Preview: Panini Prizm Football

The glimmer the shine the chrome technology..now Panini has caught my attention as they have taken a great technology, improved it and made it stunning.This is only early glimpses into the product but I am sure it will be even more amazing in hand like its basketball counterpart we reviewed:

http://sportcardcollectors.blogspot.com/2012/12/review-panini-prizm-basketball-2012-2013.html 

 

 

February is the set release for the product that contains a 300-card base set bolstered by 100 rookies seeded one per pack. In addition, there are autographed versions of all 100 rookies (numbered to 499 or less) and 100 of the veterans (numbered to 149 or less).

  

Each hobby box of 2012 Prizm Football (six cards per pack/20 packs per box) will deliver two autographs, three Prizms, one hobby-only Red Prizm, one Rookie Dominance, one Decade Dominance, one Brilliance and two additional inserts.

Also very exciting is a retail box version of 2012 Prizm Football (four cards per pack/24 packs per box) should yield one autograph, one Prizm, two retail-exclusive Green Prizms, one Rookie Dominance, one Decade Dominance, one Brilliance and one additional insert.

Preview: Panini Gold Standard Basketball 12-13

Panini released images of Gold Standard Basketball and I can say once again I am impressed by another Panini NBA release.

This product is due out in April and from the gallery (and more info) on the Knights Lance: http://paniniamerica.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/panini-america-provides-detailed-first-look-at-2012-13-gold-standard-basketball/

It appears this years version will surpass all others.

 

A break should deliver four autographs, one memorabilia card and one metal card in every 10-card box

  

There is also a 305-card base set featuring 80 autographed memorabilia RCs, five base inserts, three memorabilia inserts and four autograph inserts. Makes quite a thing to chase after.

There is also 25 base-set SPs featuring selected stars wearing the jerseys of every team they have ever played for.

What are your thoughts on this NBA product?

Fan Box Break: Shane Salmonson's 4 Box Case Of Bowman Sterling Football 2012

Time for another edition of Fan Box Break. This time its from one of our favorite Twitter followers Shane Salmonson. We would like to thank him for taking time out to send us some pics and for doing a small writeup. He broke a 4 box Case of Bowman Sterling football 2012 and 2 hobby boxes of Crown Royale (which we will feature here tomorrow) for us to share on here. But for now, here are his for the Bowman Sterling 4 box case Break results:

Box #1

Box Topper

Box #2

Box Topper

Box #3

Box Topper

Box # 4

Box Topper

Here are is thoughts on his case break:
"Being a high-end product, the whole time I was opening it I felt that something big was coming. Unfortunately, it never showed. I have no complaints about the card design. Sharp looking cards, with again, the different color refractors being a highlight of the base cards, as well as the autographs and relics. The biggest design/packaging flaw that I could find was that the hits were the last cards in the pack. This forced me to look away as I was opening the packs to uphold the suspense. (I had to find something wrong, right?)

The boxtoppers were a nice touch. I really liked the Doug Martin jumbo patch that I pulled from a boxtopper. Really nice looking card, especially with the creamsicle orange jersey. The sad thing was that this was probably my best pull from the case.

Overall value on the case was disappointing, to say the least. The best rookie autograph/relic card I pulled was probably a LaMichael James. (I told you it was not good). I did, however, hit a printing plate autograph. That was a nice hit, even though it was Josh Gordon. Another negative was the fact that I pulled three of the same Stephon Gilmore autographed cards out of three consecutive boxes. (You wouldn't see me complaining if it was RGIII)."

Once again thanks to Shane for sharing this and we would like to know what your thoughts are on his break.

Fan Box Break: Shane Salmonson's 2 Boxes Of Crown Royale

Time for another edition of Fan Box Break. This time its from one of our favorite Twitter followers Shane Salmonson. We would like to thank him for taking time out to send us some pics and for doing a small writeup. He broke two hobby boxes of Crown Royale football 12 along with a 4 box Case of Bowman Sterling football 2012 (shown yesterday)  for us to share on here and here are his for the Crown Royale results:

Box #1

 

 

Box #2

 

 

 

Here are his thoughts on the break:

"Product has a great look to it. Really has the feel of a premium product when you're opening it. Really nice design. Absolutely no issues with that. I liked the different color parallels. Those are huge in pretty much any product that has them right now. I can not complain about the Rookie Silhouette patch autograph cards. Very nice looking card, with the only improvement being on-card autos, of course. I did end up pulling three of these out of my two boxes. (Two of them being redemptions). That probably was the biggest drawback of this product. I ended up with three redemption cards out of two boxes. It has seemed, however, that Panini has been much quicker with the redemptions than some other companies. Looking forward to seeing those cards come in the mail, especially the Blackmon.

Overall, very nice product. After opening both I probably should have gone with the case of Crown Royale over the case of Bowman Sterling. I felt a whole lot better about the value I got out of the Crown Royale than I did about the Sterling. (Crown Royale is moving up my list of favorite products)."

Fan Box Break: Jammin JDcards Crown Royale 5 Blaster Boxes

Time for another Fan Box break..this time its brought to you by Jammin JDcards. A well deserved shout out is in place for someone who takes time and shares it with us!! If any of you are interested in doing one of these just email us something like this to sportcardcollectors@hotmail.com and be featured on our blog!

Here is what Jammin JDcards says about a Crown Royale Blaster

"2012 Crown Royal Blaster Box – You can find the Crown Royal Blasters at Wal-Mart. Target does not seem to have them yet. I was shocked to see a retail version of this product. Overall Panini did a great job of taking a higher end Hobby product and creating a separate version for retail that still has a great look. The base card looks a lot like the hobby version just no die-cut and the stock is a little thinner. As far as I know each blaster guarantees 2 Rookies, 1 Die-cut and 4 inserts. The die-cut is more like the hobby version - maybe they put those in the retail as a tease. The inserts are really nice but feel slightly redundant as they all look basically the same. I am not sure about the base rookie class checklist. I have yet to pull any rookie names of significance from 5 Blasters. There is a possibility for Auto’s but I have not seen one yet. I have seen three different types of jersey hits with only 1 version serial numbered. Included is a photo of the other hits I pulled so far. Overall I believe this to be a pretty solid retail product. 8.5/10 for design (My only complaint is the insert redundancy), 8/10 for quality, 7/10 for value (Lack of relevant rookies really hurts)."

What are your thoughts on his break?

Fan Box Break: Jammin JDcards Big 5 Special Break

Here is another Fan Box break and its brought to you by Jammin JDcards who once again we thank for providing us with this break! If you have Twitter, go give him a follow. Great person to interact with and he does giveaways as well!

Here is Jammin JDcards thoughts on this break:

"Here is an interesting break – I am calling it the Big 5 Special. Picked this up while buying some Tennis balls at Big 5. Just a combo with 5 random packs. All of them are from 2008 – Topps Chrome, Score, Icons, UD First Edition and Sage Hit. To my surprise I actually got some good cards out of this. The Brett Favre Flight to 420 is a refractor and the Ray Rice rookie is the Glossy version. Overall I was happy with the $5.99 I spent. "

What are your thoughts on Jammin JDcards break? Anything you have tried before?

Thoughts On The 2012 NFL Regular Season

Now that the NFL regular season has come to an official end we got to see an amazing year of football.

We got to see three rookie quarterbacks lead their team to the playoffs:

      

Some more great rookie performances by these two running backs:

   

And some great comeback performances and great stories

    

And a record breaking season

Not to mention some surprise teams making runs to the playoffs in Seattle, Washington, Minnesota, Cincinnati and of course Indy which was the greatest story of them all with their coach Chuck Pagano who came back in the teams final game after starting treatment for leukemia in September. That team rode #Chuckstrong to the playoffs.

But we also get to see some sad times as well. First the bounty gate scandal that not only put a little hurt on the league but also hurt the Saints and their season as well. Lucky for them they resigned their coach to a huge contract so they can make a run next season and this scandal will be passed them hopefully. Also, even though I am a huge Giants fan, no longer seeing Andy Reid on the Eagles sidelines will be a little different next season. Reid was was the longest-tenured coach in the NFL at 14 seasons, going 130-92-1 during the regular season. He led the Eagles to nine playoff appearances, including five NFC title games and one Super Bowl that they lost to the Patriots in.

Players and teams that had magic last season like Tim Tebow sat on the pine watching another big shot quarterback falter to lead his team anywhere. The Giants, hate to even talk about this, starting 6-2 looking to defend their title and leading the division by two games and looking playoff bound falling apart towards the end of the season finishing 3-5 and missing out.

Now as we move onto Wild Card Weekend:

NFL Wild Card Weekend schedule

Saturday
4:30 p.m.: Bengals at Texans (NBC)
8 p.m.: Vikings at Packers (NBC)
Sunday
1 p.m.: Colts at Ravens (CBS)
4:30 p.m.: Seahawks at Redskins (Fox)

It will be interesting to see how this exciting season ends and who will be crowned this years Super Bowl champ. I know I have my favorites to win and some I hope that don't. I am sure you do as well.  I am already looking forward to free agency and the off-season as well especially since the Giants missed out. There will be many changes I am sure with players and coaches. And I will be there watching all of it and waiting til next August when training camps and preseason begins.

 Bloggers Note: As for my Wild Card Weekend Picks..I am going Texans, Packers, Ravens and Redskins. But I would rather have the Seahawks win.

Fan Box Break: 3 Retail Packs of Topps Strata Football 2012

Here is our very first Fan Box Break and it was done by one of our Twitter followers JamminJDCards. If you haven't followed him yet you should, he does giveaways and has some great items on Beckett Marketplace for sale . What he ripped into was 3 retail packs of Topps Strata Football. And here are the results!

What JamminJDCards says about the break:
"2012 Strata Retail 3 packs – Picked these up last night while shopping around with my wife for scarves. I just can’t get enough of this product. I really like the design of the cards as well as the guaranteed 2 rookies in each pack. There is also a sweet die-cut insert and the stuff seems to be littered with Auto’s. The retail version is different from the Hobby. The card stock is thinner and the photos are different as well. I prefer the way that Topps has made it fairly easy to identify the differences between hobby and retail so far this year. All and all I give this retail product an 8/10 for design, 7/10 for quality, and 9/10 for value – nice product."

What are your thoughts on his break?

Preview: 2012 Fleer Retro Football

Upper Deck released more images of its 2012 Fleer Retro Football and here is a link to even more images and info:

Fleer Retro Link

 

  

 

Just like the red hot basketball version Upper Deck is bringing back all of the Fleer classics and combining them all into one product.  Such classics as Autographics, Precious Metal Gems Red , Blue ), and Green
Jambalaya and Flair Legacy Row 0.

There will be 5 cards per pack and 10 packs per inner box with also 2 inner boxes per main box.  Every box will also consist of 6 autographs. 

Boxes will cost around $320.