Tag Archives: autographs

Preview: 2011 Panini Absolute Memorabilia Football

  By Sports Card Blog | August 27, 2011 - 1:01 am |
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You want hits? You want a ton of unique memorabilia pieces and some sweet autographs from some of the top rookies and veterans of the game? 2011 Panini Absolute Memorabilia football brings it once again this year with fresh designs and some amazing patch cards.

There are 4 packs per box with 4 cards per pack. So this is definitely a hit per pack product in the higher end category for all you mojo chasers out there. Each box will yield 2 autographs numbered to 299 or less and 2 memorabilia cards numbered to 100 or less. You will also find 2 inserts/parallels and 2 rookies per box along with those.

What I like about a product loaded with hits like this is the fact they aren’t extremely over done. What I mean by that is the serial numbers aren’t extremely high on everything. Some products you might be able to find memorabilia numbered to like 500 or rookie autographed patches to numbers like 599. But Absolute Memorabilia keeps numbers low, but does usually have a number of subsets.

But some of those subsets are amazing. Shield autographs, brand logo autographs, and some awesome jumbo patch autographs that are a giant chunk of patches from these jerseys. As always, you’ll be able to find these types of cards from players like Cam Newton, Mark Ingram, and all the way up to current veterans like Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers. Don’t forget your Hall of Famers as well like Troy Aikman and Jerry Rice. This product is loaded with just about something for everybody. The rookie autographs are all on-card and they are from the 36 players who attended the Rookie Premiere, so that will add some extra value compared to the past few years.

And for those set builders there are 100 base cards to try and get your hands on and 100 rookies numbered to 499 or less so this is a very difficult set to put together.

This product should hit stores on September 21, 2011 at a price point around $150.

Make sure you check out this Knight’s Lance post from Panini for some more awesome images from this set.

How about some absolutely phenomenal patches?

Want to see the first box broken on video?

The 2011 Absolute Memorabilia checklist is now available!

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Preview: 2011-12 Upper Deck Black Diamond Hockey

  By Sports Card Blog | August 25, 2011 - 2:02 am |
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With 2010-11 Upper Deck The Cup less than a week away now, we look forward to the next season of hockey products. One of the favorites for finding new rookies is 2011-12 Upper Deck Black Diamond hockey. I know everyone loves rookies and Upper Deck really is giving 2011-12 Black Diamond collectors some treats in the rookie department this time around.

The newest case hit from Upper Deck in this product is Lustrous Rookies. If anyone remembers the “lustrous” sets from UD Black, this pays great homage to one of the best sets I’ve seen. I own some Lustrous Materials from UD Black and just love the design and the clear view through the card. The fact Upper Deck is bringing back a subset of near the same design is exciting to me.

Continuing with rookies, you can find 1 Ice Premieres rookie per box and as usual you can find 3 Triple Diamond rookies and 1 Quad Diamond rookie per box. You may also find a parallel of these as well in Ruby, Gold, or Platinum. As far as veterans go, you can find 6 Double Diamonds, 3 Triple Diamonds, and 4 Ice Veterans.

These box breaks are always filled with different versions and parallels. With 5 cards per pack and 24 packs per box, you are almost pulling one parallel or different version per pack of cards.

Another new card this season is the Championship Rings set, which is obviously going to be a favorite by me. An acetate-rainbow based card, featuring a giant ring on the card with a player from a championship team. Yes, I love acetate cards and Upper Deck really does acetate cards great justice with every acetate set they make and I love it. These can be found 1 every 3 boxes so they are limited.

Finally, you can find the usual Hardware Heroes, Gemography, and Black Diamond jerseys. A new twist with the Black Diamond jerseys is you can put the cards together to complete the background design of the card. I’d imagine if you found a booklet card display, you could put each card on each side and have a nice piece to look at, despite it not being hinged.

2011-12 Upper Deck Black Diamond hockey hits stores in December 2011, right in the thick of hockey season.

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Preview: 2010-11 Upper Deck The Cup Subsets

  By Sports Card Blog | August 21, 2011 - 1:10 am |
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Here is the counterpart to my post of some of the subset cards from 2010-11 Panini Dominion hockey. Now we at Sports Card Blog are featuring some of the amazing subsets from 2010-11 Upper Deck The Cup hockey! Now I just want to dive right into it as these cards look great.

Limited Logos:

 

These are amazing patches. There really isn’t more to say about it. Nice big patch windows, great multi-colored patches, and some nice hard signed autographs…absolutely beautiful to look at. The only thing that bothers me is the white stripe where the autograph goes, but that bothers me in every product too unless it’s placed in a good spot. I prefer the faded area of the photo set up for the autograph.

Property Of:

 

Just like the Panini version in Dominion. But these cards are still really cool and make great 1 of 1 cards and obviously Upper Deck was the first to do this type of card. Just a great subset anyone lucky enough to pull would be happy about. Although it would be cool to have an autograph on there somewhere, maybe on the stick?

Emblems of Endorsements:

 

Pretty cool looking cards with dual patches and an autograph. I’m not too keen on the window design here but overall it’s going to be a dynamic subset regardless and the design is pretty clean. Although the gold on gold lettering may not look great, we’ll have to see in person. Kind of like how you couldn’t read names and teams on this past year’s SP Authentic.

Honorable Numbers:

 

I still don’t get the point of having a dual autograph with the same person on it twice. They did it with SP Authentic and I thought it was terrible. They are doing it with The Cup and still think it’s terrible. I know Sidney won’t do dual autographs but seriously, this is the solution? Meh.

Rookie Booklets:

Actually I really like these booklets with the autograph on one side and some nice memorabilia pieces on the other. They have actually designed the exterior of the booklet better too since Exquisite football so I am excited that these will be inserted into the product.

Scripted Sticks:

I actually really like this subset too. If done correctly with the right color sticks and ink, it would make a great looking subset to complete the whole set which would be extremely difficult given the rarity of the cards. But it would make one beautiful set to put together.

I have more images on my other preview post of 2010-11 Upper Deck The Cup that you will need to check out. I’m just too lazy to do anymore repeat photos so just go see my other preview post.

Remember, it releases the last day of August 2011!

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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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