Single Card Mail Day:2023 Panini Obsidian Lightning Strike Autograph Isaiah Hodgins

 

It's easy to get caught up in the now when it comes to NFL cards. 

Of course, you want the top rookies and players. Of course, you want the newest and hottest rookies for your team. Of course, you want this and that but when the dust settles and you can find a nice team PC card for well under $5, you grab it.

$3 for this Isaiah Hodgins was a bargain for a player who has great skills but plays for a team that lacks in offense. This marks my second autograph of his in a NY Giants uniform and my fifth overall autograph of him.

I am hoping with a revamped offensive line, a healthy Daniel Jones, and maybe some play calling by Daboll himself, that Hodgins will have the same impact he did in his first year as a Giant.

Single Card Mail Day:2023 Panini Obsidian Lightning Strike Orange Autograph Jessie Armstead

One thing I have really enjoyed about Panini football releases in 2023 is the number of players they pumped into products that you don't see every day.

Especially NY Giants.

In 2023, players like Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora, Brian Daboll, Tom Coughlin and today's subject which is the randomest of them all, Jessie Armstead.

Jessie Armstead was one of the many great NY Giants linebackers over the years. He played from the Giants from 1993-2001 and was apart of the NY Giants Ring Of Honor.

Jessie made a lot of plays over the years but the one that stands out to me is his Super Bowl pick six for a touchdown that was called back because of a holding penalty. Which was a bad call and changed the outcome of that game as momentum was on the Giants side. The game would have been tied at that point but instead 10-0 because Baltimore kicked a Field Goal soon after. In my mind, that was a scoring play and will always be one.

I am glad to be able to add his autograph to my Giants collection finally as he was one of my favorite Giants players of the 90's.

Let me know if you have added any obscure autographs to your collection recently!

Lightning Strike

Despite being a Top 10 pick, a Super Bowl MVP, 2x Super Bowl champ, 2x Pro Bowler, almost 200 career TD passes, and owning more than 10 NY Giants team records, Phil Simms doesn't quite get the hobby respect you would think he has earned.

Most Simms cards you can add to your collection for pretty much next to nothing for his accolades, that's even in comparison to my Rodney Hampton collection that is more costly.

This beautiful autograph you see above, $10. Yes, you read it right, I landed it for $10. I thought I had a steal but comparing it to other Simms autographs, it seems I am right in the same ballpark range as most of his autographs go for $40 and under. That once again is mind blowing to me.

Even though my favorite Giants QB will always be Eli, I will always welcome Phil Simms cards and autograph cards when they come at a cost like this.

Giants Cardboard:Rooting Them On

  

It's always hard to watch the NFL Playoffs when your team is not in, but I usually find a player or team I root on. A lot of the time these players or teams may have former Giants on them or are simply players I collect or enjoy to watch.

This year there is one team in each conference I am keeping my eye on.

In the NFC, Tampa Bay is slowly rolling through the playoffs and beat the Saints yesterday. Yes, they are led by one of the greatest QB's to ever play the game but my eyes are on Jason Pierre Paul. 

Pierre Paul was drafted by the Giants in the first round of the 2010 NFL draft and played 7 seasons, won 1 Super Bowl and played in 2 Pro Bowls for them before they traded him in 2018 to the Bucs for a third round draft pick and a swap of 4th rounders. Seems like a loss for the Giants in that trade and was the beginning of their house cleaning and downward spiral. JPP had a big first year with the Bucs recording 12.5 sacks something the Giants could have definitely used with their lack of QB pressures until this year.

In the AFC, I am rooting on the Chiefs. Actually, I am rooting on the Chiefs to win it all. It would be okay to see JPP win another title but I don't think it would be to see Tom win another as he has enough. I am a big Patrick Mahomes fan but I also like the Chiefs defensive coordinator Spags as well.

Steve Spagnuolo, was hired in 2007 to be the Giants defensive coordinator by coach Tom Coughlin. The season started out tough for his schemes but once the players bought in, they bought in. He led that defense to beat the undefeated Patriots team in Super Bowl 42 in which he sacked Tom Brady so much Tom forgot what game he was in. A couple years later he earned a job as head coach of the STL Rams that didn't go well. He then bounced around different teams before returning to the Giants in 2015 where he led the Giants to one of their worst defensive outputs in team history before the 2016 turnaround where they ranked 10th in the league.

When the Giants began their house cleaning job in 2017, Spags was apart of it. He became the Chiefs defensive coordinator in 2019 and turned their defense into a Super Bowl winning one.

My hope this upcoming weekend will be that the Chiefs and Bucs prevail and set up a Super Bowl where I can just sit back and not care who wins.

As for the Giants, there seems to be some hope. They have a young nucleus, a good head coach and I feel just a few players away from a playoff spot.

Their biggest issue is not having enough offensive weapons with their two only bright spots being

Darius Slayton who was drafted in the 5th round of the 2019 NFL Draft has put up decent numbers with 98 receptions for 1491 yards and 11 TD's in just two seasons. He also has a lot of chemistry with QB Daniel Jones. If he could have stayed healthy in 2020 those numbers could have been higher.

The other bright spot is Super Star RB Saquon Barkley who was drafted 2nd overall by the Giants in the 2018 NFL Draft.

His rookie year was astounding and he was amazing to watch. He put up 1,307 rushing yards, 721 receiving yards and 15 total (11 rush, 4 rec) touchdowns. He looked unstoppable.

A high ankle sprain in 2019 lingered throughout the season but he still managed to put up another 1,000 yard season and had some impressive runs.

In 2020, Week 2 against the Chicago Bears he tore his ACL ending his season. He ended with 34 rushing yards on the season as it was a rough start to begin with. I think if he had stayed healthy, the Giants may have won a few more of those close games they lost later in the season when the offensive line started to gel.

I am looking forward to the 2021 NFL Season. I say this every year that I feel the Giants are a team on the rise but it took til this year to actually feel it. If they can build more offensive pieces around Jones to go along with these guys next year could finally be the take off year I have been waiting for. Maybe for once I will actually have my team to root for in the playoffs.

Thanks also to @CardpocalypseNC for this Giant mail day.

REVIEW:2018 Panini Obsidian Football

Obsidian is Panini's latest high end football product. From the previews and box breaks I saw before mine, it looked pretty solid. Especially in design.

Let's take a gander out how my break went of the product.

 

In every box of 2018 Panini Obsidian Football there are 7 cards in one pack. Four of those cards will be hits. Boxes run $150. So you're expecting a lot out of the 7 cards you find.

The base set is beautiful.  Black background with lightly foiled silhouettes of players behind the focused player. The product uses optic chrome technology to bring out it's beauty. Each base card is numbered to 100 and there are 100 rookies and 100 veterans to collect. It won't be easy to build a base set.

The cards also remind me of an 80's video game with the design. It's really fun to see. My one and only base card was of Ravens QB Joe Flacco. I don't see this guy starting next season.

Here was the rookie from my box in Jaylen Samuels.

I found a parallel as well. You can tell by the foil this is a green parallel. Just compare it to the ones above. These are numbered to 25.

 

Other parallels you can find are, Purple /75, Orange /50, Yellow /10, Red /5, and White 1/1.

Now onto the hits since I didn't pull any inserts. There are some in the product.

Hits have the following Electric Etch parallels, Orange /50, Green /25, Yellow /10, Red /5, and White 1/1.

My first hit, Galaxy Gear patch of Baker Mayfield. Pretty solid swatch and it's an orange parallel /50.

Richie Taylor autograph. I have no idea who this is.

Pretty solid Corey Davis autograph patch card /50

And the best pull of the box, a Jason Taylor Aurora autograph yellow parallel /10. There are a lot of fun names on the Aurora autograph checklist including a guy named Tom Brady.

Other hits not found in my box include,

• Rookie Jersey Autographs
• Rookie Jersey Ink Dual Relics
• Award Winners Autographs
• Hall of Fame Signatures
• Lightning Strike Autographs
• Matrix Material Autographs
• Super Bowl Signatures
• Atomic Material Relics
• Cutting Edge Relics
• Rookie Eruption Relics
• Volcanic Material Relics
• Vitreous Die-Cut 

OVERALL: The product looks really nice from the base all the way to the hits. However, 7 cards for $150 is rough. My box was okay I suppose, but not great compared to others I have seen broken. The product overall however is full of big names and those names you don't always see like the Jason Taylor I pulled.

I think for a product like this it's best to stick with a box break and I strongly recommend using Midwest Box Breaks for your breaking needs. They are always hitting the big pulls so if they are breaking this, you could put yourself in a good spot.

Please thank Panini America and Tracy Hackler for providing this box for me to review to giveaway some of the hits in my Christmas giveaway!! Please follow them on all social media sites and visit their website for all your card needs, HERE.