Hobby_Legends 2018 Panini Rookie & Stars Group Break

After having good success with eBay seller Hobby_Legends in a group break where I grabbed my Charlotte Hornets, I decided to see what else they were offering up. I found a whole case break of 2018 Panini Rookie & Stars football (I still want to call it Leaf instead of Panini!) and I grabbed the Carolina Panthers.

I missed watching the live break so I just decided to wait for the package to arrive and be surprised than to search out the video on his YouTube channel. I didn't know much about this years Rookie & Stars product, but it's one I've liked in the past so why not? In the end, I think I did alright for myself.

It appears the base set for the Panthers is small at only 3 cards...but when those 3 cards are of Christian McCaffrey, Cam Newton and Luke Kuechly is that really a bad thing?

Remember the old Action Packed brand? Too bad these cards aren't embossed like their former namesake. There is some red foil that did photograph too well. Nice looking card and subset.

On the RC side of things I ended up with 3 players. Ian Thomas started to get some playing time at the TE position after Greg Olsen went down for the year. DJ Moore also started to get more reps once WR Devin Funchess' play started to decline. If I'm being honest, I've never heard of Marquis Haynes!

What modern set isn't complete without various levels of parallels? Ended w/ with two parallels for rookie TE Ian Thomas. True Blue is numbered to /49 and the Red parallel is numbered to /25.

One shiny chrome Airborne insert card was pulled for my team, that being of Cam Newton. Beautiful card in hand. I also bought a similar McCaffrey card too. Call me a sucker for shiny cards.

I'm not sure how I ended up with three Year 1 jersey cards of DJ Moore, but I'll take 'em! The blue piece of jersey if you look close enough appear to be different. The one on the right has more noticeable lines if you will in the fabric. These aren't game worn either, which is a bummer, but still nice additions to the collection none the less.

The seller also tossed into my package a pack of Ultra Pro penny sleeves and two older sealed football packs - 2015 Panini Prizm and 2017 Panini Donruss Optic. Just another reason I gave him my business again and will probably do it again in the future. Overall I'm very happy w/ my pulls. I haven't bought a lot of 2018 football product so this was a fun and easy way to bolster my 2018 Panthers stack of cards.

By the way, I used a new app on my phone to take these pictures...how do you think they turned out? Another card collector told me about the app, CamScanner, which has turned out to be a life saver for work...but I really haven't tried it too much w/ cards. It was a lot easier and quicker than taking a picture with my phone, then having to edit the photo. I may have to make this app the new default way of sharing card photos moving forward.

Pack Break: 2017 Panini Playoff

The other day while at Walmart a noticed a new rack pack of football cards that didn't look familiar...Playoff. While I'm very familiar w/ the Playoff brand, I didn't realize Panini scooped up that brand name or had released this set of cards.

I grabbed two rack packs, plus a few singles off eBay after I opened these packs, so this post is more or less to showcase what the base cards, parallels and some of the inserts look like.

Eack retail rack pack contains 40 cards for $4.99. I think Panini does a good job at giving the collector a decent bang for their buck. The packs feature Marcus Mariotta and my Panthers' Christian McCaffrey. Each pack contains 3 exclusive blue parallels.

What I didn't know going into opening this pack (or knew from the pack itself) was that the base set includes a good mixture of many past players, including Hall of Famers. I like it when older players are mixed in from time to time. I mean, who doesn't like pulling a new Bo Jackson card?

Speaking of past players, here are a few that I randomly pulled to scan. The card design is rather plain, but at least the horizontal stripes on the side mimic the team color. The card back gives a decent write up about the player, but it uses the same photo from the front. Come on Panini, that's lazy! I was particularly happy to pull the Panthers card of Kevin Greene.

A small selection of two QBs that I just happen to love to hate! I did notice as I sorted through the stack of cards that the photography was average. I didn't come across any cards that made me do a second look. Most of the photos are your standard fare football photos.

Goal Line are the included retail exclusive parallels. The name is replaced with a blue foil and the words "Goal Line" are placed on each side of the team logo. At least I got a decent parallel of a future HOF player.

Rookies must be short printed as I only pulled one per pack, though I did get a few RCs in the parallel set. Despite this set coming out late in the 2017 NFL season, Panini seemed to use photos from the rookie photo shoots prior to the season beginning.

The only insert I pulled from the two packs was this Momentum card of Larry Fitzgerald. Cool design, but again the same photo is used on the front and back. Overall odds for the inserts seem to fall around 1:3 packs.

I purchased this Rookie Stallions relic card of Christian McCaffrey for a few bucks off eBay. I love the painted front, but I mistakenly thought the card had a canvas like look/feel. The foil used for the names on the front is green. I don't know if this is a parallel or not, but I don't care for the gree foil as it looks out of place. Since it has the words "Hail Mary" underneath the Rookie Stallions logo, my guess is this is some sort of parallel.

The same Rookie Stallions card of Curtis Samuel has silver foil and is numbered 029/149.

I also grabbed an auto off eBay. This one too has the "Hail Mary" words on the front so I'm guessing it's a parallel. It's a sticker auto, but ever since Samuel went down for the year, his cards have remained fairly cheap...which is good for my wallet.

2017 Panini Playoff is a mixed bag. I like the value (at least with these rack packs) and the mix of veterns and current players is nice. The design is average, but it looses a point for using the same photo on the back of the card. The inserts appears to be pretty nice, but had I not resorted to a few eBay purchases I would have had to base my judgement off the one insert I found in my packs. Panini could have done better, but they could have done worse as well. Not sure if this set is worthy of the Playoff name.

Like Father, Like Son?

Wednesday evening the Carolina Panthers will participate in their first preseason game of the 2017 NFL season. To say that 2016 was a disappointment for Panthers fans is a huge understatement. Cam Newton, the team's QB has taken on what I believe is an unfair amount of criticism since the team lost the Super Bowl against Denver in 2015. He will not be taking the field Wednesday evening so that means all eyes will be on this guy...

If the name sounds familiar to you, it should. His father, Ed, played in the NFL for 13 years as a wide receiver. Ed won 3 Super Bowls, went to the Pro Bowl in 1998 and had honors in college before he was drafted by the New York Giants in the 3rd round of the 1991 NFL draft.

Christian was the runner up for the Heisman Trophy in 2015 and currently holds the NCAA record for most all-purpose yards in a season with 3,864. Christian was drafted in the 1st round of the 2017 NFL draft as the 8th overall pick by the Panthers. The team looks forward to his versatility on offense and special teams. A lot has been made about his scrimmages against teammates locally so all eyes will be on him as he takes the field for his first NFL game. 

Right after the draft, Panini fired up their Instant program and created cards for the players being drafted. In Topps Now fashion, these cards would go up for sale for only 24 hours. Unlike Topps however, Panini actually prints the run of cards printed on the back...kudos Panini. As you can see, this card of Christian is limited to only 73 cards.

While my expectations for the Panthers this season is moderately mild, I am looking forward to seeing Christian McCaffrey and some other young players hit the field and show what they are made of. Cam will be ready for the start of the season and the idea of having him, Christian and some others on the field at the same time makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up!