Review: Donruss Elite Football 2012

Elite is a what is said in the title..its ELITE. The addition of acetate to this product makes it one of the hottest products out on the market right now. Rookies in their NFL uni's, players that switched teams in their new uni's and some nice looking base cards makes me want more!

First off, I would like to say thanks to the WONDERFUL people at Panini America for providing us with this box to review. Here are many places you can find Panini America: official site, blog, Twitter, and Facebook.

And as always...we will do some giveaways from this product!

Here is my review:

 Boxes: Nice Design. RG3 and Andrew Luck. The layout is nice and it draws your attention to the amount of cards and how many per pack. I took a side shot of the box because I thought this is where you would find it on a shelf.

Packs: Brand name, cards per pack stare at you. Key rookies and the pack is shiny. All great things combined.

Base: The Silver cardboard always makes the base cards look stunning! Updated players in their new uni's are nice as well.

Rookies: I put this one separate because the rookie still have the silver cardboard, but they also have a rainbow shine to them that is very impressive!

 Inserts:  Parallels can be found in this product but we didn't get any. However, there is a nice variety and great looking inserts. A ton of creativity was used when Panini brought back Acetate (plastic cards) such is the case for their Hard Hats insert. The Prime Numbers insert is very cool. We tried our best to angle the card to where you can see that the number 1204 is see through. Its like Panini shot tiny bullets at it. Very sick. The other inserts are nice as well such as Rookie Elite Series and the Hit List insert has a simple but elegant design. The Craftsmen insert seemed to much of a base card look to me except they are all numbered, we got a regular version (numbered to 999) and a black parallel of, of Darren McFadden numbered to just 49.

Autographs: They took the nice rainbow looking inserts and added autographs. We were lucky to pull Morris Claiborne Aspirations die cut numbered to 49.  There is autograph versions of the acetate Hard Hats inserts as well and they seem to fall around one per box. We got Dre Kirkpatrick from the Bengals as a redemption card. What I like, other than the Acetate auto despite it being a redemption, is the rookie auto focus of this product. And they look really nice.

Jerseys: Nice design. A decent swatch. Unlike most jersey cards where the jersey is just put in there, this one kinda has a deep pocket it sits in. Its unique for a jersey card.

Overall: For a product around $130 a box. You get a nice mix of cards. The base cards are worth putting a set together, the rookies are worth collecting with the rainbow goodness, the inserts look nice, autographs are rookie loaded (you can also land some amazing veteran and legends autographs) and the jersey cards look great. There is no going wrong with Elite football.

Ratings:  Bloggers Note: Our ratings are based specifically on the blaster, box or packs we opened and do not express what the overall product could bring. Ratings based on a 1-5. 1 Being the lowest and 5 being the highest.
                Packaging: 5
                Base Design: 5
                Insert Design: 5
                Memorablila/Autographs: 4
                Blaster, Hobby Box, or Pack Value: 4