Product Review: 2009 Topps Chrome

One of the most highly anticipated releases of the year, 2009 Topps Chrome promised to be a great set. When I saw some retail blasters at my local K-Mart recently, I HAD to pick up a box.

2009 Topps Chrome – Retail Box

I did a full preview of this set when it was released. Granted, my results will be much different since I bought a retail box, rather than a hobby box, but at least it is a good indiction of the possibilities. The retail box had 8 packs (7 packs plus 1 bonus pack) of 4 cards each. I paid $19.99 (plus 6% sales tax), which breaks into an average of $0.66 per card, which puts it into a lower mid-level range. Let’s see what I pulled:

Base Cards: 22
Rookie Cards: 7 (including 3 parallels)
Parallels: 7 (2 Refractors, 3 Xfractors, 1 Blue Refractor, and 1 Copper Refractor)
Inserts: 3 (1 Cheerleader and 2 National Chicles)
Hits: — (none)
Doubles: — (none)

Click each image for a full sized scan

FIRST AND GOAL’S FOUR DOWNS:
1st Down, Design: This year, Topps gave Upper Deck a run for their money. The flagship design was very crisp and clean and the photography was far better than most Topps sets. The Chrome set was obviously very similar in that fashion. The football feel of the name/team plate is very effective. This is a design that lends itself very easily to the chrome technology. Although the cards traditionally do not scan very well, they are beautiful in person and collectors absolutely love them. Topps did very well with this set.

2nd Down, Inserts: We all know about Chrome parallels and the great refractors. They may be rather numerous, but they are very good looking cards. The other inserts I pulled were not so great. The National Chicle insert was a good idea, but I wasn’t sold on the execution. First off, they did not stick with the original size of the legendary set. Also, the chrome technology on the very retro themed cards just feels off. Some may think it’s giving new life to an old classic, but it just seems awkward to me. It also hurt Topps that there were about 89 sets featuring National Chicle designs this year. The novelty of these cards wears off rather quickly in the light of that. The other insert card was also a bit of a bust for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing pictures of cheerleaders. They are beautiful and certainly add something to the whole football experience. But giving them their own cards? That is too close to having non sports cards mixed in with my sports cards, and that is not cool. At least there were no Obama cards in this box.

3rd Down, Collation: Like other retail boxes I have reviewed here, I can’t honestly critique the collation here because there were so few cards. I was obviously glad to not pull any doubles, though. I would be interested to see the base to parallel to insert ratio of a full hobby box. If you can pull a good portion of the the base set and still pull lots of inserts, parallels, and hits, without any (or at least very few) doubles, that would be cool.

4th Down, Overall Value: I am going to stray from the beaten path here for a moment. The retail box I opened did not give me a lot of value. Granted, it was a $20 retail box, so I was not expecting much. But my box aside, this looks like it is a great “value” product for collectors and prospectors alike. Chrome rookie cards are some of the most sought-after cards in the industry. When you start adding things like refractor parallels and autographs, you get a full out buying frenzy. I have seen some of these cards sell for top dollar in the secondary market. At the very least, they make for great trade bait amongst player or team collectors who are trying to track down those ever elusive parallel rainbows. With only 4 cards to a pack, you may not get lucky every time, but you should pull something very nice in every few packs, and certainly out of an entire hobby box.

RED ZONE RESULTS: FIRST DOWN I will admit, I am usually inclined to like Upper Deck products over most others. However, I loved this product. The cards are very well designed, the parallels are not (usually) over the top, there is no outlandish serial numbering, and there is bound to be plenty of value in any box. If it was such a great product, why didn’t it score any points? Simple. I opened a retail box. This box got a first down, allowing it another four downs to get on the board. I would love to bust a hobby box of this product, possibly when the price drops in the Christmas shopping season. Given a full hobby review, I do not doubt this product could punch it across the goal line and even tack on the PAT. So we’ll say due to a defensive penalty, it gets First and Goal from the 1. I like those odds.

Product Review: 2009 Donruss Threads

Of the three retail boxes I recently purchased, this was the one I was least excited about. I had seen card scans on other sites when the product went live and wasn’t real wild about them. I guess the allure of buying fresh wax was too much for me to turn away.

2009 Donruss Threads – Retail Box

2009 Donruss Threads is available in retail boxes of 8 packs of 5 cards. I paid $19.99 (plus 6% sales tax) for my box from K-Mart, which calculates into around $0.53 per card. Not the cheapest per card rate out there, but by no means high-end either. Let’s jump to the breakdown:

Base Cards: 38
Rookie Cards: 1 (#150 Jason Phillips)
Inserts: 2 (College Greats Shonn Greene and Gridiron Kings Darrius Heyward-Bey)
Hits: — (none)
Duplicates: — (none)

Click image for full sized scan

FIRST AND GOAL’S FOUR DOWNS:
1st Down, Design: How would be the best way to put this? Awful? Dreadful? Just down right bad? This certainly is not the worst base card design, but it will never win awards to beauty, either. The very bold diagonal lines really draw attention away from the point of the card, the pictured football player. The player name plate cutting straight across the picture is also distracting and adds needless barriers. The one nice part? I like how the player pops out of the top of the design and then fades into and behind the design on the bottom. That nice subtle touch is lost, however, by the overall needlessly loud design elements. One last thought, I know serial numbers are all the rage now, but do we really need to number every rookie card produced? It’s great that I pulled one of 999 copies of Jason Phillips’ Donruss Threads rookie card, but honestly, who cares? If it’s more than 250 or so, don’t bother serial numbering these things.

2nd Down, Inserts: The College Greats insert is interesting. The design ties in nicely to the base card, although in this case that is actually a bad thing. I know that a lot of football collectors hate seeing college uniforms and logos in their NFL sets, but I do not mind it as much. What I do mind is having a set called “College Greats” and showing rookies. Granted, some of the rookie class of any year could be considered to have had great college careers. But why not show old time players? When the early football sets are released, collectors are excited to see the rookie class in their new uniforms and numbers. If you absolutely need to have a college themed insert, don’t use the rookie class. Period. In a nice contrast is the Gridiron Kings set. I have aways really liked these inserts, and this year’s effort is actually well designed. I like the painted image, the silver accents, and the overall clean appearance. Again, I don’t know that rookies should be included in sets like this (case in point Hey-Bey who has done absolutely nothing to be considered a king, even in lowly Oakland). At least he is in his new Oakland uni.

3rd Down, Collation: It’s tough to gauge a product line’s collation when you are only getting 40 cards. The biggest indication of a problem would be duplicates, which I did not have in my box. I only got two inserts, which is a little disappointing, but again, there were so few cards that it’s just too hard to say if the collation was good or poor.

4th Down, Overall Value: Retail boxes will never deliver great “value” as it is usually defined in the Hobby. The lack of good inserts and very rare “hit” pulls (that are not rare at all in hobby boxes and are therefore not valuable in and of themselves) makes resale value tough. Donruss Threads did add Brett Favre’s very first Vikings card as a retail exclusive. Those base cards sold for as much as a lot of good autographs, so certainly that adds a level of value. However, overall, you are almost always going to get what you pay for in the retail portion of the Hobby. At $20 for a box, that’s just not very much.

RED ZONE RESULTS: KEY PLAYER EJECTED, LEADS TO A TURNOVER ON DOWNS I thought of this red zone result right after I decided to add this element to my product reviews. I wanted to save it for a “deserving” product. To me, 2009 Donruss Threads is that product. The base card design is just unforgivable with today’s highly advanced graphic design technology. Maybe I was close minded, but I was unable to get past the use of rookies in college themed inserts and the overall lack of value . Sorry Donruss/Panini, you struck out with this one. Enjoy the early shower.

Product Review: 2009 Donruss Classics

First and foremost, I must begin this review with a disclaimer. The cards I purchased to review this product were from a retail box. Insert rates, value of cards pulled, and overall impressions may be different for you if you purchase a hobby box. 2009 Donruss Classics is available in retail boxes of 8 packs of 5 cards each. I paid $19.99 (plus 6% tax) and somehow got 41 cards, which turns out to about $0.52 per card. I actually really liked this set last year, so I was excited to see what 2009 had in store.

2009 Donruss Classics – Retail Box

For some product details, you can see my early product preview post. Granted, this is a retail box so the card count and collation is much different, but at least I had an idea of what I was getting into. Now for the product breakdown:

Base Cards: 37
Rookie Cards: — (none)
Doubles: 1 (#70 JaMarcus Russell)
Inserts: 3 (Team Colors Hakeem Nicks, Classic Singles Merlin Olsen, Monday Night Heroes Randy Moss)
Hits: 1 (Monday Night Heroes Jonathan Stewart)

Click image for full sized scan

FIRST AND GOAL’S FOUR DOWNS:
1st Down, Design: When I was returning to the hobby last year, 2008 Donruss Classics was the first box I bought because it was one of the first releases of the year. I instantly fell in love with it. This year, Donruss gave us a lackluster base card design. The overall design is not bad, I even like the graphic elements near the bottom of the card where it says “Donruss Classics 2009″. What I do not like is the brown/copper background. The design is gaudy and it is just not a good color. Maybe the same pattern in a ghosted gray would have been better, but I would much rather see a completely different element, like the faded football field of 2008’s base cards.

2nd Down, Inserts: I do not have much to go on here, so take this with a grain of salt. I actually like the Team Colors insert I pulled. The card is colorful and vibrant and looks nice. Simple, but nice. I like the concept of the Classic Singles insert set (along with Classic Doubles, Classic Triples, and Classic Quads). As a fan of a lot of retired players, I love a product that offers a chance to pull some older football greats. That said, I am undecided on the design. Something seems missing as it just looks a bit empty. The Monday Night Heroes insert isn’t bad, but it also has that empty feel. I hate when you can tell exactly where the swatch window is supposed to be for the jersey parallel of a card. That means the window is well placed and doesn’t cut out a good part of the card (and the jersey card I pulled is good), but the non-hit like I pulled just winds up looking odd.

3rd Down, Collation: In such a small retail package, the biggest indication of collation is duplicates. In just 41 cards, I pulled a double. Not cool. I was happy to pull a “hit” in a retail box, and somehow I got an extra card, but I’m still not pleased with the double. It at least could have been of a better player than JaMarcus Russel.

4th Down, Overall Value: For a retail box, this is hard to gauge. I only paid $20 for the box, but that just means you get what you pay for. If you are looking for a cheap way to build a base set (without including the RCs) or would like an affordable gift for a loved one who enjoys football and/or collecting, this is a pretty good box to buy. If you’re looking for resale value or VERY cheap per card prices (perhaps those are polar opposites), you should stay away.

RED ZONE RESULTS: MISSED FIELD GOAL I sorta knew what I was getting when I bought this box from reading other online reviews and seeing card scans. I also knew not to expect much from a retail box. The jersey card was certainly a perk, but not pulling any rookie cards, having a duplicate, and the overall poor design of the base product were just too much to overcome. For a product that had a good outing last year, perhaps this was just an off performance. Hopefully if Donruss keeps this line going in 2010, it won’t push the ball left and will be able to get some points on the board when they are needed most.

Product Review: 2009 Upper Deck

This review was a long time coming. I got three hobby boxes of my favorite annual product right after it came out, promptly ripped through all 60 packs, and then immediately pushed off writing the review for about a month. My bad. Since I did bust three complete boxes of 2009 Upper Deck at the same time, and because of the vast quantity of cards, I am going to do this review a bit differently by giving a per box breakdown rather than a per pack breakdown. The boxes each contained 16 packs of 20 cards for a total of 320 cards (so I got 960 total). I paid $197.97 for all three boxes from blowoutcards.com, which breaks down to around $0.21 per card — not bad for a brand new set.

Click image for a full sized scan

The base set of 325 cards consists of 200 veterans, 100 star rookies, and 25 short printed star rookies. Star Rookies fall 4 per pack while short printed Star Rookies fall 1 per 4 packs. Also available are 3D Stars inserts (2 per box), various memorabilia cards (3 per box), and various autographed cards (1 per box). To see more set information, please see my Product Preview of this set.

This is the first time in First and Goal’s short history that I have previewed a set on its release date and then reviewed actual purchased box(es) afterwards. So without further ado, here is the per box breakdown:

BOX 1:
Veterans (1-200) — All pulled except for #63 (40 doubles, 0 triples)
Star Rookies (201-300) — 64 unique cards (64%)
Short Printed RCs (301-325) — 4 (Malcolm Jenkins; Jeremy Maclin; Aaron Maybin; B.J. Raji)
3D Stars — 2 (Josh Freeman; Lee Evans)
Memorabilia Cards — 3 (Eddie Royal – Game Day Gear; Josh Freeman – UD Rookie Jersey; Ronnie Brown – Game Jersey)
Autographed Cards — 1 (John Niland – America’s Team)

BOX 2:
Veterans (1-200) — All pulled except for #63 (40 doubles, 0 triples)
Star Rookies (201-300) — 64 unique cards (64%)
Short Printed RCs (301-325) — 4 (Chris “Beanie” Wells; B.J. Raji; Hakeem Nicks; LeSean McCoy)
3D Stars — 2 (LeSean McCoy; Aaron Curry)
Memorabilia Cards — 3 (Randy Moss – Game Day Gear; Ramses Barden – UD Rookie Jersey; DeAngelo Williams – Game Jersey)
Autographed Cards — 1 (Donnie Avery – Signature Shots)

BOX 3:
Veterans (1-200) — All pulled except for #63 (40 doubles, 0 triples)
Star Rookies (201-300) — 64 unique cards (64%)
Short Printed RCs (301-325) — 4 (Malcolm Jenkins; Jeremy Maclin; Mark Sanchez; Aaron Maybin)
3D Stars — 2 (Adrian Peterson; Randy Moss/Tom Brady)
Memorabilia Cards — 3 (Earl Bennett – Game Day Gear; Pat White – UD Rookie Jersey; Marvin Harrison – Game Jersey)
Autographed Cards — 1 (Joe Flacco – Signature Shots)

Click images for full sized scans

FIRST AND GOAL’S FOUR DOWNS:
1st Down, Design: This might contain a little bias because I like the annual flagship Upper Deck set each year, but I really liked this design. There is no needless border to get chipped, the name and team logo bars do not distract from the amazing photography, and the gold foil stamping works well (even if it doesn’t scan well). Overall, you have a very clean and classy set, which is important for a large, set-collectors’ product. The photography was not as memorable as 2008’s set, which captured some of the lasting images of the 2007 season, but it is by no means lacking. The entire set just exudes a crisp feeling and is a great binder-worthy set.

2nd Down, Inserts: As an obvious set collectors’ product, 2009 Upper Deck does not offer a lot of inserts, but the ones included are worthy of attention. I did not know how I felt about the 3D Stars insert replacing the Starquest insert when I wrote my product preview. I feared a bad relapse to the Sport Flix sets of the mid 90s was inevitable. As it turns out, I sorta like the outcome. It really works well for the Moss/Brady multi-player card and for the rookie cards as you can see the college and pro unis and logos on the same card. It would have been nicer to see away and home jerseys for the single player veteran cards, though. The memorabilia cards I pulled were nice. They featured clean design elements and vibrant colors. Since they were designed specifically as relic inserts (not base parallels), the swatch windows are well placed and do not hinder the overall look. The autographs are great, too. I would naturally prefer to see on-card autos, but with a lower end set, that’s just not going to happen. But if you look at the scans, you can barely see the stickers and it is obvious the design team took sticker placement into consideration here. Despite the label, it is still a clean autographed set. The higher-end inserts I did not pull also have great appeal and appear to be very nice.

3rd Down, Collation: When busting a large set that comes in high quantity packs, the first thing I demand is set completion. I was very happy with the results of these three boxes. I received all 200 veterans (#63 obviously does not exist while there are two #36s – read this for more discussion on that) in each box. Doubles were inevitable with the vast quantity of cards in the box, but I did not receive any triples in any box, so that was a definite plus. The rookies and inserts were pulled exactly per stated odds, so that is also hard to argue with. I was NOT happy about getting 4 short printed doubles in my boxes, leaving me to track down 13 on my own. However, this was a matter of pulling cards from different boxes, and there is no guarantee that blowoutcards pulled three continuous boxes or even three boxes from the same case. So while I felt I got a bit jipped in that department, it does not appear to have been a collation problem on Upper Deck’s behalf.

4th Down, Overall Value: This is a bit hard to gauge for this product. 2009 Upper Deck is obviously going to appeal to set collectors (it is the one set I assemble each year), so obviously there is some trade value in all those doubles you will get in a hobby box. The top rookies are short printed, which, while annoying, definitely adds value to them. I haven’t decided if I want to bother tracking down the other short printed cards, including the additional Michael Vick and Brett Favre cards. So that Mark Sanchez may find its way onto eBay just for that value reason. As the market becomes more and more inundated with autos and relics, there is very little value to the “hits” in this set, other than for player/team collectors or people like Joe who can’t pass up colorful relics. This year, Upper Deck did add some value with the higher-end premiere inserts. I was unable to pull any of those, so I am not able to pass judgment on them, but I trust they will do well on the secondary market, especially for the big name veterans and rookies.

RED ZONE RESULTS: TOUCHDOWN! (MISSED PAT) Finally, a product that found paydirt when lining up so close to the goal line for four consecutive downs. As I said before, there may be some bias in this review because this is one of my favorite basic sets each year, but 2009 Upper Deck did not disappoint. The base cards look great and will make for a nice binder addition to my collection (once I get around to buying a binder and inserting all 300+ cards into pages), and the inserts, while not my focus for this product, are pretty nice. Even if I decide not to keep them, they will be good giveaway material, trade bait, or possibly worth a dollar or two on eBay (if I ever get around to selling things on eBay in the first place). I was a little surprised Upper Deck kept the 16 packs of 20 cards format this year, given the downturn in the economy and obviously the Hobby. Turns out, they did cut a few corners, which is why they missed the PAT. The cards feel like they may be on ever so slightly thinner card stock and rather than insert those dummy relic fillers into packs that do not contain relics, they simply put fewer cards into relic packs. Each relic card obviously counts as 3 cards in Upper Deck’s world as each relic pack I opened only had 17 cards. You owe me 18 base cards, Upper Deck! It appears they also got rid of the “hot boxes” from last year (I had one!). Either this was another way to cut back on production costs, or they put the extra money into those higher-end inserts I talked about.

Overall though, I was very happy with the set. With the short print doubles, I could have gone with just two boxes, but now I have more ammo for trades. So seriously, if you are a team collector or are trying to build this set with just some trades and retail blasters, let me know. I have at least three of every card #1-200 and I think I have at least doubles of the RCs #201-300. I only need 1 of each. Help me clean out my card bins!

Product Review: 1999 Upper Deck Century Legends

I had a chance to bust this nice box a little while ago and am finally getting around to writing up the review. The box contained 24 packs of 5 cards each for a total of 120 cards. This was a high-end product back in 1999 (retail price was $167), but being a decade late to the party, I only had to pay $76 to dacardworld.com for this box (free shipping). This breaks into a $0.63 price tag per card, which is 2-3x the per card price of the other products I’ve reviewed so far here. It is definitely still higher end, but not Exquisite-esque.

Click image for full sized scan

The 180 card base set essentially consists of 5 subsets. Card 1-50 feature sepia-toned action shots of the Top 50 Players of All Time, per The Sporting News. Cards 51-100 feature full color action shots of Upper Deck’s Top 50 Contemporary Players. Cards 101-130 feature current players and legends in an All-Pro Rewind (APR) subset. Cards 131-160 are “21st Century Phenoms” rookie cards. Cards 161-180 are a Century Memories subset and feature great games, moments, and achievements. It should be noted that cards #4, 6, 14, 26, 31, 38, and 43 were never produced (see explanation card below that was included in the box on top of the packs).

This product features some great inserts, including 10 Epic Milestones – the 10 most impressive NFL milestones ever reached (1:11), 10 20th Century Superstars – incomparable superstars of the NFL (1:11), 10 Tour de Force – The 10 most important players in the NFL from the last century (1:23), 180 Century Collection – Die-cut and sequentially numbered parallel #/100 (no stated odds), Epic Signatures – autographs of the greatest NFL players of the century (1:23), Century Epic Signatures – hand-numbered autographed insert #/100 (no stated odds), 8 Jerseys of the Century – game-worn jersey cards (1:418), 15 Legendary Cuts – limited edition autograph cuts (no stated odds), and 1 Walter Payton autographed game-worn jersey card (34 total produced). Now, let’s finally get to the per-pack breakdown:

Pack 1: Terrell Davis (APR), Ronnie Lott, Herman Moore, Sedrick Irvin (RC), and Jerome Bettis

Pack 2: Merlin Olsen, Kordell Stewart (APR), Jeff Paulk (RC), Curtis Martin, and Donovan McNabb (RC)

Pack 3: Joe Montana (CM), Deion Sanders (APR), Night Train Lane, John Elway, and Jack Youngblood (Epic Signatures – AUTO)

Pack 4: Marion Motley, Raymond Berry (APR), Barry Sanders, Amos Zereoue (RC), and Steve Young

Pack 5: Terry Bradshaw, Steve Largent (APR), Randy Moss, Jerry Rice, and Doug Flutie

Pack 6: Sammy Baugh, John Hannah, Troy Aikman (CM), Rob Konrad (RC), and Jerry Rice (CM)

Pack 7: Sid Luckman, Brett Favre, Ricky Williams (RC), John Elway (Epic Milestones), and Steve Young (20th Century Superstars)

Pack 8: Steve Young (APR), Steve Young (CM), Bob Lilly (APR), Jimmy Smith, and Peerless Price (RC)

Pack 9: Gale Sayers, Marshall Faulk (APR), EMMITT SMITH, Jake Plummer, and Champ Bailey (RC)

Pack 10: Dick “Night Train” Lane (APR), Herman Moore (CM), Roger Staubach (CM), Joe Montana (Epic Milestones), and Randy Moss (20th Century Superstars)

Pack 11: Terry Bradshaw (APR), Earl Campbell, Warren Moon, Troy Edwards (RC), and Corey Dillon

Pack 12: Jim Brown, Reggie White (APR), Joe Namath (CM), Jevon Kearse (RC), and Ricky Watters

Pack 13: Bob Lilly, Brett Favre (APR), Andre Rison, Chris Aiborne (RC), and Steve McNair

Pack 14: Willie Lanier, Bart Starr (APR), Dick Butkus, Jim Brown (CM), and Michael Irvin

Pack 15: Alan Page, Ken Stabler (CM), Jerry Rice, Kordell Stewart, and John Elway (CM)

Pack 16: Alan Page (APR), Raymond Berry, Otto Graham, Akili Smith (RC), and Tim Couch (Tour de Force)

Pack 17: Dan Marino, Ronnie Lott (APR), Peyton Manning, Brock Huard (RC), and Warrick Dunn

Pack 18: Ray Nitschke, Willie Brown, David “Deacon” Jones (APR), Steve Largent (CM), and Terrell Davis

Pack 19: Mark Brunell (APR), Paul Warfield (CM), Randall Cunningham, Charlie Batch, and Andy Katzenmoyer (RC)

Pack 20: Forrest Gregg, Earl Campbell (CM), Kevin Johnson (RC), Andre Reed, and Michael Cloud (RC)

Pack 21: Deion Sanders, Walter Payton (APR), Johnny Unitas, Shannon Sharpe, and Dan Fouts (CM)

Pack 22: Joe Montana (APR), Anthony Munoz, Bart Starr, Derrick Thomas, and Napoleon Kaufman

Pack 23: Fran Tarkenton (APR), Herb Adderly, Thurman Thomas, Aaron Brooks (RC), and Garrison Hearst

Pack 24: Marcus Allen (CM), Mel Blount, Terrell Davis, David Boston (RC), and Antonio Freeman

Click images for full sized scans

FIRST AND GOAL’S FOUR DOWN:
1st Down, Design: As a higher-end product, there is no surprise that this is a beautiful set. The base cards are very clean and classy and the inserts are very well crafted (read below). The numerous subsets are interesting, but well done. One drawback was the airbrushed college helmets and jerseys in the 21st Century Phenoms (RCs) subset. I guess UD couldn’t or decided not to obtain collegiate rights. Why they didn’t opt for profile shots without helmets I don’t know. I did however particularly like the sepia-tones used for the initial 50 cards, the 50 greatest players of all time. The entire set just has a certain elegant feel to it — fitting for a “century legends” title.

2nd Down, Inserts: This product does not have a plethora of inserts like some modern sets, but there is certainly enough to keep the collector excited. The Epic Milestones and 20th Century Superstars are very nice. I do have a problem with the Tour de Force set though. I pulled a Tim Couch. Granted, he was a very highly touted rookie in 1999, but this insert set was supposed to feature the “10 most important players in the NFL from the last century” (directly from the box). Really?!? Tim Couch is one of the most important players in the last century? He wasn’t a top ten player in most of the games he played in, let alone the year, let alone the CENTURY! This is proof of why certain insert concepts should be strictly reserved for superstars and legends. The autographs and game worn jersey cards are AMAZING though! They may not have been seeded 3 per box, but there is no doubt they were better designed than most of the “hits” collectors go after today.

3rd Down, Collation: The collation was hard to complain about. In 120 cards, I pulled no doubles, so that is always a good sign. Also, for the box as a whole, I pulled the inserts as expected per the stated odds. However, I am a little concerned about the fact that I pulled an Epic Milestone insert immediately followed by a 20th Century Superstars insert in two separate packs. I’d rather see the inserts spread out a little, especially if there are only a handful in the entire box. One personal issue I had was the high number of 49ers I pulled. Granted, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, and Steve Young will naturally get a lot of recognition in a set like this, but pulling so many from one team (2 Steve Youngs in one pack!), gets a little tiresome if it is not your favorite team.

4th Down, Overall Value: This is the hardest area to judge on. The price was certainly higher than most sets from 1999, however, the set is absolutely gorgeous and gives collectors a great way to integrate modern players with the legendary heroes of yesterday. Also, the possibility of pulling on-card autos of some of the greatest football players of all time certainly adds value. If you were fortunate enough to pull one of those very rare jersey cards, you would have yourself a GREAT value box, hands down.

RED ZONE RESULTS: FIELD GOAL This is the first product to score some points in First and Goal’s Four Downs. I wanted to give this set a touchdown, but the 7 missing cards and the questionable insert checklists were big drawbacks for me. Overall though, this was a great set and the box was a blast to bust. So while this box couldn’t find paydirt, it did get on the board, giving its team a crucial lead late in the game. Only time will tell if it can maintain that lead, but in a defensive struggle, those 3 points could be huge.

Product Review: 1996 Pinnacle Zenith

As always, let’s start off with a little product breakdown. The box contained 24 packs of 6 cards for a total of 144 cards. I paid $43.00 for this box at dacardworld.com (free shipping since I bought a bunch of supplies and boxes at one time). This breaks out to a price of just a smidge under $0.30 per card, which is a tad (like my explicit adjectives?) more than previous box breaks I’ve done here, but still a good deal.

Click image for a full sized scan

The 150-card base set consisted of 96 veterns and stars, 35 rookies, 15 Proof Positive subset (denoted as “PP” in the pack listing below), 1 Triple Trouble (Dallas Cowboys Triplets), and 3 checklists. While not numerous, the inserts included in this product were certainly worth the hunt. Inserts consisted of Z Team (18 cards seeded 1:72), Rookie Rising (18 cards seeded 1:24), Noteworthy ‘95 (18 cards seeded 1:12), and Artist’s Proof Parallel (150 cards seeded 1:23). When you open the box, the packs are presented in two columns of three tiered rows, which I assume made for a very nice hobby shop shelf display. As a side note of interest, this was Pinnacle’s second Zenith offering, which was intended to be a high-end off season product, which explains why it is a 1996 product but features 1995 rookies. Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty pack breakdown:

Pack 1: Scott Mitchell (PP), Steve Bono, Ricky Watters, Terance Mathis, Tyrone Wheatley, and Edgar Bennett

Pack 2: Tony Martin, Yancy Thigpen, Kerry Collins (PP), Greg Hill, Garrison Hearst, and Dan Marino (CL)

Pack 3: Robert Brooks (PP) Terry Kirby, Derrick Alexander, EMMITT SMITH (CL), Erric Pegram, and Scott Mitchell

Pack 4: Brett Favre (PP), Drew Bledsoe, Erik Kramer, John Elway, Herman Moore, and Kordell Stewart (PP)

Pack 5: Dave Brown, Darney Scott, Terrell Fletcher, Eric Metcalf, Troy Aikman, and Rob Johnson (RC)

Pack 6: Michael Irvin (Z Team), James Stewart (RC), Adrian Murrell, Heath Shuler, Tony Boselli (RC), and Anthony Miller

Pack 7: Todd Collins (RC), Ken Norton Jr., Dan Marino, Trent Dilfer, Jeff George, and Rodney Thomas (PP)

Pack 8: Warren Moon, Steve Atwater, Jim Harbaugh, Herschel Walker, Steve McNair (RC), and Darick Holmes (Rookie Rising)

Pack 9: Herman Moore (PP), Brett Favre, Cris Carter, Jim Everett, Stan Humphries, and Kyle Brady (RC)

Pack 10: Wayne Chrebet (RC), Terry Allen, Andre Reed, Rodney Hampton, Jake Reed, and Rashaan Salaan (RC)

Pack 11: Michael Irvin, Chris Zerich, Frank Sanders (RC), Mario Bates, Jeff Hostetler, and Chris Sanders (RC)

Pack 12: J.J. Stokes (RC), Brent Jones, Mark Brunell, Kerry Collins (RC), Craig Heyward, and Charles Haley (Noteworthy ‘95)

Pack 13: Eric Bjornson (RC), Marcus Allen, Tim Brown, Charlie Garner, Napoleon Kaufman (RC), and Robert Brooks

Pack 14: Jeff Blake (PP), Hugh Douglas (RC), Jeff Graham, Junior Seau, Jay Novacek, and James Stewart (RC)

Pack 15: Rodney Thomas (RC), William Floyd, Ben Coates, Lovell Pinkney (RC), Larry Centers, and Jerry Rice (CL)

Pack 16: Chad May (RC), Henry Ellard, Greg Lloyd, Carl Pickens, Carl Pickens (PP), and Reggie White

Pack 17: Tamarick Vanover (RC), Chris Warren, Lake Dawson, Barry Sanders, Rodney Peete, and Ricky Watters (PP)

Pack 18: Eric Zeier (RC), Daryl Johnston, Natrone Means, Bam Morris, Derrick Thomas, and Ken Dilger (RC)

Pack 19: Yancy Thigpen (PP), Jim Kelly, Neil O’Donnell, Deion Sanders, Troy Aikman/EMMITT SMITH/Michael Irvin (Triple Trouble), and Jerome Bettis

Pack 20: Stoney Case (RC), Steve Young, Marshall Faulk, Bert Emanuel, Bernie Parmlee, and Michael Westbrook (RC)

Pack 21: Terrell Davis (RC), Harvey Williams, Charles Haley, Brian Blades, Chris Miller, and Isaac Bruce (PP)

Pack 22: Kordell Stewart (RC), Errict Rhett, Quinn Early, Jerry Rice, Justin Armour, and Curtis Conway

Pack 23: Jeff Blake, EMMITT SMITH, Bill Brooks, Sherman Williams (RC), Curtis Martin (RC), and Bam Morris (Artist’s Proof)

Pack 24: Darick Holmes (RC), Brett Periman, Vincent Brisby, Joey Galloway, Isaac Bruce, and Troy Aikman (Noteworthy ‘95)

Click images for full sized scans

FIRST AND GOAL’S FOUR DOWNS:
1st Down, Design: If Pinnacle was trying to create a high-end product in 1996 (essentially a 1995 product), I think they succeeded. Without the jersey, autograph sticker, or low serial number gimmicks, they managed to create a nice looking set. The design is crisp and clean and has a shiny-goodness to it. I would rather see a more complete photograph on a base card than the player cutouts we see here, but it does work fairly well for this set.

2nd Down, Inserts: This product did not have a long list of inserts, but the ones featured were fairly well done. The Z Team insert was pretty cool as the “Z” was opaque, but the rest of the card was slightly transparent. The Rookie Rising insert looks AMAZING in person! The card features incredible “etched metallic” technology and actually has a player photo and that metallic look on both sides. If not for the copyright info and card number, it would be tough to say which side was the front. The Noteworthy ‘95 card was a bit of a let-down. It was very shiny and had two player photos, but the “Noteworthy ‘95″ background was a bit tacky.

3rd Down, Collation: With fewer inserts than a modern set, I expected to pull most of the base set. Since the set was 150 cards and I only got 144 cards, I knew I would fall a little short. I managed to pull no duplicates (Bam Morris parallel wasn’t the best, but technically not a double), which was really nice. I am missing 11 base cards, but given the above information, this is not a high number. The inserts fell exactly as predicted per the seeding, and I even managed to pull a Z Team, which should only have fell one per 3 boxes, so I was quite happy.

4th Down, Overall Value: I only paid $0.30 per card, so it’s tough to say that this product was a waste of money. The set is well designed and the inserts are beautiful (especially that Rookie Rising!). Unfortunately, there are no big time rookies in the set (Terrell Davis never panned out like we all thought he would), but there were many great super stars of that era, including Dan Marino, John Elway, Brett Favre, Barry Sanders, Jerry Rice, and of course Emmitt Smith. Like other products I’ve busted, if you are looking to bust a product purely to make a profit, this is not the product for you. However, if you enjoy flipping through some well designed cards featuring all those players you followed a decade ago, then this is a very good buy.

RED ZONE RESULTS: FIRST DOWN You may be asking yourself how that’s possible. Obviously the defense got caught cheating and 1996 Zenith was awarded a “half the distance to the goal, first down”. This product wasn’t the best I’ve ever busted and hindsight prevents me from getting excited about the young horses that would never really pan out, so it did not score any points. However, the near perfect collation and nice inserts (plus I was afforded the chance to pull 3 different Emmitt base cards), means that this product is still nicely positioned to get on the board. Given another four downs (a second box break), it just might be able to punch it into the endzone or at least walk away with a field goal.