Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy New Year 2012

A big thank you to all of you who have followed us here at All About Cards in the past year.  I hope 2012 is full of great pulls for all of you.
These are just some of the hits from our 2011 box breaks.  The top row is all autos and the bottom row are swatch/relic cards.  It was literally too big to photograph.  I had to get out the 8 foot ladder and shoot two photos that I quickly pasted together.

Happy New Year!

2011 Panini Certified Football NFL Trading Cards Box Break Recap and Review


Freshman Fabrics, Hometown Heroes and Fabric of the Game means 2011 Panini Certified Football cards are here.  Once again, the Rookies Class is front and center so here is another opportunity to pull that player you might not have yet.

Certified Football falls into our premium cards category.  Each box contains 10 – 5 card packs, with 4 Autograph or Memorabilia cards with at least 1 Autograph card per box.

Here are some of the cards we pulled from our box.

 Base Cards
 Arian Foster, front and back

 Ryan Fitzpatrick, Matt Forte, Troy Polamalu

 Jared Allen, Jason Witten, Michael Vick

 Santonio Holmes, Steven Jackson, Tim Tebow

 New Generation Rookies
 Tyron Smith #/999, Jay Finley #/999

 Da' Quan Bowers #/999, DeMarcus Van Dyke #/999

Mirror Parallels
 Louis Murphy #/250, LeSean McCoy#/25

The Hits
 Delone Carter Freshman Fabrics Jumbo Swatch #/50

AJ Green Certifed Potenial Swatch #250

 Dez Bryant Mirror Prime Patch #/5

 Jerrel Jernigan Freshman Fabric Dual Swatch Autograph #/499

Overall Look
Base cards work well here.  Hit design here is classic to the Certified line of cards with the Fabric of the Game Team Die Cut cards making the best use of space.

Quality and Variety of Players
The balance here speaks of a Rookie class checklist with 150 veteran players base cards and 100 rookie cards.  While small and low numbered, the hits like Hometown Heroes and Immortals are really nice.

Do the Hits satisfy?
Again, this is a case of what you are collecting.  If you are concentrating on the Rookie Class, all is good.  If you happen to pull one of the veteran hits you will be very satisfied.

Will you keep coming back for more?
Most will be hunting for hits with Certified Football and will be looking to spread the risk by purchasing this in volume.

Rating
4 out of 5

2011 Panini Certified Football continues the great offerings for Rookie Class collectors.

Friday, December 30, 2011

2011-12 Panini Certified Hockey NHL Trading Cards Box Break Recap and Review


There is a lot of goodness that comes out of boxes of 2011-12 Panini Certified Hockey cards.  Chances are you will hit something nice, whether it comes from a top veteran of the game or one of the Freshman Fabric Autograph cards.  It doesn’t hurt that the base cards look great too.

We classify Certified Hockey in our premium cards category.  Each box contains 10 – 5 card packs. with 4 Autograph or Memorabilia cards per box.

Here are some of the cards we pulled from our box.

 Base Cards
Alex Ovechkin base, front and back

Ryan Miller, Dustin Byfuglien, Steven Stamkos

The Sedins, Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, Taylor Hall

Tim Thomas, Eric Staal, Brad Marchand

Ryan Callahan, Jordan Eberle, Cam Fowler

Joe Mullen Immortals #/199,  Johnny Bucyk Immortals #/500

Marc-Andre Fleury Masked Marvels

Travis Hamonic Collision Course

The Hits
Brent Burns Fabric of the Game Mem #/399, Brenden Morrow Mirror Dual Mem #/150

Eric Condra Freshman Signatures Autograph - Not Numbered

Jeff Skinner Fabric of the Game Prime Patch Autograph #/5

Overall Look
These are great looking base cards, front and back.  Kudos to Panini for securing a photo session with Byfuglien soon after the announcement of the Thrashers move to Winnipeg to become the Jets.  Hit design here is classic to the Certified line of cards.

Quality and Variety of Players
This is a nice selection for the 170 veteran players base cards. All 55 rookie cards are available autographed and checklists for the inserts work well.

Do the Hits satisfy?
You are bound to get a Fabric of the Game card that is your standard swatch and unfortunately the classic Certified design does not enhance those single colored swatches, but get them in the numbered version with prime fabrics and that design becomes easier to overlook.  What helps everything here is that the majority of the hits are very solid. 

Will you keep coming back for more?
Multiple boxes of Certified is understandable, especially if you are riding the way of a hot box or coming off a big hit.  As the first really premium offering of 2011-12 in hockey, collectors will be attacking cases.

Rating
4 1/2 out of 5

2011-12 Panini Certified Hockey is a great opportunity to flex collector’s premium muscles while pulling some great hits out of these boxes.



Review box provided by Panini

2011 Panini Gridiron Gear Football NFL Trading Cards Box Break Recap and Review


2011 Panini Gridiron Gear Football is a solid set of cards that can be a bit of a chase if you are trying to collect all of the base rookies.  With some nice hits, this set serves as a good middle ground between the set building of Prestige and Rookies & Stars and the premium hits of Certified and Absolute Memorabilia.

Gridiron Gear Football falls under our premium cards category.  Each box contains 18 – 8 card packs.  It says on the box you get 2 Autograph OR Memorabilia cards per box but I think it should be 2 Autos AND 2 Memorabilia cards because that seems to be the norm.

Here are some of the cards we pulled from our box.

Base cards
 Drew Brees base, front and back

Aaron Rodgers, Adrian Peterson, Tim Tebow

 Wes Welker, Frank Gore, LeSean McCoy

 Rookies - Denarius Moore, Prince Amukamara

 Base Card Parallels
 Matt Schaub #/250, Dane Sanzenbacher #/250, Marques Coleston #/250

 Peyton Hillis #/100, Robert Quinn #/100

Rookie Orientation
 A.J. Green non-numbered, Titus Young #/250, Jamie Harper #/100

 Ray Lewis - Rashard Mendenhall Crash Course #/250

 Arian Foster Breast Cancer Awareness #/250

The Hits
 A.J. Green Memorabilia #/299, Beanie Wells Prime Material #/50, Martez Wilson Auto #/299

 Vincent Brown Rookie Gridiron Gems Auto #/299

Overall Look
The design is pretty consistent with previous releases of Gridiron Gear. The inclusion of Breast Cancer Awareness cards is a nice touch. The standouts, from a design level, are the Rookie Gridiron Gems pulls out autographs and the Gridiron Signatures.

Quality and Variety of Players
There is a fine selection of 150 veteran players. At 100 total, the rookie cards checklist is deep.

Do the Hits satisfy?
There are many low numbered big hits here, but this is called Gridiron Gear so expect some of the bigger hits to come in the Memorabilia cards.  Even having said that, the autograph cards cannot be overlooked.

Will you keep coming back for more?
This is the type of product that crosses line, working for different types of collectors. Since only a handful of Rookie Cards can be found in each box, set builders will be in for multiple boxes breaks.

Rating
4 out of 5

2011 Panini Gridiron Gear Football is somewhat of a hybrid release that finds a comfortable place in the middle of the pack, providing opportunities for a wide range of collectors.