Saturday, July 21, 2012

Hobbykings.com 2011-12 Rookie Anthology Review

 First product opened, last product reviewed...figures right?

Not only did I not know that this product was releasing when I first saw it I was less than pleased that many of the cards were extensions from other products such as Limited, Certified, Crown Royale, Contenders and Pinnacle. As the weeks went on before I broke this product my tune began to change. I liked the idea as it was like a version of "Season Update" and it factors most brands across the board.  Additionally they added cards from what were products last year such as Luxury Suite.

Now I get this product would drive the basketball collector's nuts, because lets face it they're already a fickle bunch that takes issue with most everything Panini does to their basketball products, and I don't know how the hockey collector's are treating it since we have all of about 3 on HK but its intriguing.  Of course I also feel that the hockey products are far superior to the basketball products and I think a product like this would either be the perfect product to put out at the end of the year to include cards of rookies that didn't make it into the initial sets or had they put it out in basketball as the only product of the strike-shortened season.

But this is a post of what is not what could be or should be. When opening this box you get the feeling that you're either opening a bunch of products at once, that the manufacturer screwed up because of all the different brands, or like you're opening random mystery packs. A box of Rookie Anthology contains 10 packs per box, 5 cards per pack and 2 autos and memorabilia per box.

As always the video then the cards after the jump


The results

Base

Calder Contenders /999

Crown Royale

Pinnacle Ice Breakers



Memorabilia






Autos (Phenoms /299)
 
Overall not the best box but we did get one extra hit, even if it was a memorabilia and the bottom piece on the Varlamov appears to be from his stick. The redemption leaves something to be desired as no one likes to find them in their packs because they want to have the actual card in hand but they do at least put the player's name on their compared to previous year's where you would have just the number of the card in the set and then you'd have to find the checklist online since they didn't always include one in the product.

As for what we didn't pull

Rookie Treasures Level 1 (5 cards) /99

Rookie Treasures Level 2 (10 cards) /199



Rookie Treasures Level 3 (50 cards) /499 (redemption above)



Rookie Treasures Patches (65 cards) /15



Certified Freshman Signatures (25 cards)

Certified Freshman Signatures Mirror Gold /25



Certified Freshman Signatures Mirror Emerald /5



Certified Freshman Signatures Mirror Black /1 - No picture available

Certified Freshman Fabric Signature (25 cards) /99, /150 or /299


Certified Freshman Fabric Signatures Mirror Gold /25 - no pics available

Certified Freshman Fabric Signatures Mirror Emerald /5 - no pics available

Certified Freshman Fabric Signatures Mirror Black /1 - no pics available

Pinnacle Ice Breakers (75 cards) - See above

Pinnacle Ice Breakers Autographs (21 cards)



Limited Rookie Phenoms (24 cards) /299 (Hagelin/598) - See above

Limited Rookie Phenoms Silver (24 cards) /50






Limited Rookie Phenoms Gold (24 cards) /10



Limited Rookie Phenoms Platinum (24 cards) /1

Crown Royale Silhouette Signatures (10 cards) /25 or less

Crown Royale Rookie Royalty (20 cards) - See above

Crown Royale Rookie Signatures (20 cards)

Crown Royale Rookie Silhouette Prime (10 cards) /99

Crown Royale Rookie Silhouette Patches (10 cards) /25


Contenders Calder Contenders (25 cards) - See above

Private Signings (15 cards)

Private Signings Platinum (15 cards) /1

Luxury Suite Combos (40 cards) - See above


Luxury Suite RCs (30 cards)


Rookie Rivalry (60 cards) - See above

Draft Year Combo (40 cards) - See Above

Pinnacle Starting Six (30 cards)


Bonus Autographs - Random Autographs that vary in number from random sets including








Sunday, July 15, 2012

HobbyKings.com Box Break Recap - 2011-12 Panini Contenders

Part two of this three part blog will cover the results from a box of 2011-12 Panini Contenders Hockey that was sent to HobbyKings.com by Panini America for review. Year in and year out Contenders has been a well received brand that contains rookie on-card autos.  Last year the product was good but the shiny foil on the cards made some autos difficult to see or they seemed to be able to rub off. This year Panini went with a more glossy finish on the cards and a clean design that earns it high praise in my book.

Available for $90-$100 per box, Contenders contains 18 packs with 5 cards per pack and 3 autographs per box on average. Going into the break I was aware of the NHL Ink autographs but little else. After this break I'm still in the same boat but the box yielded a very nice hit that would allow anyone looking for value to resell and at the least break even. For you anti-Panini/anti-sticker auto people, this product has a ton of on-card autos and great designs all around. Most if not all sticker autos in this set are in the booklet cards.

As was the case in the previous entry you can view the video of the break here and pics of the break and product are available following it.

Video break

What we pulled

Base design

Calder Contenders /999

Cup Contenders /999
The Getzlaf was cut short on the side so only top half of the number is showing...blech production error

RC Auto /800

NHL INK


Well there are the three autographs. That dual Hull is an amazingly great pull which will just about cover the price of a box. Clutterbuck is just an awesome name in and of itself so I'd have been happy to have pulled that even if I was busting for myself but wouldn't have been happy had the dual not been pulled. The Vitale is a Penguin so I automatically hate it. Overall this was a good break. Surprisingly there were no parallels pulled from the product. Golds base are /100 and numbered on the front which is a plus for those who don't like to scan both sides of the card or don't like to ask people for the numbering in case they're looking for a specific number (jsy #, first #, last #, etc).

As for what we didn't pull here is what else can be found in the product.

Gold Parallel (100) /100

Black Parallel (100) 1/1

Cup Contenders Auto Patch (50)




Contenders Legacies Auto Patch (10



Calder Contenders Silver (40)

Calder Contenders Signature Patch (60)

Cup Contenders Auto Patch Gold (50) /1




Legacies Auto Patch Gold (10) - No samples available

Calder Contenders Gold (40)


Calder Contenders Signature Patch Gold /1 (bottom left)

NHL Ink (70) and NHL Ink Duals (20) - See above

NHL Ink Trios (10) /25

NHL Ink Gold (70) /25


NHL Ink Duo Gold (20) /25

NHL Ink Trios Gold (10) /10


NHL Ink Black (70) /1

NHL Ink Duo Black (20) /1

NHL Ink Trios Black (10) /1 - No samples available






Contenders Match-Ups Booklets (24)

Original Six Combos Booklets (6) /25



Starting Line-Ups Booklets (6)