Keeping in line with making base paper product shiny and new with a chrome look, here comes Contenders Optic Football!
This set is great looking, I love the thickness of the cards, make me feel like they will hold up for a long time and not bend with age.
One thing I hope they do next year is punch up the color of the parallels, they just looked dull in some instances, like the red wasn’t as brilliant as it could be with the Aaron Rodgers parallel.
A quick rip that gets right to the point, from a box break perspective, if you are hunting for a big name hit, it was painful to keep digging into a case at the $150/box price point. I got lucky with my box and hit a Rosen Rookie Auto, considered to be one of the top tier QBs. Not sure if that held up and he may be second string come next season, when it is rumored that the Cardinals will draft Kyle Murray.
Only time will tell, in the meantime, I will enjoy the cards I hit.
Brand new to the hobby from Panini America but it follows the format of Topps Dynasty and Upper Deck Splendor.
As stated on the sellsheet, 85% of the product will be patch autos. This is sure to be full of top tier rookies and lots of vets to go around.
I love the look of the cards and that they didn’t use image variations which is something I didn’t like much at all about Topps Dynasty.
Good job to Panini and I think the hobby is loving this stuff. I am one of those in love with it and look forward to its sophomore release and of course, I am waiting to see what they do with this in Basketball and Baseball. Should be great!
Thanks for watching and let me know your thoughts by commenting below.
One of the hobby world’s sought after product for football, this set is cool and the design this year is a hit for me. I like the large team logos on the bottom right of the base cards and I do enjoy the ability to scope out and find the variation autos just by looking at the front of the card. Kudos to the design staff at Panini for taking a stab at making it easier. In the video above, you will see me finally notice the difference, now I just need to confirm it, lol.
If you are an NFL fan and in the hobby, I would urge you to take your shot at a box and GOOD LUCK, sometimes, you may get a “who?” result, to find out later, the player is ridiculously good, of course it could be the other way around, but let’s stay optimistic!
Thanks for watching and let me know your thoughts by commenting below.
Product: 2018 Donruss Optic Football First Off The Line Premium Edition
PRICE: $100
I was lucky enough to land a box of this stuff before it sold out.
If you haven’t watched the video, here is a quick summary.
It is a “premium edition” boiled down to 6 cards per pack, 1 pack per box. 2 Autographs on average, so you get to the nitty gritty fast. Essentially, you are buying two hits.
The cards are what you expect from Panini’s chrome product, thicker cards with that awesome shine to the parallels. I landed a Purple Star Auto Parallel as promised. The parallel looks cool and the stars are pretty subtle but eye catching. I also landed what I believe to be a red parallel, which as usual, is a striking color to see.
I was happy to see that the autos I did pull were both on card.
Thanks for watching and let me know your thoughts by commenting below.
If you are a baseball collector, you know that there is a specific product everyone is buying and is THE brand of card to get when prospecting.
Well, this is what Panini Contenders is to the NFL sports card market.
I have a good time opening this product every year as there are some player autos you will hit that you never expected, some of players you never heard of. Plus of that, if that player does have a great career, there is a possibility you could be sitting on a future boom. If not, maybe it will be of a player from your Alma Mater, on your favorite team, from your hometown, or maybe is a player you can trade with friends and enjoy the hobby.
I like all of the inserts like the Legendary set that highlights players from the HOF or possible first ballot HOF’ers. Or Round Numbers, which highlight a pair of players, rookies and or vets, they leave ya wondering what’s up with that, and flipping the card over for more details, or hitting Google to find out information I was not aware of.
If you watched the video above and kept count, we only hit 4 autos in all, the box says there are at least 5 autos per box on average. Even with that, we did well in my opinion. Check the video out, speed through it if you have to, just have fun watching and comment on this post and let me know what you think!
Well, no video this time as I opened some boxes of this at The Card Shop here in Omaha.
It was an interesting break as my first pack had 2 Rookie Silhouette Jersey Autos of OJ Howard, in the same pack, one right after the other… Not to be dissuaded, I opened more boxes. I have to tell you I hit some great cards but man, there was no way I was getting back what I spent on the box.
Here are the hits of note in no particular order.
3 Color Jumbo Patch Auto Silhouette of Doug Baldwin 06/10
1/1 Printing Plate Auto of Tony Dorsett (Magenta Plate) Sticker Auto
Ted Hendricks 1 of 1 Signatures
Christian McCaffrey Great X-pectations Rookie Auto Purple Parallel 06/10
Morten Andersen 3/5 Prominent Scripts Emerald
Dede Westbrook Great X-pectations Rookie Auto Gold Parallel 5/5
Jason Witten Preferred Penmanship Red Parallel Auto
Spectra has had its ups and downs with the collector base for the few years it has been out. With the buy-in so high, most collectors and gamblers are looking at the over/under on getting a PC hit or making most of their money back. If you are going to get into a box, though, get ready for some great quality cards and a chance at some hits that look spectacular in hand.
I like the fact that you are no longer opening a single box when you get into the initial packaging this year. There are four packs and each one is thick and gives you a good feeling that there is going to be hobby goodness in each and every pack.
I expected to see the Neon Blues and Greens, and more and I had hopes for a gold vinyl 1/1. I wasn’t disappointed.
If you watched the video above you were treated to some great cards, Radiant Rookie Patch Autos that look great and I love the vertical patches, they are just different enough to set them apart from the RPA of which I did pull a Neon Blue Dalvin Cook, the Rookie Phenom from the Minnesota Vikings. I love the look of the true Rookie Patch Autos. I loved the colored ink too.
The base cards are no joke too. The same stock and acetate are used, with all of the parallels in play. I really do like the look of this stuff.
I like to think of it as PRIZM and SELECT on steroids… maybe that is a bad thing? I like it though… so for me, I like having the eye candy.
I hope you enjoyed the vid and quick review, check the details below.
Product: 2017 Panini Contenders Draft Picks Football
PRICE: $112.00/box
The chase is on. I love the Contenders brand and what it means for football collectors. I am not quite sold on college unis but I know that this is our first chance to get autos of players in the upcoming NFL Draft and like it or not, I say if you have a player you want to target, this is THE initial offering set you want to get into aside from the HUGE Fan Favorite Panini Contenders Football (Football’s equivalent to Bowman).
Everyone will be on the hunt for the numbered autos of players like Deshaun Watson, Leonard Fournette, Christian McCaffrey, Myles Garrett, and more. Aside from base autos, there are the ever popular, bowl, championship, and cracked ice ticket parallels. Super fun!
I like the design as it stays true to the look of a ticket for actual games. I would love to see box toppers included in the set someday that is a keepsake plastic ticket that you can hang on a lanyard, ones like you get if you sit in the club level at some venues.
A fun quick break this year with the JUMBO style packs, I appreciate it and I think most will. I know that breakers will enjoy the format. Essentially one auto per pack so for brick and mortars, they can pack it out as a hit a pack and make it more affordable for their local customers.
A longtime standout in the Panini family, Contenders Draft Picks College Football returns in 2017 with plenty of autographs!
The popular College Tickets subset features autographs from the 2017 NFL Draft and includes sequentially numbered Bowl Tickets, Playoff Tickets, Championship Tickets, Cracked Ice Tickets and Printing Plate parallels.
Find rare autographs from college football legends in both Alumni Ink and Old School Colors Signatures.
Chase autograph inserts, such as Collegiate Connections Signatures, School Colors Signatures, Passing Grade Signatures and Rush Week Signatures, featuring autographs from this year’s deep running back class.
Each hobby box will deliver 6 autographs!
THE DETAILS
OLD SCHOOL COLORS SIGNATURES
20-card insert Old School Colors Signatures is loaded with signatures from Heisman Trophy winners sporting their college gear!
SEASON TICKET
Today’s NFL stars highlighted in their college uniforms! Look for Printing Plate versions, sequentially numbered to 1!
ALUMNI INK
Alumni Ink is reserved for only legends of college football from yesterday and today!
Look for all of this year’s hottest rookies! Find 6 Autographs, 3 Rush Week, 3 Collegiate Connections, 3 Passing Grades, 9 Game Day Tickets, 6 School Colors in each box! Look for the following Hobby only exclusives: Bowl Ticket seq. #’d/99, Cracked Ice Ticket seq. #/23, Playoff Ticket #’d/15, Championship Ticket seq. #’d/1, College Ticket and Season Ticket Printing Plates #’d/1!
THE ODDS
Bowl Ticket/Championship Ticket/Cracked Ice Ticket (numbered from 99 to 1) – Season Ticket Printing Plate Cyan/Magenta/Yellow/Black (numbered to 1) – College Bowl Ticket/Playoff Ticket/Championship Ticket/Cracked Ice Ticket (numbered from 99 to 1) – College Ticket Printnig Plate Cyan/Magenta?Yellow/Black (numbered to 1) – College Ticket Variation – College Bowl Ticket Variation/Playoff Ticket/Championship Ticket/Cracked Ice Ticket (numbered from 99 to 1) – Alumni Ink – Collegiate Connections Signatures – School Colors Signatures – Passing Grades Signatures – Rush Week – Collegiate Connections – Passing Grades – Game Day Tickets – School Colors – Old School Colors – On average, non-base cards are included approximately 1 in every pack.
