REVIEW:2017 Elite Football (Solid Pull)

A long standing product in the Donruss and Panini line, Elite makes yet another return for 2017 with a lot of similarities to last year.

 

So let's see what 2017 has to offer shall we?

In each box of 2017 Elite football, you will find yourself enjoying 20 packs of 5 cards. There should be 3 hits per box including one on-card Pen Pals autograph. Boxes will run about $115.

 

The base card design is the same used for Elite Draft and similar to last years. I was just happy to find so many Giants in my box including Brandon Marshall in big blue. Not all offseason players who changed teams are on new teams.

The base set is 200 cards deep with rookies and veterans.

 

The rookies in the product are numbered to 499. I only found three in my box besides two parallels. So the assumption of 5 per box can be made. Key rookies to find are, Mitchell Trubisky, Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson, Christian McCaffrey, Mike Williams, John Ross, Corey Davis, Leonard Fournette, and O.J. Howard.

 

There are plenty of fun parallels to find in Elite. There is Green, Red /149, Purple /99, Status /99, Aspirations /98, Orange /25, Aspirations Die-Cut /24, Status Die-Cut /24, Blue /15, and Gold 1/1. They all glisten and shine.

 

Some of my favorites...

 

Status Die-Cut /24 of Bengals RB Jeremy Hill

 

The inserts shine just like the base cards and most have the parallels of Green, Red /99, Purple #/49, Orange /25, Blue /5, and Gold 1/1. 

 

The offerings include, Fired Up, Field Of Vision, College Ties....

 

Elitist, Title Waves, Homefield Advantage, Face To Face (not shown), Family Ties (not shown)

 

Spellbound. My favorite of the group. These spell out the players last name. Would be a fun rainbow to put together. Each card is also numbered. There are only a few players, roughly 7 in this set due to the amount of letters.

There is also parallels, those include, Green, Red /99, Purple /49, Orange /25, Blue /5, and Gold 1/1. You can define the parallel by the background. I pulled an Orange Odell and a Red Brown.

 

Now time for the hits which I thought were awesome.

First up, Elite Coverage dual relic. Mine is the prime version and has some nice swatches. I like the color scheme to the team featured and design. It's very easy on the eyes.

 

My next find, the one-per-box Pen Pals was of RB Kareem Hunt. Could play a huge role on that offense this year. I do find it odd to be called Pen Pals when only one player is featured.

 

And my final hit, the biggie of the box. A Turn Of The Century auto of 2nd pick Mitchell Trubisky. Best rookie pull for me in 2 years.

 

 

Other hits not found in my box are, 

Elite Rookie Autographs,Elite Signatures,Back to the Future Signatures,Epic Materials ,Impact Impressions ,Passing the Torch Signatures,Passing the Torch Signatures Doubles, Pen Pals Dual Autographs ,Prime Numbers Relics,Pro Bowl Standouts Relics,Team Lineage Signatures,Throwback Threads and Throwback Threads Doubles.

 

OVERALL, so far my favorite football product that I have opened. Lots of numbered cards, nice looking hits, and some solid looking inserts. Like I said, I really like the Spellbound. May have to chase the base versions of Odell Beckham Jr down.

This box may have been above average compared to some, but there is so much to pull and so many big names on the autograph checklist I find it worth the risk. I hope to open another box at some point myself.

Please make sure to take a minute out to thank Panini America for providing this box for me to review and to be able to do a future GIVEAWAY with some of the cards. Follow Panini America on all social media sites and visit their SITE, as well.

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!

Mail Day Saturday:2015 TCSP 5 Star Rookie Class Baseball Box

Back when the NFL playoffs were alive, I entered a guess the score contest on Twitter from @TriCitySportsPL and was the only person who guessed it right on and took home a prize. It's been a long wait on it, but they forewarned it may be, and my prize from that win arrived this week. It was two of their baseball hobby boxes.

In today's Mail Day Saturday I am showing off one of those boxes, the second and better of the two, I am waiting to showcase next Saturday. 

So here is what a 2015 TCSP 5 Star Rookie Class box is all about.

The cards inside of the box were all in a team bag which acted as a wrapper. 

 

My first 5 cards of the 8 card pack were base cards that were protected by penny sleeves. Each card is numbered to 45 and are printed on very thick, durable card stock that has a unique feel to it almost as if it has a plastic coating. Design is not too shabby and all of the players are in no-logo uniforms.

 

Next card in the pack, also in a penny sleeve, was this gold parallel of Nola that is numbered to 10.

 

And the final two cards from the pack were autographs that were in the team bag without protection. These autographs are a bit unique. I would call them cut autos as they seem to have come from another product, possibly from another manufacturer upon further inspection.

 

This one was more apparent that way as I think you guys can see this too. The autographs are limited to just 20. It seems they also have some big names on the checklist of guys like Yasiel Puig, Jose Abreu and Kris Bryant.

 

 

Not a bad break overall. I really liked the card stock they use as I don't see that being used by anyone else. Keeps the cards from being damaged easy. It would actually take a lot to damage these.

 

Now that you have seen the break, what do you guys think of this product?

Breakin Wax:2014 Sage Hit Low Series Blaster

When you are checking out the card aisle at Walmart and find a markdown box at $12 with three autographs in it, how do you keep on walking? I stopped in my tracks and grabbed it.

Now, the Low Series didn't have my boy Odell, but it did have enough on the checklist worthy of a buy especially with the strong 2014 rookie class.

If you missed the first time I broke one of these, well, here is what a base card looks like as a refresher.

Now onto the autograph hits. Once again I didn't hit it too big with Sage Hit, but still can't argue with the price.

Overall, a lot of base cards and low end autographs but can't go wrong with the price and having extra base card rookies. I must reiterate however that every time I open one of these I wished that Sage had packed the autographs in the packs as opening up a lot of packs of base is not very exciting.

Breakin Wax: 2014 Bowman Draft Baseball Hobby Box Break

Bowman Draft is one of those products I had always wanted to try but never did, that is, til now.

For me this product isn't about the hits, its all about loading up on Prospects and rookies. Cause isn't that what the hobby is all about?

In every box of Bowman Draft baseball is 24 packs and 7 cards per pack. You will find 5 regular draft base and 2 chromed draft base per pack along with one autograph per box for under $50.

The base cards are as simple as can be. They are the usual Bowman type style with the white border around the edges with a main player focus. These players are all in fact prospects. Here are some of the better ones I got in my box including Correa, Meadows and Taillon.

Then FINALLY GOT MY FIRST KRIS BRYANT CARD! Been trying for months!

Best Chrome players I pulled. Was very weak for me in that area.

Blue parallel along with a blue refractor.

I thought these were a unique insert. Finally something that went outside the box. Pictures of players on draft night.

More inserts. I really like the 1989 Bowman Silver Diamond refractor. Quite impressive in person.

Ice....Ice...baby...

More Chrome...More Shiny...me likey!

Refractor parallels from my box

And my one hit. Not somebody I know, but doesn't mean it won't be somebody I know in a few years. My autograph was also a refractor making it a bit tougher of a pull.

Overall, a fun break. I really like the inserts and obviously the loading up on rookies. I think for the amount of cards you get and the fact they are all prospects, tie in the parallels and top it off with a prospect autograph, this is a great break for its price. I wouldn't mind going back again.