Sunday, September 18, 2011

2010 Crown Royale Football Hobby Box Break

2010 Crown Royale

WHAT WE PULLED

Packs Per Box:  4

Cards Per Pack:  5

Cards Per Box:  24

Base Set Completion:  12 out of 235

Base Set Rookie Cards Pulled:  (4) - Everson Griffin, Dan LeFevour, Carlos Dunlap, Blair White

Parallels: Rookie Blue - (1) Zac Robinson

Redemptions:  2

- 2010 Crown Royale Signatures (1)
- 2010 Crown Royale RPS Rookies (1)

Inserts:  9

Royalty (2) - Maurice Jones-Drew, Dexter McCluster

Majestic (1) - Sammy Baugh

The Zone (1) - Pierre Garcon

Living Legends (1) - Charley Taylor

Kings Of The NFL (1) - Dallas Clark

Kings Of The NFL Materials (1) - Matt Forte

All Pros (1) - Chris Cooley

All Pros Materials (1) - Jonathan Stewart

Our Thougths:

Another Panini product, another Panini failure.  8 different insert sets in this release.  There are 235 base set cards and 235 insert set cards in this release.  That means that an insert card isn't special.  There are also different levels of parallels, so more inserts than base set cards.  Just a repeat of every other Panini release.

I do like the fact that the base set card are die-cut while the inserts are a typical card shape.  The insert card designs are real busy but not so busy that they are ugly.  Again there are too many insert sets.  And they could have combined some of the different insert sets.

I hate that there are two redemption cards.  Pony up some cash and get the players to sign before the production and release of the product.  And the fact that Panini gives you two different redemption times of 4 months or 8 months is unfathomable.  At the longest, the redemptions should take a month.  And the people that answer inquiries into if the redemptions are available do not have the correct information.  Kelly, the other person behind KBee Cards had three redemptions from Panini, called after 4 months and asked if they had any of those cards that he was supposed to get.  He was told that they didn't and he accepted the offer of replacement cards because the company did not know if they would ever have the cards that he was supposed to get.  So they sent out some cards to Kelly.  And when he opened up the package, it was like viola!  The William Baldwin auto he was supposed to get was there.  The Chuck Howley auto/Jersey # out of 20 that he was supposed to get was in there and the third card that he was supposed to get was also in there. 

Overall, this release was one of the worst that Panini has produced since buying Donruss.  The same things that plague other Panini releases are in this one as well.  The thing that makes it worse is all the redemptions in the product and the lack of customer service for Panini that actually means something.

Box Value:  1 out of 5 Stars

Saturday, September 10, 2011

2009 Rookies And Stars Longevity Football Hobby Box Break

2009 Rookies And Stars Longevity Box

WHAT WE PULLED


Packs Per Box:  10

Cards Per Pack:  5 (6 if pack has jersey card)

Cards Per Box:  50 to 53

Base Set Completion:  46 out of 185

Base Set Completion (w/o Rookies):  39 out of 100
Duplicates:  0

Parallels:  4

Longevity Ruby (2) - Tony Gonzalez, Rashad Johnson

Longevity Sapphire (1) - Eugene Monroe

Longevity Gold (1) - Thomas Jones

Inserts:  3

Longevity Materials Ruby (1) - Reggie Bush

Longevity Materials Sapphire (1) - Peyton Manning

Freshman Orientation Materials (1) - Shonn Greene

Our Thoughts:

I was excited to open this box of cards.  After all 10 packs, 3 pulls and possible rookies of the 2009 class.  After seeing what was in this box, I am going to say that I will not be purchasing another box of this product. 

The first thing that disappointed me was the design of the set.  I want the player's name to be clear, so there is no problems in telling who it is.  I don't need the names weathered so there are bits and pieces missing.  They do have mostly picture shots of the players, so that is a plus.  Another pet peeve of mine came through in this product.  If the player goes undrafted, do not include him in the set.  Graham Harrell is the player that went undrafted.  His rookie card has the Texas Tech logo and him in a Red Raiders uniform.  There are too many parallels, but that is a trait that Donruss which has become Panini will continue.

I was hoping for one autograph out of the 3 hits that the box delivered, but I wasn't fortunate.  I can't complain about the pieces of memorabilia that I did recieve.  Manning, Bush, and Shonn Greene are recognized names.  And I did smile when I opened one pack.  It was pure quarterbacks.  Kerry Collins, Peyton Manning, Graham Harrell, Donovan McNabb, and Tom Brady.

Box Value:  2 out of 5 stars.

Friday, September 9, 2011

2009 Certified Blaster Box Break

2009 Certified Blaster Box

WHAT WE PULLED

Packs Per Box:  3

Cards Per Pack:  5

Cards Per Box:  15

Inserts:  3

Mirror Gold # to 25:  1 - AJ Hawk

Mirror Red # to 250:  1 - Jake Delhomme

Souvenir Stamps # to 99:  1 - Jeremy Maclin

Our Thoughts:

I found this box for $15 online.  And it did guarantee either one piece of memorabilia or autograph.  I did get the piece of memorabilia on the Souvenir Stamps of Jeremy Maclin, but with a piece of event-worn jersey that small, it was a big disappointment. 

The other two packs had the mirror parallel cards and I wasn't surprised about that.  Certified has been doing that for years.  About all the regular set cards, the pictures were too big for the card.  Every player had the top of his head cut off.  I understand that there is nothing important about the top of the helmet, but the way that it gets cut off really detracts from what looks like a good card design. 

Box Value:  1.5 out of 5 stars.