. I knew it was going to be looking good from previews, but I was still surprised even after opening the box. Good work.

Checklist:

A strong rookie class is always extra points for any checklist. And Panini’s usual supporting class in every product always helps as well. But something I’m not a huge fan of in this product is the amount of defensive players like linemen who are included in the autograph checklist. A card in which that I did pull. I’m also not a huge fan of the number of rookies in this product with 100 rookies available to pull. But that’s more of a personal preference. Other than that, you have your rookie talent which is plentiful, your veterans, and a few retired stars thrown in there as well. There’s always something for everybody.

Value:

In general I find most of Panini’s products to be overpriced a bit, so this being 4 stars is nothing new to my reviews. It’s a solid product value wise, but I think that has more to do with the awesome rookie class and an improved product in general. If it was priced a little lower it would easily be 4.5-5 stars so I’d definitely wait for the price to come down a bit. The big hang up for me is just some of the autographs on the checklist. See, I don’t mind if I get a 8th round quarterback autograph. At least it has the chance to rise in value someday. 2nd round defensive ends? They’re probably cost effective for the company, but the consumer isn’t always happy with it. It’s a thin line the companies toy with when it comes to rookie autographs. They include them for the fans, but a lot of collectors want some value in their purchases as well. It’s tough.

Overall:

Overall, it feels like a new direction for Panini football products. The design is one of the best for this product in recent memory and provides the kind of momentum they can bring to future products this season. The checklist is usually what you would expect, nothing surprising about it, but it always provides something for everyone whether you are picking up singles or opening single boxes and packs. The value is what you’d really expect at this point as well, but there are some issues that I think could be worked on. Overall though, Panini should be happy with how the product turned out this year. Last year was a wreck and they needed a big boost this year to prove to some of the doubters out there that they can make nice looking products. They did that this year.

A big thanks goes out to Panini America for providing this box for review. You can find them on their official site, blog, Twitter, Facebook, and everywhere else.

Oh, and here are some of what you might find in your own box. Let me know what you think.

Review: 2012 Panini Prestige Football

By Sports Card Blog | June 30, 2012 - 9:31 am | Football Breaks, Football Reviews

4 Comments

The first real football product of the season has been released and made its way to the masses. No disrespect to the unlicensed companies or Topps’ release of Bowman Signatures, but this is the first product where everyone is featured in their NFL jerseys, including the rookies.

Prestige has a brand new look after sharp criticisms from last year, along with a brand new style, and some great new photography. From the previews, it looked like Panini has taken a huge step forward with this product, and you will see just how much of a step forward it has taken in the review. So let’s see what we got and how it fares.

Design:

I may have given this only four stars, but it’s a high four stars. First, it’s a huge improvement over last year’s product and is more of something you would want to expect product after product from Panini. It’s not phenomenal by any means, but it’s a great start to the season and the new direction Panini is going with their designs. I especially love the Stars of the NFL insert set as well as the memorabilia versions. It’s a very clean and slick looking card that could be made for a foundation for any set out there and look good. But it doesn’t come without the drawbacks. The rookie inserts like the Passports and Draft Tickets are kind of redundant styles and are getting kind of…well for lack of better words, annoying. I love the idea and have always been fond of it, but too much of a good thing is bad. In addition, I’m not a huge fan of the Rookie Premiere photography and how it’s utilized. The bare stands in the background detract from the photo used and it either needs to be filled in digitally, cropped out, or filled with real people. Oh, did I forget to mention the Tim Tebow set in Prestige is gorgeous?

Checklist:

Besides retired players, this product has everyone you could want in the NFL. Retired players generally aren’t in early season products as they should revolve mostly rookies and current players. Panini does just that with all the great rookies and veteran talent in this product. As most collectors know, Prestige is mostly about the rookies and getting their first autographs and cards out there on the market. With on-card autographs from some of the top rookies and other great rookie autographs, it’s a great start to the season to get those in your collection before they explode. We were also able to pull a couple of veteran memorabilia cards as well with a triple game used card and a single color patch card of great players in the league. While we didn’t pull any veteran autographs, you can still find them in the product, although they are more rare than finding rookies.

Value:

At a little less than $100 a box, it’s not a terrible value for the product, although with the larger amount of rookie autographs, I would kind of price it a little lower to be better value in terms of price per box. However, the inside of the product isn’t terrible either. With a rookie class that is as hyped up as this class is, you’re going to find some good value, especially if you pull one of the top picks. We were lucky enough to pull a Trent Richardson autograph numbered to 299 in our box, which would give you a good chunk of your money back in just that one card. The patch card was a nice touch in this product and Jamaal Charles is a stud despite his injury last season, so that was a nice surprise as well. Finally, with this year’s Rookie Premiere having all skill positions invited, it provides the opportunity for any of these rookie autographs to explode at any moment with a big game or even a big season. And the base rookie parallels don’t hurt either.

Overall:

Overall, this is a huge step forward for Panini in their opening product of the season. It really sets the table for the rest of the season and I hope the successful changes in this product permeates through the rest of the products for the season. The design changes are a huge plus for collectors out there, and despite it only being visual, it definitely increases value a bit. The checklist is great for the first product of year featuring top rookies and veteran talent, even short printed cards featuring players in their new uniforms. Finally, the value is a little above average with the great looking rookie class and the autographs obtained, but it’s nothing spectacular with the price tag at $100 for a box of cards. Who knows though, you might get “lucky” with Mr. Luck or RG3, the big sellers of the product.

Thanks again goes out to Panini for providing this box for review. You can find them on their official site, blog, Twitter, Facebook, and everywhere else on the net.

Now check out the rest of the haul.