Review: Panini Contenders Football 2012-WITH LUCK :)

One of my favorite rookie laden products year in and year out Contenders is celebrating their 20th anniversary this year. And Panini did a great job in celebrating it with the product adding a base card flashback mocking the originals design from 98. Now onto the review and my thoughts on the 2012 edition:

First off, I would like to say thanks to the WONDERFUL people at Panini America for providing us with this box to review. Here are many places you can find Panini America: official site, blog, Twitter, and Facebook. If you don't follow them at all..you should! They talk to you on Twitter, have contests on their blog and Facebook and the site is also fun to visit!

Box Break Down:

• 24 Packs Per Box, 5 Cards Per Pack
• Five Autographs Per Box!
• Three Rookie Stallions Per Box!
• $140 a Box

BASE CARDS: I liked the original design which means I am going to like this one as well. There is just something about the Season Ticket design that is catchy. Is it because its supposed to resemble a NFL ticket? Is it the team color scheme on one side the white on the other? Hard to tell. But this is one of my favorite base card designs.

INSERTS: Die cuts make a great addition to this product which my favorite of the two is by far the Rookie Of The Year Contenders. Really like what Panini did there in terms of turning the die cut into a shape of a trophy. The Playoff Tickets are a parallel to the base cards and are numbered just like the original product. Another insert that is very catchy is the Super Bowl one. The design is spectacular and elegant and improved over years past designs. You get about almost 13 inserts in a box. Or thats what ours had.

And BAM!!! ON CARD ANDREW LUCK!!!!!

AUTOGRAPHS: The product says 5 autos per box but most of the time boxes will hand you 6 which I really like and for the price you pay you somewhat hope to land that many.  This product has always been about its autographs, especially its rookie ones. You get one on card per box, which we LUCKED out with ours. Still shaking from seeing this incredible card. The fun thing about this product is chasing the Sp rookie auto tickets, the variations of them (missing some data on the back check the link below to see how you can tell) and seeing rookie autos and rookie cards of players you don't find in every product. Some of whom turn out to be stars in the future.

A list of those Sp's can be found here which also brings you to the Knights Lance: http://sportcardcollectors.blogspot.com/2013/02/panini-contenders-football-2012-sps.html

JERSEY/PATCH CARDS:N/A

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Once again, if you are a fan of rookie autographs, this is the product for you. This product is not for everyone though. You can have those great boxes with some top rookie autos or you could have those ones that you never heard of with a few sprinkled in names. I have seen both. As was the case in this box. The first 5 autos were mostly nobodies than BAM came the big hit of Andrew Luck. It may not happen every time but there is plenty to find in this product with the rookie autos and all variations. And the occasional Emeril in you with the BAM in a box. With 6 autos and tons to chase, this product is well worth a try.

RATINGS:  Bloggers Note: Our ratings are based specifically on the blaster, box or packs we opened and do not express what the overall product could bring. Ratings based on a 1-5. 1 Being the lowest and 5 being the highest.
                Packaging: 5
                Base Design: 5
                Insert Design: 4
                Memorablila/Autographs: 4
                Blaster, Hobby Box, or Pack Value: 4

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Upper Deck Super Bowl Contest

About a week before the Super Bowl Upper Deck had announced they were having a Super contest and boy did they not disappoint. With Sp Authentic coming out and the Super Bowl upon us and Valentines Day, they put the combination of the three and came up with the following contest.

You must show your LOVE for Sp Authentic and football in two sentences or less in order to win an Sp Authentic autograph patch rookie card of both Joe Flacco and Colin Kaepernick. Upon hearing this news, we knew we had to show our love for the product since it is a favorite year in and year out. And the fact that both of these QB's were in the Super Bowl and had hot hands who would not want to own these terrific red hot cards??!!

Well, We took some time, actually a few hours, and got all of my Sp Authentic cards out and put together a contest piece hoping we would win these really top notch auto patch rookies. After a few days of nervously counting down and waiting and wondering... BOOM! We won! We couldn't believe it! We are still in disbelief!

The contest was fun and definitely was worth it. Thanks again must go out to Upper Deck and Chris Carlin for putting on a great contest and giving collectors a chance to win great prizes like these.

Let us know your thoughts in comments!

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FANdom Card Of The Day: LaMichael James Sp Authentic Rookie Patch Auto Gold

It has been one week since the Super Bowl and this player had a very costly fumble. But this is still one of the nicest college patches I have ever seen.

2012 SP Authentic Rookie Patch Autographs Gold #269 LaMichael James 02/25

Find this card available here to buy - http://bit.ly/15aUfSI

Thanks to Jammin JDcards for providing us with the FANdom Card Of The Day.

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Fan PC: Joe Delguidice EPIC Trent Richardson Collection

After posting many times welcoming fans and readers of this blog to send us their PC and getting no response, Joe contacted us about his Trent Richardson collection. He claimed it was huge and first impression to us was maybe 30-40 cards. Cause to us, thats big. But after witnessing picture, after picture, after picture we knew we were wrong. What you are about to witness is an epic ride of awesomeness. This is by far the best collection we have personally seen and we think you guys will really enjoy this one.

Thanks again to Joe for sharing this and for the rest of you who are about to enjoy this wonderful card gallery! Enjoy and let us know your thoughts in comments.

        

       

     

      

   

 

 

               

And to keep track of what he does or doesn't have notebooks are involved...here are most of the notes. To have a collection as big as this, this looks like the best way to sort these.

 

  

 

 

 

Here is what Joe says about his collection:
I have been a browns fan since my father taught me the word underdog. Have been rooting for them and collecting browns cards for 22 years! Anyways my passion goes along with the saying "theres always next year :( well no more!!! Trent richardson was the first game changing player we have taken in a looooong time. So i wanted to show how dedicated i was!!!! My collection is worth $38,125 so far and counting. With one of the youngest rosters in the league i have faith the promised land is coming soon :) cheers and much love for
My brownies! Joe delguidice

If you would like to be featured on our blog like Joe was, you can email us some pics and a small writeup and send it to sportcardcollectors@hotmail.com.

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