Coffee Break:2021 Panini Contenders Fanatics Mega Box Break #1

*takes a sip, gets ready for another republished post on Cards Over Coffee. we only have two more of these left...I promise!*

I recently scored a huge contest win on Twitter netting me some great prizes. Along with a couple of autograph cards, one of Derek Stingley, a SAGE card set I also got two 2021 Panini Contenders Fanatics Mega Boxes. Crazy huh?? I haven't won a contest in soooooooooooooooooooooooo long it felt great and was a big win.

So, as I promised @SabertoothCards, I would break and post both on here.

Today, is box 1. Let's see how it goes.

*takes a sip,  begins to rip*

2021 Panini Contenders Football Fanatics Mega Box comes with 10 packs of 8 cards. Each box comes with 2 autographs and runs about $99-$125.

I won't bother showing all of the base I landed, so I will go straight to the meat of the product.

I didn't put this in my first regular Mega Box break of Contenders, but these inserts do have parallels, Emerald, Orange, Ruby, Sapphire, Silver /99, Gold /25, and Platinum /10.

Power Players features all of those defensive guys from past and present with 25 cards in the set to collect. Mack is an orange.

MVP featuring 25 of those soon-to-be and already candidates for the leagues prestigious award.

Playoff Ticket with those big time games in the playoffs and with 15 of them to collect. I already own the Eli which is the most important one on the checklist anyways.

Gladiators. I like this design as well. Put those players in the coliseum and fight it out.

Round Numbers with rookies who were drafted in the same round and with 20 cards to collect. Not too bad of a pull at all!

Rookie Of The Year has those candidates chasing the award with 30 of them in the set. I need a Toney like this.

Moore is an orange.

Chain Movers is new to Contenders and I dig it. There are 30 of them to collect as well.

Now onto my two autographs, I have heard these boxes can be rough, mine was.

 

Simi is a Wild Card Round parallel.

But, think I know of a Cowboys and Patriots fan who would trade for these.

Thoughts on my break welcomed in comments.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Coffee Break:2021 Panini Contenders Football Mega Box

*sits down and preps today's post. time for another republished post on Cards Over Coffee*

There are certain football products I look forward to every year. Prizm, Optic, Donruss, Score and today's product Contenders are the top of the crop when it comes to my football collecting. 

Back in the day, Topps Chrome would have made this list as well.

With the rising costs of hobby boxes, some of my favorite products have had to take a seat. Actually, all of my favorite football hobby boxes have had to take a seat with most costing $400+. Who can afford to rip hobby anymore if you are just a collector? You can't.

That means you have to rely on retail finds which is just as hard to land since most products sell out instantly. Especially football. Unless it's Wild Card, there's enough of that stuff I could open all year that's collecting dust on the shelf.

So today, let's take a look at a Mega Box of Contenders. I think this is the first time I have seen football Contenders offered as a Mega Box.

*takes a sip, begins to rip*

Each Mega Box of 2021 Panini Contenders football comes with 14 packs of 8 cards. Each Mega also guarantees one autograph and two memorabilia cards with each box roughly costing $100. Guess that isn't too bad for 3 hits in today's hobby.

 

Speaking of hobby, that come with 5 or 6 autographs which only one is usually worth anything, costs $600+ plus for a box. YIKES.

The base card design sticks to the typical season ticket. It appears they once again reused a lot of the same photos used on other cards. That Golladay one is featured in many products.

There are 100 cards in the base set to collect which you get many of in this one break.

The inserts this year for Contenders I think are an upgrade in design compared to years past.

Power Players features all of those defensive guys from past and present with 25 cards in the set to collect.

Round Numbers with rookies who were drafted in the same round and with 20 cards to collect.

MVP featuring 25 of those soon-to-be and already candidates for the leagues prestigious award.

Chain Movers is new to Contenders and I dig it. There are 30 of them to collect as well.

Rookie Of The Year has those candidates chasing the award with 30 of them in the set. I need a Toney like this.

Playoff Ticket with those big time games in the playoffs and with 15 of them to collect. I already own the Eli which is the most important one on the checklist anyways.

Gladiators. I like this design as well. Put those players in the coliseum and fight it out. Good luck tackling Derrick Henry or any of the 20 in this set.

Legendary Contenders and nobody is more of a legend than Barry who is one of 15 on the checklist.

And my favorite insert, Supernatural. Those players that really have outstanding skills that are supernatural. There are 15 in this set.

Inserts also have the following parallels you can find,

Emerald, Orange, Ruby, Sapphire, Silver /99, Gold /25, and Platinum /10.

Now onto the hits,

PC PULL!! Kadarius Toney.

Mac Jones the top rookie from 2021.

 

And my autograph, Demetric Felton. He rushed for 24 yards last year and was a 6th round draft pick. With Nick Chubb in Cleveland, I don't see any chance of him being the next Terrell Davis.

Overall, I was pleased with my pulls though they don't bring back the value. PC pull, Giants base, some solid insert names makes me happy enough.

Thoughts on this break welcomed in comments.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

An Illusion

*hot coffee, hot cards coming at you today. time for some #CardsOverCoffee*

The retail shelves are back with cards on them once again. However, most of the time it's baseball and not football or basketball (unless it's that Chronicles stuff that not even the most desperate collector will buy) cards. Being a bigger football card collector, it was nice that my father timed it right this past weekend and picked some up for me.

With the cards in his hands, I drove the hour to pick up the cards from him. I bought one football pack and sacrificed a Matthew Stafford Topps rookie for the basketball blaster box. Don't worry about the value difference, I also got some other cards that he forgot to bring that day. I expect a mail day from him anytime now. If he is reading this, I am still waiting.

With the cards now in hand, I knew what he saw and sent me a picture of wasn't an illusion. Now you will see that it wasn't one either aas we will rip into a pack of Illusions football.

*takes another sip, feels giddy about opening up some football cards*

Each value pack of 2021 Illusions football comes with 20 cards and each pack also has a parallel. Packs are roughly $8 each which is more than the $5 they used to be. Remember when the good ole days before the pandemic?

*takes a sip, begins to rip*

I won't bore you with all of the cards in this pack nor do I feel like taking all of those pictures, but I will show off the key ones.

First card in my pack was a base card and PC piece of Daniel Jones. It was hard to capture the full look on these, but the name plate at the bottom is done in team color.

I hadn't seen the base cards yet but looks like Panini continues to use the same design but changes the layout. It works I suppose.

My best veteran base was of Aaron Rodgers who I am not a big fan of. I wanted to take a jab at him right now, but I heard he doesn't like those.

Devonta Smith who had a solid season for the Eagles. He was one draft spot away from being a NY Giant until the Eagles traded up. That is something I will always remember when I run into his cards.

NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICE! Mac Jones! His cards have cooled down quite a bit after the playoff loss but it's still a good one to have for future years.

And my parallel in this pack was of Antonio Gibson. I think it's an orange.

Not a bad pack rip at all with the Jones and the Jones. Rest of the cards were not super stars, but the cards above made me happy.

*takes a sip before finishing up today's post*

That was actually a fun break, though a short one. The cards look nice, but the card stock is so thin that it wouldn't take much to injure one.

In comments today, thoughts on today's pack rip or if you have found any football or basketball cards out in the wild.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Wild Card Is Back!

*takes a sip, takes a bite of a delicious carrot muffin. I know it sounds odd, but it's like eating unfrosted carrot cake in muffin form and it's amazing. First time I have ever tried these.*

I have said before and I will say it again, the 90's for me were the best era of collecting. I am not talking 90-93, I am talking 94, especially 95-99 in those terms. Those cards, especially inserts, are still some of the most sought out cards today.

So when companies bring back old product names like Panini has with Donruss brands and Upper Deck has with Fleer/Skybox, I give them a try hoping to relive what once was.

Most of the time, those all fall flat since you can't remake what once was. So when I saw that Wild Card football had returned I was curious. Would there be a million stripe parallels? Great photography? Fun inserts?

I had to get my answers, so when I went to Walmart last Tuesday, I caught a blaster box of it on the shelf and picked it up for $23.

Before I opened it up, I knew already that it wasn't licensed by the teams or collegiate league and would be similar to Sage Or Leaf.

*takes a sip, begins to rip*

In each blaster box of 2021 Wild Card Matte, there are 4 packs of 10 cards. You can also find 2 blaster box exclusives per box.

 

The side of the box gives you a sneak peek of what kind of subsets, or as I would call them, inserts you will find.

Once again the definition of a subset is a set within the base set. Inserts are separate looking cards from the base set with different numbering such as X12 as opposed to the base set number of 125.

One of the first cards I found was one of the first I wanted in Kadarius Toney. I will say I found the base cards a little lacking. Not much action photography and it's a plain white background.

The back of the card was statistic free and only had one sentence about the player. The base cards all have a MBC-numbering.

Here are some of the other key players I found,

Now onto what I found for my inserts.

Weekend Warrior

X-Plode

X-Plode Gold

X-Plode....I don't know....red? Though those are numbered.

 

Rookie Heat (which is by far the best looking insert of the group)

*takes a sip before finishing up today's post*

The product wasn't overly exciting, but, I will say comparing it to Leaf and Sage, it wins. The added foil inserts takes the victory over the other two unlicensed products.

Upon doing research on this product, I see they do offer the Stripe parallels for the base card set but you have to buy the Mega Box version to find them.

PARALLEL CARDS: 5-Stripe /50, 10-Stripe /30, 20-Stripe /18, 50-Stripe /10, 100-Stripe /7, 1,000-Stripe /5.

CHASE PARALLELS: 5-Stripe /10, 10-Stripe /5, 20-Stripe /4, 50-Stripe /3, 100-Stripe /2, 1,000-Stripe 1/1.

Also during my research I did see they offer the big named autographs in this product as well such as Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields, Trey Lance, etc. Which are hobby box offerings.

In comments, let me know your thoughts on these "bring back" products that companies are offering. What has been your favorite one so far? Also, your thoughts on Wild Card is also welcomed.

Hope everyone has a great Monday.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*