2017 Contenders Draft Football Autograph Winners!

I recently busted a box of 2017 Contenders Draft football and promised to give some of the autos away, specifically these:

 

Well, today's the day. Technically yesterday was but I am a day late.

I was trying to decide how to pick a winner and decided my usual random of 7 times was the way to go. So let's see who wins the cards above.

There were 24 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Justin P
2. B money
3. Kyle Herring
4. Dion's IP Autos only
5. James Baurle
6. John Sharp
7. Justin S
8. Unknown
9. the bowl cut kid
10. Jim Pieper
11. Trevor P
12. hudsonfan15
13. Steve Wright
14. Nick Frank
15. GRADY MALACHOWSKI
16. mrs.mommyy
17. God's humble servant
18. ketchupman36
19. william parker
20. @funtocollect
21. Luke Enno
22. Tracy LeVeaux
23. Miami Vice
24. @JGfan24ever

IP: 72.169.80.90
Timestamp: 2017-05-18 10:52:39 UTC
You have randomized this list 7 times.

Congrats to Justin P on the win! Please email me me your info within 48 hours at sportcardcollectors@hotmail.com to claim. If not, cards will be re-given away in a future contest. Thanks to all that entered.

Stay tuned for more contests!

Top Shelf Hits!

I haven't been in a box break in over three years so time was due that I would try one out again. With so many options out there and new breakers daily, there were plenty of choices to choose from. But, for me the choice was a bit simpler. I wanted to go with someone I knew for a bit, someone who was trustworthy, and someone who had a good following that gives back to the hobby. That breaker or as they call themselves, the card concierges is Top Shelf Breaks.

I also think for the first time I sat down and watched each break I was in and was fairly entertained. I have been in 4 breaks overall and scored 3 out of 4 times. The one lonely loss was 2017 Donruss baseball box break. Loss just means I didn't pull a numbered insert or hit which is what they ship.

One of my break shipments haven't arrived yet, so here are the first two I did well with.

I first was in a box of 2017 Contenders Draft football that scored me this auto of Adam Shaheen who was drafted by the Bears in the 2nd round to be their TE. Not bad.

 

My other two hits I landed in was in a 2017 Diamond Kings baseball divisional break. I owned both the NL East and the AL West which landed me both of the hits in the box.

Barreto wasn't someone I had heard of, but a nice looking card still.

 

However, the crown jewel to my breaking was this card. Sweet Diamond Cuts auto card /49 of Gary Carter. Cards even sicker in person. This is my first cut auto I own so pretty stoked about that.

 

If you wanna pull some hits like I did or even bigger "monsters" as they have pulled plenty, check them out HERE. You can also follow them on Twitter for break updates and for giveaways. Good people. They even sent extras too.

I will post my next round of hits when they arrive so you can see a really nice parallel score from 2017 Score football. In the meantime, comments on today's mail day are welcomed and let me know if you have broken with them before.

REVIEW:2017 Panini Contenders Draft Picks Football 2-Box Break+GIVEAWAY!!

As I have stated many times, I have yet to open one-single pack of anything 2017 football. So I had little info on products this year. That had to change at some point didn't it?

Well, it did.

Here is a 2-box break of 2017 Panini Contenders Draft Picks and make sure you keep on reading as there is a pretty sweet giveaway at the end!

 

In every box of 2017 Panini Contenders Draft Picks football there are 18 packs per box with 6 cards per pack. You should find 6 autographs, yes 6, per box along with the following amount of inserts:

• 3 RUSH WEEK
• 3 COLLEGIATE CONNECTIONS
• 3 PASSING GRADES
• 9 GAME DAY TICKETS
• 6 SCHOOL COLORS
• 6 OLD SCHOOL COLORS

The base set is only 100 cards deep so it wouldn't be overly challenging to put together for you set collectors. The base set consists of players from today and yesterday featured in their college uniforms.

 

There are parallels to be found as well. This Kirk Cousins is a cracked ice parallel /23 I found in the first box. Pretty slick looking don't ya think??

 

There is also, Bowl Ticket /99, Championship Ticket 1/1, and Printing Plates 1/1.

 

There is an overabundance of inserts per box falling 2-3 per pack on average. The designs and themes are solid, but I feel there is a little too many and that they get lost in the midst of the product. It was becoming redundant to see them pack after pack that after awhile I gave up looking at names and focused on autograph hunting. Not something I usually do. I would like to see them cut down to maybe one per pack and maybe even do a few parallels with each to throw something else into the mix.

 

However, it's good for college team and player collectors.

 

Now onto the part that you guys have been waiting for....the pulls!

 

There are 185 autographed tickets to find in this product so it's very deep. You could find that late round or undrafted superstar hiding within. Look what Dak did last year.  They come with the following parallels, Blue Foil, Red Foil, Bowl Ticket /99 or /25, Cracked Ice /23, Playoff Ticket /15, Championship Ticket 1/1, and Printing Plates 1/1

 

There are also 47 variation cards to find as well. They are pretty much impossible to spot and there are no signs so I suggest you go to Cardboard Connections post HERE so you could easily spot them.

Box 1 provided a top pick in Soloman Thomas from the 49ers and a very nice /15 Playoff Ticket auto parallel of Darreus Rogers from USC. Chris Wormley is a nice find as well and should help the Ravens defense.

 

Box 2 was a tad weaker with the best find being a Noah Brown Variation Bowl Ticket parallel /99. However, Travis Rudolph who was signed by my G-men was a nice find as well.

 

Other pulls not found in my box include, OLD SCHOOL COLORS SIGNATURES, ALUMNI INK, PASSING GRADE SIGNATURES and RUSH WEEK SIGNATURES. So there is veteran and legend content included in this product as well.

OVERALL, well, if you are a die-hard college collector and fan, this product should satisfy you. It's too early to judge value per box on these as any of the rookies that were found in this box could be superstars. Not many big names here, but there are some mixed in. Time can only tell how valuable these two boxes will be later on.

Now time for a pretty sick giveaway!

To win this 4 card autograph lot, Soloman Thomas SF 49ers RD 1 Pick 3, Chris Wormley Balt Ravens RD 3 Pick 74, Budda Baker Arizona Cardinals RD 2 Pick 36 and Marcus Williams RD 2 Pick 42 of the New Orleans Saints you must read below:

 

1. Please make sure to take a minute out to thank Panini America and especially Tracy Hackler for providing these boxes for me to review and to host this/these nice giveaways with. Follow them on all social media sites and visit their site, HERE, as well.
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. Random winner will be chosen from all comments. I haven't decided on how to do the draw yet.
4. One Winner takes home all 4 autographs.
5. Card may be shipped PWE. I like to forewarn on this.
6. LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW telling me which one of the rookie autos I pulled above will be the best by seasons end and why
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 May 16th 2017. Winner will be announced in a separate post on September 17th 2017
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 all that enter and thanks for reading!

NYG Week Part 2:The Third Round Rookie

Now it's time for Part 2 (well three if you count my first post) of my trade with 90's Niche Football Card Blog .


Today's NYG Week showcase is of third round pick from Boise State, Darian Thompson.

 

This guy has been making an impact on the field and in practice. I am really hoping to see him on the field a lot especially after scoring this sweet rookie ticket auto in this trade.

The one position the Giants really struggled with, well one that stood out more on defense, was the safety position. I am hopeful with Landon Collins already in place and the addition of Thompson big things will happen this season.

Part 3 is on the way tomorrow!

2016 NFL Draft Card:Carson Wentz

Congrats to Carson Wentz on being drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles.

Review:2015 Panini Contenders Draft Picks Football

In Panini's first release with it's newly acquired CLC license, they decided to go with one of their top products to showcase to us what to expect from their new sport line of cards. I can say as a collector of mostly NFL cards, I did find this product intriguing. I wanted to see how Panini would approach this and how it would look on one of my favorite Panini products.

Did it pass the grade? Read on!

BOX BREAKDOWN:

In every box of 2015 Panini Contenders Draft Picks football, you get 24 packs with 8 cards per pack. In every pack expect an insert or two and every box should deliver 5 autographs with most landing 6. The cost of a box will run you just under $120 which is the norm for Contenders.

Each box should break down to the following:

•  5 AUTOGRAPHS
• 16 GAME DAY TICKETS
• 8 SCHOOL COLORS
• 8 OLD SCHOOL COLORS 
• 4 RUSH WEEK
• 4 PASSING GRADES
• 4 CLASS REUNION
• 4 COLLEGIATE CONNECTIONS

BASE CARDS:
The base card design is a carbon copy of the design of the 2014 Contenders. I wasn't really a fan of that but at least it was a nice looking one. The base set showcases veterans in their college colors.

There are 100 total base cards in the product. 

Back of the card

BASE CARDS?:
Yes, I put a question around these as I can't tell you if they are an insert or a base set of their own. Game Day tickets are where you find rookies at in the product and where I found top rookies like Gurley, Winston and Mariota to name a few. There are 100 in this set as well. Some may consider these an insert set, to me, it's an all rookie base set.

I do like the design on these as well and the touch of rainbow foil does just enough on them. 

Back of the card:

INSERTS:
I didn't pull one single parallel in my box but did pull plenty of inserts. Most are from the Contenders lineup. Most had a touch of foil like the Game Day tickets. I think just that little touch of rainbow color takes an ordinary card into something more special.

These next two are probably my favorite designed of the group.

 

MEMORABILIA CARDS: N/A but not needed in this product.


AUTOGRAPHED CARDS:
The design is the same as 2014, the only difference are the players and the use of college logos. I didn't hit it too big in my break, but, yet it's still too early to make any judgement on any of these players quite yet. You just never know. That's the fun of collecting a product like Contenders as they are the most sought after auto rookie cards on the market.

I must note also that this product has a strong autographed checklist of players already in the NFL as well. 

PATHETIC SIGNATURE!

My favorite autograph of the box. I am expecting BIG things from this guy!

Ooooops. What I meant to say above in inserts is that I didn't get any insert parallels, but I did get this one autograph of a Bowl Ticket. I must note that Mr. Smith has a beautiful signature.

 

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

I can't ever go against Contenders or bet against them. I didn't do very well in this box, but I have seen other strong boxes. It's still a fun bust as you hope to pull a top rookie or pro autograph and with 6 in a box and a deep checklist of players from all over, it's still worth the risk for the price.