REVIEW:2016 Panini Contenders Football+AUTO GIVEAWAY!

One of the hottest products on the market year in and year out, makes yet another return to the Gridiron for 2016 and what has been a pretty loaded rookie class. You know collectors like myself and others will be chasing those hot elusive rookie ticket autographs.

Did I pull one of those, well, read on!

In every box of 2016 Panini Contenders football you will find 24 packs of 5 cards per pack. Boxes state 5 autographs per but usually turn out to be 6. Boxes run high-endish at $170 per box.

You should also find per box

- 1 Parallel Card
- 3 Rookie Of The Year Contenders
- 2 MVP Contenders
- 2 Legendary Contenders
- 1 Touchdown Tandem
- 2 Round Numbers
- 1 Other Insert Or Parallel

The base cards every year in Contenders stay the same with just a few minor changes. I like the added team colors to this year product. The base set is 100 cards deep with NFL veterans of today.

Except one. Haven't figured out why Bart Starr made it on the checklist. First time I have seen this and it is weird since no other Legend is on the checklist.

Base cards have parallels to that include, Playoff Ticket #/249, Championship Ticket #/99, Cracked Ice Ticket #/24, Super Bowl Ticket 1/1, and Printing Plates 1/1

The insert themes remain the same every year with a different look. I mean, why mess with a good thing? 

The inserts all have the same parallels of, Gold #/199, Holo #/99, and Black #/10.

Rookie Of The Year.

MVP Contenders which Brown may be. What a season by him.

Legendary Contenders

Round Numbers including my guy Apple.

And Touchdown Tandems matching a teams top threats. These two were great together for the Titans.

I should mention before moving onto to the hits, retail has rookie ticket memorabilia cards and variations to those.

Now for the moment you have been waiting for, THE AUTOGRAPHS!

Up first, a points card. Yup, a bit disappointing.

Up next, the best of the box, Robert Kelley.

A Playoff Ticket parallel /199. Don't know who this guy is. But, that's also the fun of Contenders is finding those guys you can't in any other product. Like the first Roger Lewis Jr NFL autos from the NY Giants. I SO WANT ONE!!

Other parallels include, Championship Ticket #/99 or less, Cracked Ice Ticket #/24, Super Bowl Ticket 1/1, Printing Plates 1/1.

 

Just like in years past, there are Autograph Ticket Variations. The ticket variations are easy to discover this year however unlike past years. The vertical ones are the regular tickets, the horizontal are the variations. I found a variation, too bad it's a guy who may never see an NFL snap.

Most of the inserts in Contenders have autograph versions. You are also promised one on-card per box, well, here is the both of those things.

And my last autograph pull of the box, an NFL Ink of Ameer Abdullah.

 

Other hits not found in my box are,

Coaches Ticket Autographs (cool), Golden Ticket, Legendary Contenders Autographs, MVP Contenders Autographs, Rookie of the Year Contenders Autographs, Rookie Roundup Autographs, Round Numbers Dual Autographs, Silver Ticket, and Super Bowl MVP Autographs.

Overall, not the best of breaks for the price, but it's always a risk on a product that costs a lot. But, if you are going to gamble, why not gamble on one of the hottest rookie autograph products. You have a 1:6 shot of pulling a good player and if you do get lucky and land one, you are pretty much set.

Now onto the giveaway of this!!

  

First, THE PATRIOTS MUST LOSE!!! Then follow the other rules here,  PLEASE READ ALL.

1. Make sure you thank Panini America for this review box and check out their site for products like this one and others. Also thank Tracy Hackler and give him a Twitter follow too!
2. ***VERY IMPORTANT***MUST BE A U.S. RESIDENT to enter or have a shipping address in the U.S. Shipping costs have gone haywire and I can't afford to ship everywhere.This is always hard to do as I appreciate all readers but I hope you all understand non-U.S. readers.
3. Card may be shipped PWE. I like to forewarn on this. 
4. Random Winner chosen after 7 randoms
5. LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW telling me ONE PRO AND ONE CON OF THE PRODUCT for the break. PLEASE ALSO KEEP IN MIND I AM HOPING FOR GOOD PRO/CON FEEDBACK.
6. The Patriots must not make it to the Super Bowl. If they lose, you win!!! If they advance, contest will be moved to the Big Game so make sure you still comment as it will still count. Even if the Patriots lose this weekend, contest will still run a week just make sure to enter by the deadline.
7. Sport Card Collectors or it's owner (person who runs the blog), WILL NOT be held responsible for lost, stolen or damaged mail. Sorry had to add this in since someone tried to scam me once about this.
8. Contest starts today, ends on January 27th 2017. Winner will be announced in a separate post on January 2017 or February 2017 depending on when or if the Patriots lose.
9. Don't forget to thank the above sponsor of this contest and I won't mind a thank you as well :) 

Good luck to those that enter!!