REVIEW: 2012 Panini Gridiron Football

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.

We are going to start a new review process starting with this product. Just the wanting to showcase the cards more in-depth is the aim here. Let us know your thoughts on our new set up for reviews.

Box Design

Box Break Down:

• 18 Packs Per Box, 8 Cards Per Pack
• (4) Autograph or Memorabilia Cards Per Box!
• Boxes Run around $110

Find one of these per pack with codes you enter for a shot to win a trip to the Pro Football Hall Of Fame!!

Base Card Front

Base Card Back

More very photographic base cards

Base Rookie Card

Back of a Base Rookie Card

BASE CARDS: The base cards in Gridiron are spectacular. The photos are stunning and make you feel like you are apart of the action. Some even make you remember that play or special moment. With little border (border consists of a players name in silver and with a team colored background) these base cards really are all about telling a story. The rookie cards are found one per pack. The one thing I have against the base cards is the black on the back. It leads to easy noticed dings. And in our box anyways, we couldn't get a base set put together.

This is how the base set breaks down:

200 Commons
100 Rookies
And if you want to put together a master set you will also need the 35 Gridiron Gems Autographs.

Rookie X parallel

Back of the parallel numbered to 100

X parallel numbered to 250

Gold X parallel numbered to 100

4 other insert sets. The bottom Air Command is the Gold Parallel numbered to 100.

INSERTS: The designs for the inserts are not bad and most seem to have numbered parallels of. The one complaint would be the X parallels. You get three per box on average, {(3) Silver X's, (2) Crash Course, (2) Arms Race, (2) Aerial Assault, and (2) Monday Night Heroes per Box} but you can't honestly tell the difference between them and a base card without feeling the card. Yes..there is a indented X in the card. I could only tell when going through the cards to sort them something felt different about one of them and at first I thought it was a printer error. But I turned the card over to find out it was numbered and after further investigation finding it was a silver X parallel. Just look at the Ray Lewis and Troy P and tell me if you can tell?

 

AUTOGRAPHS:With at least 2 per box on average, you get a nice variety. I seem to be stalked by Bengals DT Devon Still as that is my third auto of his this year. The autograph design is the rookie one but with a red color X in the back behind the player. However..I really loved the Gridiron Gems rookie autos. Though my player may never step foot on the playing field, any card that has an oversized jersey swatch that is signed and that you can pull in and out (indent to pull it out at the top of card) is alright with me.

 

JERSEY/PATCH CARDS: This box landed this sick, sick patch.These prime pieces are numbered to 49.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: This product provides 1. great base cards to collect, 2. at least two autographs but you would have to assume most have 3 which gives you less of the game jersey and player worn jersey experience and 3. a deep checklist of auto's. Other than the X parallel there wasn't too many negatives about this product. The box seemed well worth the price. And you never know what kind of Gridiron Gem you could find.

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: 3
                Memorablila/Autographs: 4
                Blaster, Hobby Box, or Pack Value: 4