CARDBOARD REVIEW:2020 Contenders Football

I can make a list of every Panini product out there and rank my favorite ones and where they fall.

I can say without a doubt that Panini Prizm is my number one but falling not too far right behind that one is Panini Contenders.

Every year I try my best to add some of the rookie autographs to my collection but have never had much success with box breaks of the product. If this was a game of Never Have I Ever mine would be Never Have I Ever pulled a top rookie autograph from Contenders.

Would this stay true for this box? Lets see...

Every box of 2020 Contenders football comes with 18 packs of 6 cards.Each box comes with 5 autographs and one of those autographs are on-card. Boxes are close to $600. Yup, that's not a mistype.

 

BASE:

The base set checklist is made up of 100 cards and is done ticket style design like it has been since 1998. There are no legends or rookies in the base card set.

PARALLELS:

Each box comes with one parallel. Mine was a Championship Ticket /99 of Sam Darnold.

Other parallels are,Red Zone FOTL, Stardust, Playoff /199, Championship /99, Cracked Ice /22, Super Bowl 1/1, and Printing Plates 1/1.

INSERTS:

The inserts have parallels and those include, Emerald, Orange, Ruby, Sapphire, Silver /149, Gold /49, and Platinum #/25.

 

Legendary Contenders has well Legends. There are 15 cards to collect in this set.

 

MVP Contenders is made up of 25 cards of the best players in the game.

10 cards in the Winning Ticket set.

Round Numbers has 20 cards combining top rookies and their draft round.

Rookie Of The Year comes with 30 cards.

HITS:

Now don't expect a Burrow or Herbert in every box or any box that I open. What makes Contenders fun is the rookies and especially rookie autographs you won't find in other boxes. It can sometimes lead to a gold dig.

Rashad Lawrence

Reggie Robinson II

First two autos I have no idea who they are.

My on-card auto was of Lynn Bowden Jr. This is also a ticket variation. Notice the helmet on the front instead of the team logo.

Lions may need to use this guy more next season, Hunter Bryant. This is a Stub parallel.

Other Rookie Ticket autograph parallels include, 

TICKET PARALLELS: Wild Card, Red Zone FOTL, Playoff \/99, Stub /99 or less, Championship /49, Cracked Ice /22, Super Bowl 1/1, and Printing Plates 1/1.
CLEAR TICKET PARALLELS: Mosaic, Clear /10.

And my final hit was the biggest of the box...

Legendary Contenders autograph of Steve Young!

FINAL THOUGHTS
Well....for $600...this was rough. I think its safe to say a better way to get into a product like this right now it through box breaks. It's probably that way with any products right now.

RATINGS BASED ON THIS BOX BREAK
Design ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Inserts ⭐⭐⭐
Parallels ⭐⭐
Hits ⭐⭐
Value ⭐
Fun Factor ⭐⭐⭐

Malone And Stockton Team Up Again

Today's post is my second part to my trade mail day from @TheBigCat63 on Twitter. These were the main cards I was chasing when we first discussed doing a trade. One is an obvious need, two more knock off want list needs and the final one was a just in case.

Let's see what I am showcasing this time.

 

This Darnold went along with another Darnold I will be showing off in a few pictures. Everyone says the Giants should have taken him, but I will take the OROY any day still. But, I am a bit concerned about their QB situation going forward.

 

A pair of Want List items taken off! Back in the 90's, not only was I a big time Knicks fan, but the Jazz were my backup team. Loved watching the "Mail Man" deliver and Stockton pass the ball. These two were in-sync and the Jazz were a tough team. But, when you face the Bulls in the title game, only heart ache can be achieved even when Jordan wasn't 100%.

I am glad I finally get to knock these two off of my autograph needs. Still other 90's basketball players to go.

 

I have somewhat found myself in a prospecting phase. I wanted a Darnold and Mayfield autograph all season and finally was at least able to knock one down. Darnold looked sharp at some points this season and dull as a knife in others. Will be interesting to see how his career pans out. At least now I have an autograph of him.

 

Now this NY QB is the bigger headliner. Two-Time Super Bowl MVP and Champion. And now that those lousy Patriots won the Super Bowl again this may help Eli's cause for the Hall Of Fame as he is the only QB so far to beat Brady twice in the big game. He also beat him in the regular season as well at least once. I hope Eli does come back for one more year and give the Giants one more last run.

Well, this is still only part two of our meaty trade. The big bacon, well at least to me, comes tomorrow when I go non sport on ya!

Calling In The Rooks

As all of my readers know, I love my rookie card collecting. It has been that way since the beginning of my collecting.

Even back in the late 90's I was chasing rookie cards. Kordell Stewart, Travis Lee, Allen Iverson, Peyton Manning, Donovan McNabb, Ricky Ledee, Derek Jeter and so on and so forth. I had to have at least one of each player.

The last couple of years I haven't had the funds to pick up much football rookies and missed out on some key guys. I still don't even have those guys today and it bugs me to no end. You know, my Hobby OCD kicking in.

So when I had the opportunity to trade for some guys I was missing for 2018 and knowing I wasn't ever going to be able to add them any other way, I jumped at the chance.

This is only a small sampling of my trade mail day from @Brent3323. The other part is waiting for Big Blue Sunday's so that alone is telling you where that's going.

Here are a couple of rookie autographs,

And now the onslaught of top round talent. This isn't even all of them as I only took pictures of the big named guys. Of course that doesn't mean that others can't become big names but for now this is the talented "right now" guys.

Josh Rosen, So far he hasn't played so great and makes me glad the Giants avoided him for Saquon.

My one and only Sam Darnold, He has had his ups and downs but seems the Jets have a bright future with him.

Lamar Jackson. He is only autograph card want list, I think he could be stud.

Kerryon Johnson. He has played extremely well for the Lions who haven't had a dominant rusher since...well...

Nick Chubb will continue to get more and more carries.

Baker Mayfield. He has been impressive so far.

Josh Allen doesn't have a lot of talent around him in Buffalo, so he has to use his legs often to score. Hard to grade his talent so far.

Sony Michel started off slow, then has come on strong. Hard to see the Patriots get better with him. Grrrr.

A big thanks goes out to @Brent3323 for the mail day, well part of it. At least I know in 2018 I will have most of the key rookies unlike 2017 where I may never.