Retro Box Break: 2013 Rookies and Stars Longevity

What We Pulled:

Cards Per Pack: 5
Packs Per Box: 10
Cards Expected: 50
Cards Received: 54

Base Set Completion: 35% (35 out of 100)
Rookies: 10 (1 per pack) Dion Jordan, Mike Glennon, Christine Michael, Tyrann Mathieu, Bjoern Werner, Jawan Jamison, Onterio McCalebb, Denard Robinson, Matt Elam, Kenny Stills

Inserts:

Freshman Orientation Materials: (3) Geno Smith, Denard Robinson,Robert Woods
Cross Training Materials: (1) Markus Wheaton
Longevity Ruby: (4) Josh Freeman, Jordan Poyer, Santonio Holmes, Steadman Bailey
Longevity Emerald: (1) A.J. Green #/5

Opening Thought:

I do like the design of the front of the cards. The team logo and Last Name of the player on the team color down the left side of the card sets it apart from other cards. The veteran cards have action photos while the Rookies do have some shots of the players during training camp. The back of the cards are nothing too special. The last year stats, the career stats, and a blurb about the player.

The value from this box wasn't there. The material cards aren't worth much, although all 4 were colored, not white. The Emerald card helps because it is semi-star. The rookies didn't pan out.

Best card pulled: A.J. Green #/5
Worst Pull of the Box: Longevity Ruby of Josh Freeman

There are 21 parallels and insert sets in this release. You have Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald and Signature parallels for lots of the cards. That is too many for a release like this. But all the parallels are a staple of Panini products.

Overall Judgment:

I understand that each and every box that you buy is a crapshoot. There are boxes that will wow you and there are boxes that leave you feeling ripped off. Amazingly, this box was somewhere in the middle. If you go by value only, you would be the latter. But I like the design of the cards, there is a rookie in every pack, and there are 4 hits in each and every box. It would have been better if there was 1 guaranteed Auto in each box, but it was not meant to be. This isn't for a set builder, but for those that feel lucky. If you spend more than $50 on a box, you have overspent. But enjoy the cards and hopefully the pack gods smile upon you.

Rating: 2.5 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.

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.