Category Archives: Product Previews

Preview: 2011 Panini Gridiron Gear Football

  By Sports Card Blog | August 20, 2011 - 1:01 am |
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One of my favorite football products since it’s inception, Panini is bringing back Gridiron Gear football for the 2011 season and I couldn’t be happier about it after seeing the recent Panini Peek of this product with a ton of great photos of what the cards will look like in this year’s product, some of which I will feature here.

The famous Gridiron Gems rookie pull out autographs are back again as usual and are a little bit easier to attain then in year’s past. These cards are built so you can pull the piece of player worn jersey out from the card and can view the autograph a little better that is signed directly on the cloth. One of the coolest concepts to use player worn memorabilia I’ve seen, these are always a hit in this product.

Each box of 2011 Panini Gridiron Gear consists of 18 packs with 2 autographs and 2 memorabilia cards per box along with 18 rookies and 9 inserts or parallels. Some of the autographs you can pull are NFL Gridiron Signatures which features a replica full size football field signed by the player that is embedded into the card. These are definitely cool concepts as I had the pleasure of pulling a similar style card this past year in 2010-11 Crown Royale hockey. There are also NFL Pro Gridiron Signatures which features embedded rubber helmets and signatures from only legends of the game. These are similar to the rookie autographs found in Panini Prestige this past year I do believe. There is also a Plates & Patches subset with a game worn patch and nameplate patch from the jersey as well as an autograph which are numbered to 10 or less. There are definitely a lot of great autograph subsets this year to collect.

I am loving the autograph subsets and can’t wait to grab some of these when this product comes out in November. Make sure you check out the Panini Peek of 2011 Gridiron Gear football for more awesome images from this product. Again, this is one of my personal favorite products in the football arena over the past few years so I am especially hyped about this product and I think it’s one of Panini’s better football products out there. But how can you complain with these beauties?

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Preview: 2010-11 Panini Dominion Hockey Subsets

  By Sports Card Blog | August 19, 2011 - 12:30 am |
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With 2010-11 Panini Dominion and 2010-11 Upper Deck The Cup arriving soon, I thought it would be fun to go over some of the subsets from each product with a little comment on each. Of course, there will be pictures too! With these two juggernauts going head to head at the end of the month, it’s only natural to want to compare the two. So up first, we have some of the subsets from 2010-11 Panini Dominion hockey.

Rookie Auto Patch:

Oh Taylor Hall, how I have avoided you in every product I’ve opened this year is remarkable. My last chance is Dominion and I would love to pull this autograph patch from a box. Very nice clean area for an on-card signature and a nice big window for a sweet patch. This is a very pretty card that any collector would love to pull from any rookie.

Bonded in Silver Dual Signatures:

This looks a lot like the 2010-11 Panini Luxury Suite design but with a Stanley Cup in the middle. While I think it could look better, the lettering really stands out and the dual on-card autographs look good. I’d just prefer something we haven’t really seen before.

Strapping Lads:

I can’t help but laugh when I read the title of this subset. Strapping Lads. Ah yes…Sidney is a strapping young lad now isn’t he? But this is all about game used fight straps and the little buttons look pretty sweet on the card. I also enjoy the design here with the lettering on the left. Original designs for the product are always good!

Franchise Legends:

Oh Panini, why such a small piece of jersey in this high end product?

Had It, Stamped It:

While the title may be a little corny, the cards definitely are not. Look at those name plates from their sticks…so beautiful looking and a pleasure for anyone to pull.

Pen Pals:

I’m not liking the name here either, but the cards still look good again. I prefer something like “Linemates” or something along those lines when using dual autographs like this.

Got Your Number:

I’m not sure about the design on this card, but the idea of having similar players with the same number is intriguing at least.

And there are tons more! Including NHL Shield patches, more stick cards, a Hartford Whalers subset, and even signed tape used on the player’s sticks! There is even more then that too, this is just a little taste of what can be found when the product goes live in the first couple weeks of September.

Just check out my official preview of Dominion for some more links to see some more awesome cards in this set.

Coming up soon is some images coming from 2010-11 Upper Deck The Cup!

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Preview: 2011 Upper Deck SP Authentic Football

  By Sports Card Blog | August 18, 2011 - 2:34 am |
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Your favorite rookies and veterans are back for another season in their college uniforms for 2011 Upper Deck SP Authentic football! Some of the hottest rookie cards on the planet come from this product with the SP Authentic autographed patches. Although these are in their college uniforms and not what they once were in terms of how people collect them, they still hold great value if you’re looking for some of the top rookie cards of your favorite players.

2011 Upper Deck SP Authentic comes out with a 100 card base set including 100 1998 styled SP Future Watch cards. You can also find SP Autographed Patches, SPx Rookie Autographed Jersey cards, and SP Signature Threads Autographed Jersey. And I must say, with last year’s SP Authentic football looking kind of boring in the insert department, these look a lot better than last year, especially if you’re lucky enough to pull a SPx pack because those cards look phenomenal.

Each box will yield 3 hits including one SP Autographed Patch card. You may also find 4 SPx packs per case featuring an SPx Autographed Jersey in every one of these packs. This adds a cool little addition to the SP Authentic brand by including some SPx styled cards. There will also be at least one SP Autographed Jersey per case. Your other hits normally consist of plain signatures. You may also find dual, triple, or even quad autographs from some of the games legends, veterans, and rookies from players like Troy Aikman, Barry Sanders, Mark Ingram, Cam Newton, and more!

You can find this product on shelves February 7, 2012, at around $115 per box.

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Preview: 2011 Topps Finest Football

  By Sports Card Blog | August 14, 2011 - 1:01 am |
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2011 Topps Finest football, a staple in the Topps family of products, has returned and is looking much improved over the past few seasons of product. With a completely different look, new die-cut rookies, and some sweet patches included this year, 2011 Topps Finest football looks like an early hit with all collectors.

Every master box will contain 1 numbered rookie autographed patch, 1 autographed jumbo relic, 2 atomic die-cut rookie cards, and 2 Finest Moments insert cards. The great thing is that all rookies will be featured in NFL uniforms, as like Topps Inception, they will be edited onto the players to create a nicer look.

Each rookie autographed patch is numbered and comes in 5 different parallels up to a superfractor 1 of 1. These include 35 top rookies from this year’s draft who also appear in the base set. 20 of these rookies are featured in jumbo patch autographed cards numbered to just 5. There will also be at least 1 variation of these rookie autographs per case. You can also find those 35 rookies plus a select list of 15 veterans in the jumbo relic autographs as well available in 4 different parallels. You can also find dual and triple autographed relics as well.

You can find even more rookie autographs in the Finest Moments subset as well as other veterans of the game. So this appears to also be a very rookie heavy product.

But what should be a hit amongst collectors is the rookie die-cut atomic refractors. These rookies are die-cut beautifully and can even be found in an autographed version if you are lucky enough to find a superfractor. These cards look absolutely beautiful and I love the die-cut design being brought back by alot of companies. Finally, you should find 2 Finest Moments inserts as well, common with Topps Finest over the years.

Oh yeah, there is also 5 base cards per pack as well. But no one REALLY cares about those anymore. But they look great with 8 different parallels. You will find 12 packs per master box so that breaks down a good number of these beautiful cards.

This product is set to arrive on August 30, 2011, for a price at about $90.

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Preview: 2011 Upper Deck College Football Legends

  By Sports Card Blog | August 13, 2011 - 1:50 am |
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Keeping with the spirit of college football and training camps around the country, it’s time for a Sports Card Blog two a day! The first preview has already been posted so this second preview will be part of today’s two a day. This preview is featuring college football and from what I’ve seen, may be Upper Deck’s best college licensed football product to date, 2011 Upper Deck College Football Legends.

College football legends is exactly what you will find with this product. You will find cards from some of the greatest college football players to ever step foot on the field. Some of these players have never had an autographed card out on the market before either.

Each box will feature 20 packs in a box with 5 cards per pack. The base set is a nice 100 cards and you will find a bunch of low numbered inserts like Bowl Game Heroes, NCAA All-Americans, Decade’s Best, and College Inscriptions with all of these having hard signed on card autographs! Every box will feature 3 of these autographs from some of the top players of college football history in their alumna’s gear. You can find some great names like Troy Aikman, John Elway, Adrian Peterson, and Steve Young amongst other great names.

You will also find cards from 26 different Heisman Trophy winners like Tim Brown, Eddie George, and Cam Newton.

2011 Upper Deck College Football Legends is set for it’s freshmen season to begin on October 25, 2011, for a price around $115.

Check out the 2011 Upper Deck College Football Legends checklist.

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