2012 Topps Magic Football Box Break

Packs Per Box: 24
Cards Per Pack: 8
Total Cards Expected: 192

Total Cards Received: 187
Total Veteran Base Cards: 98
Total Veteran Mini Cards: 16
Total Rookie Cards: 44
Total Rookie Mini Cards: 6

Total Insert Cards: 23

Supernatural Stars (1:4 Packs): (6) A. Johnson, A. Smith, B. Roethlisberger, A. Dalton, A. Foster, A. Bradshaw
Rookie Enchantment (1:6 Packs): (4) D. Martin, R. Griffin III, L. Kuechly, M. Claiborne
Magical Moments (1:6 Packs): (4) R. Gronkowski, P. Peterson, M. Jones-Drew, M. Stafford
Magic Autograph (1:9 Packs): (3) R. Lindley, L. Kuechly, M. Kalil
Charismatic Combos (1:12 Packs): (2) M.Vick/D. Jackson, M. Ryan/R. White
'48 Magic (1:12 Packs): (2) T. Richardson, T. Aikman
Black Border Mini Card (1:24 Packs): (1) Victor Cruz
Pigskin Mini Card (1:65 Packs): (1) Janoris Jenkins #/50

Our Thoughts:

Design of Base Cards: Simple but classic. See the picture and tell for yourself. It seems like something out of the 60's or 70's. The back doesn't contain season or career stats. It contains facts and a question about the player. I don't really like that.

Design of Inserts: Simplistic as well. There is no foil or raised cards except for the Rookie Enchantment cards. The backs of the cards are plain white with writing only. It isn't the wow factor that is going to sell these cards.

The box is OK. It isn't a blow me away product and nor should it be when you can obtain a box for less than $100. But there is a lack of innovation or fun in these cards. Everything is straight forward and would have been in place back when I was a kid. The autos are stickered. And it just seems like everything is just there. Nothing to say I really like the design or not even a "wow" at anything that was pulled.

The value is there for a box that costs about $70.  But that would be about the top end that I would pay for the box. You do get rookies in the product, and I pulled the Big 3 from the year, Luck, RG III, and Wilson. However, it just isn't a product that I feel like I would want to collect.

Box Value: 2.5 out of 5.

2011-12 Pinnacle Hockey Box Break

Packs Per Box:  24
Card Per Pack:  8
Expected Cards:  192

Common Base Set Cards:  175 out of 250.
     Duplicates:  6
Insert Cards:
Rink Collection Parallels:  (5) R. Whitney, C. Smith, P. Wiercioch, C. Atkinson, B. Saad
Team Pinnacle: (1) C. Price/P. Rinne
Tough Times: (2) B. Shoebottom, W. Clark
Breakthrough: (3)J. Van Riemsdyk, J. Skinner, L. Eriksson
Game Night Materials: (1) Claude Giroux
Threads Prime: (1) Marc-Andre Fleury #/50
Starting Six Threads: (1) N. Backstrom/A. Semin/K. Alzner/A. Ovechkin/J. Carlson/M. Neuvirth #/199

Our Thoughts:

Panini should have renamed this product as lacking instead of Pinnacle.  I expected more from this product and was disappointed in what the box contained.  To be fair, the product does guarantee two autographs or memorabila per box.  I received three, and the Prime variant of Marc-Andre Fleury was nice as well as pulling the 6 piece Washington Capitals card.  But it seemed like there wasn't much thought on the design of the cards or the inserts.

The base set according to Pinnacle are the 250 veteran cards, 30 Ice Breaker Rookie cards and 10 Ice Breaker Autograph cards.  Um, no.  The base set is the 250 veteran cards.  If you open a box and do not receive one single Rookie card, how in hell can you decide that they are part of the base set?  All the photos in the base set are orinentated so the card is longer sideways.  That is about the only plus to be found here.  The design is basic with team colors and doesn't inspire anything.  One of the coolest pictures is Card #125, Chris Neil of the Ottawa Senators.  He is in the locker room area about ready to go through some double doors and two large Senator logs around him.  The visual is real nice.  The worst photo is Marc-Andre Fleury on the ice during warm-ups skating around in a Pittsburgh Steelers helmet.  That is card #129.

The inserts are also just bland.  The jersey cards are just a picture with straight lines dividing the colors.  We got the team logo as well, but it doesn't do anything.  And who decided that a guy who played 35 games at the NHL level and accumulated 53 Penalty Minutes in those games as a Tough Guy.  I don't care what he did in the minors.  Bruce Shoebottom should not be in the Tough Times insert set. 

I paid $45 for this box and if it wasn't for the Starting Six Threads, I would have felt cheated.  As for a regular box, $45 is too high for this substandard product.  It is OK for a set builder, but that is about it.  The only other reason is if you feel lucky and want to try for an autograph.  But that seems to me something that you cannot bank on that one.

Box Value 1.5 out of 5.

2011 Panini Rookies & Stars Box Break

Packs Per Box:  24
Cards Per Pack:  8
Total Cards Expected:  192

Total Cards Received: 196
Total Common Cards: 160
Total Rookie Cards: (24) (B. Batch, K. Pilares, T. Sash, G. Carimi, R. Quinn, R. Housler, C. Liuget, M. Wilkerson, N. Enderle, G. Jones, T. Taylor, D. Watkins, N. Fairley, B. Harris, K. Sheppard, C. Allen, N Irving, A. Allen, A. Bradford, J. Mouton, J. Sheard, A. Williams, C. Brown, R. Johnson)
Total Insert Cards: (12)
     Rookie Revolution Jersey #/299: (1) Greg Little
     Rookie Revolution: (1) Jamie Harper
     Rookie Revolution Gold #/500: (1) Von Miller
     Studio Rookies Black #/100: (1) Mark Ingram
     Studio Rookies: (1) Delone Carter
     Longevity Gold #/49: (1) Curtis Brown
     Longevity Holofoil #/99: (1) Marvin Austin
     Longevity #/249: (2) Patrick Peterson, Ben Roethlisberger
     SP Rookie Autograph #/299: (1) J.J. Watt
     SP Rookies Signatures Emerald #/10: (1) Lance Kendricks (Redemption)
     Freshman Orientation Materials Prime: (1) DeMarco Murray #/50

Our Thoughts:

     First thing is that the base set cards are all orientated vertically.  I like that and wish that they would continue that theme throughout the insert cards except for autographs.  The card design is decent.  I don't like the way that the background fades out.  Either have the background go to a certain point on the card and stop or put the player on a team colored background and have it uniform.  The way it is now, it just seems cheap.  The Name of the product on the left hand side of the card is redundant.  You already have the card set logo on the upper right corner, so instead of the set name, put their position or some other info about the player.  The logo is OK in the upper left corner.  The back of the card is a good thing.  I am not a fan of one season and total stats, but they wrote a blurb about the player's 2010 season.  That makes it seem like they actually did some research on the players they included in the set.  The design from the front is incorporated on the back as well.  Overall, the design is well thought out.

    There isn't lots of inserts included in each box.  This product is basically for collecting you favorite players and hoping that you get a large hit in the limited amount of inserts you get.  That is fine, but the price for the box is a little high for that type of product.  I purchased the box at $80 and feel like what I received for the money isn't enough.  When I say that, I'm not talking the specific pulls that I got, but what would normally be in a box.  Let's say that you pulled a Jordan Todman SP Signature Rookie, the Greg Little Rookie Revolution Jersey, Freshman Orientation Jersey of Blaine Gabbert and a SP Rookie Signatures card of Ricky Stanzi.  That is 2 Autos and 2 Jersey cards.  Do you think that if you pulled those four cards, that you would feel like you got your money's worth?  I don't and that is a typical pull from a box.  Blaine Gabbert would have been that high money pull when this first came out, but with the value of time being present, you can see that the typical pull isn't worth the money I spent.

Last, but not least is parallels.  If you do inserts, please stop doing parallels of the inserts.  Call them something else and allow collectors to stop having to figure out which parallels they pulled.

Box Value:  2.5 out of 5.

2011 Panini Threads Box Break

Packs Per Box:  24
Cards Per Pack:  8
Expected Total Cards:  192

Total Cards Received:  195
Total Common Cards:  154
Total Rookies:  23 (A. Williams, R. Holman, J. Jarrett, D. Ausberry, T. Smith, J. Reid, C. Matthews, M. Cannon, J. Carpenter, R. Kerrigan, D. Sampson, A. Black, J. Jenkins, N. Enderle, T. Taylor, J. Sheard, N. Solder, B. Hogan, R. Johnson, M. Williams, A. Clayborn, B. Reed, L. Kendricks)
Total Insert Cards:  18
     Triple Threat:  (1) Chargers: Rivers/Gates/Jackson
     Silver Century Proof #/250:  (2) Nate Burleson, Donnie Avery
     Silver Century Proof Rookie #/250:  (1) Mason Foster
     Gold Century Proof Rookie #/100:  (1)  Aldon Smith
     Star Factor:  (3) Darren McFadden, Arian Foster, Knowshon Moreno
     Gridiron Kings:  (2)  Todd Heap, Jared Allen
     All-Rookie Team:  (1) Rob Gronkowski
     Generations: (1) Ed Reed/Darrelle Revis
     Generations Century Proof #/100:  (1) Ed Reed/Darrelle Revis
     Heritage Collection:  (1) John Brodie
     Base Set - Prime Jerseys #/99:  (1) Andre Johnson
     Rookie Class - Autograph Letter Patch: (1) Leonard Hankerson #/450
     Rookie Collection - Combo Material Card #/299: (1) Cam Newton/Jake Locker
     Game Day Jersey #/299:  (1) Cedric Benson

Overall Thoughts:

     The product is a decent one.  It is unique because each and every card was orientated the long way except for the Autographed Letter Patch.  The more that I look at the cards, the more that I like the one orientation theme.  However, the same thing that has irritated us in the past is prominent here in this product.  Everything is a parallel.  You get a veteran autograph, it is a parallel of the base set.  If you get an autograph of a rookie that is not the Rookie Patch, it is a parallel.

     I do like the design of the cards.  The small logo on the upper left does not distract from the picture and the team color stripes on the right hand side is a cool touch.  I wish that the entire career stats were on the back and possibly a profile head shot for the pic on the back as well.  But that is minor.  I give Panini props on this design.

     As for value, I purchased this box for $78.  At that price point, I feel like I received a decent value.  Any more than that and I might have felt cheated.  The Prime Jersey of Andre Johnson was cool and the Auto Letter Patch was great as well.  There were no major rookie cards of the 2011 class here, but that is fine with me.  You have to realize that not each and every box will have that prime pull and this one didn't.  One sore spot is the quality control of the amount of card in packs.  Some had 7, one had 10 and that should not happen.  Panini needs to figure that out.

Box Value:  3.5 out of 5