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

2011 Topps Gridiron Legends Box Break

2011 Topps Gridiron Legends

Box Contents:

18 Packs Per Box

8 Packs Per Pack

What We Pulled:

112 out of 165 cards -  67.9% Complete

2 Duplicates

15 Parallel Cards

Inserts:

15 Total Insert Cards

Aspiring Legacies (1:5 Packs) (4) - Bilal Powell, Stevan Ridley, Jerrel Jernigan, Shane Vereen

Gridiron Legacies (1:4 Packs) (5) - Tony Gonzalez, LaDainian Tomlinson, Drew Brees, Michael Vick, Matt Ryan

Legendary Combos (1:10 Packs) (2) - Calvin Johnson/Titus Young, Adrian Peterson/Christian Ponder

Aspiring Legacies Relic (1:10 Packs) (2) - Delone Carter, Colin Kaepernick

Aspiring Legacies Relic Parallels (1:250 Packs) (1) - Andy Dalton

Autographed Rookies Base Redemption Card (1) - Anthony Castonzo

Our Thoughts:

I started hanging my head with the first pack that I opened when seeing the Delone Carter Aspiring Legacies Relic.  And when I finished the box, that disappointing feeling that I had was still there and it grew throughout opening the packs of this box.  I hadn't done my due diligence before buying this and I assumed that something that has the name Gridiron Legends would focus on the legends of the NFL.  But this product doesn't do that.  It throws some legends in the base set cards and doesn't worry about them anymore.  I am starting to hear more and more rumblings from collectors about Topps products not being very good.  This is a fine example of that.  If you are going to use the word legends for this product, then label it as Topps Future Gridiron Legends or something similar.  But the title for this release gives images to the collector of something different.

As for the base set cards, I do like the design.  It is a simple yet effective design and Topps also put on old time logos for the legends.  The Rams and Chargers both had the football helmet with their logo on it for the Legends for their teams and the newer logos for the players of today.  I also like the fact that the Rookies in the set are an actual part of the set.  In the Carolina Panthers team run, Cam Newton is included around the veterans.  They don't make them the high number cards and insert them 1 out of every 4 packs or something like that.  As for the insert cards, they look like base set cards that Upper Deck put out at least a decade ago.  On one edge of the card, the card is colored in the team colors and the player is on the rest of the card.  Reminded me of Upper Deck Game Gear cards from 2001 I believe.  The relic cards are nothing special.  The Dalton is a gold card numbered out of 50.  And as always, I do not like redemption cards in a product.  The card companies need to understand that it is like laughing at the collector.  You don't have enough respect for us to actually get players to sign beforehand and have the signatures ready to insert even though planning of this product probably started at least a year earlier?  I also like that if you are trying to complete the set, that almost 70% of the base set is in one box.  If I do decide to buy another box, the completeness of the set is almost guaranteed.  If it doesn't happen, I will be one or two cards away from the set and that is an easy fix.

Overall, It isn't the worst box that I have ever opened, but it really isn't one of the best either.  If you can find a box for around $50, then you might want to buy it.  But when this product came out at more than $100 a box, then I am sure that people felt cheated.  The Hits included aren't impressive and the insert designs remind you of base set cards from yesteryear.  And in future releases of this product, I would hope that Topps pays attention to the word Legends in the product name.  If this was from a fledling company, I would say that it was an adequate product.  From Topps, I expect something better.

Box Value:  1.5 out of 5 Stars.

2011 Sweet Spot NCAA Football Hobby Box Break

2011 Sweet Spot

What We Pulled:

Packs Per Box:  4

Cards Per Pack:  8

Base Set Completion:  22 out of 100

Redemptions:  1
     2011 Sweet Spot Football Sweet Spot Rivalries Book Card Varied #'ing CD #SSR-WJ
              Bo Jackson/Herschel Walker





Inserts: 7

Todd McShay Scouting Report (2) - Torry Smith, Mark Ingram

 Chris Mortensen Retro Report (2) - Brian Bosworth, Bo Jackson

Sweet Spot Sweet Beginnings Autographs (2) - Colin McCarthy, Cecil Shorts

Sweet Spot Rookie Signatures (1) - Ryan Kerrigan

Our Thoughts:

While this would never be considered our favorite Upper Deck product that they put out each and every year, the product is unique due to the Rookie Signatures that they have.  I am disappointed in not being able to collect a set of base set cards unless you purchase 5 boxes of this product.  That is a major complaint that I have for each and every card manufacturer.  I understand that base set cards aren't what the true hardcore collector wants, but completing a 100 card base set should not require that you spend lots of money to do it.  This product is the lower end of the one autograph per pack sets, so there should be more value to the product to entice people to buy it. One way to do that is to make the base set easier to obtain.

I do like the fact that the inserts are 1 per pack.  Having Todd McShay and Chris Mortensen scouting reports as the inserts does bring a sense of the big time.  Almost everybody that follows sports on even a casual level knows about Chris Mortensen and Todd McShay has been a real fine analyst for ESPN for the past couple of years.  A big thumbs up for Upper Deck in having those two insert sets.

As for the one autograph per pack gimmick, it is an OK one, but it needs to be rethought.  Not the one autograph per pack, but who they are including in the autographs and how they are devising the autograph sets.  Maybe do the Top 50 college players in your set as 1st Round Talents.  The next 25 as Building Blocks For Success and the last 25 as your Rookie Signatures.  I would also do a College Hall of Fame subset of Autographs.  As for the autographs on the helmets, the quality control on those leaves something to be desired.  Maybe figure out how to put the helmet up further on the card and put the auto below or something.  Because I did open a second box and the Christian Ponder signature on the Florida State helmet is a C and a line then a P and an arc.  I expect more form the autographs than that.

Overall, while there are some drawbacks, there are some redeeming qualities about the product.   I don't need the NFL logo and team symbol on a card to enjoy the product.  And the fact that using the college teams for players does make the set seem a little more unique isn't a bad thing.  And while I don't like redemptions, I can understand that some have to be included if the item is too big to be included in the packs.  If Upper Deck can figure out how to make the autos on the helmets look better, then this product could be one of those that I look forward to each year when it is released.

Box Value:  2.5 out of 5 Stars.