it must be said

Topps sucks.


When it comes to baseball, Topps has it...sometimes. Unfortunately they are hit or miss with some of their products but as our only choice in the matter, we're forced to accept it.

Football is a different story. Topps' football products are...not so great. Personally, I feel Panini is MILES beyond what Topps is doing in terms of getting the bang for your buck. Let me explain.

Normally I'm all about baseball but as I stated a few days ago, football has caught my attention. The main reason for this being that the local shop hosts a Super Bowl trade party, where collectors in the area flock to watch the big game, eat some pizza and talk and (once the hands are washed) trade some cards. I went last year and it was a good time. I made some decent deals but nothing to write home about. This year though, I'm going in with a different approach; football. Football cards are huge in that store and while baseball deals were done, it seemed like most were after some good football hits. Here is where Panini rules the football roost. Follow me as I go through a few recent releases from them and why they're good.

First up is their low-end set, 2011 Score. Yes they have the Score name and they sure look like they'd be made by said company. I think its great, a buck a pack (7 cards) or five bucks for a rack pack of 40. They have a good look to them, nice, clean and simple design. Backs are decent too with up to 5 years of stats. Its a good value and they don't focus on hits at all, in fact I'm not even positive there are any in this set save for the factory sets. I could be wrong though. No need for foil, or any trickery or gimmicks, just a 400 card set and some insert sets. This is what low-end should be.

2011 Rookies and Stars: Longevity. This set is beyond a great value. At ten packs a box and 5 cards a pack, its a quick bust but in those ten packs are at least three hits, although every box that has been opened up at the store has had four. Price? $59. Never EVER would Topps give away four hits for under 60 bucks. Never. The cards are so shiny, to the point where I almost hate touching them. This is certainly a mid-level set, to which Topps never has any of, be it baseball or football. Topps is only $75 and higher on boxes and usually for ONE hit. See some of the hits below:

Nice stuff. The rookie manu-patch autos are really nice and the jumbo jersey is cool too. The best part of Panini's hits? They're all numbered! Well, OK maybe not ALL of them but for the most part, most every hit I've gotten/seen has been numbered. I tell you, its way more exciting to pull a numbered jersey card as opposed to a card that isn't.

Now here is the big one. 2011 Certified is one of the best selling products year in and year out at the store. He goes through cases of the stuff, its unbelievable. This is usually the most anticipated football release of the year for many collectors. This is another four hit per box product. Some hits below:

Some good stuff here too. although this was my best:

Two prime jerseys, even though you can't tell on the bottom guy but check out the back:

Hey, there are autos back here! and its 5/5! Ok, so autos on the back is a little weird but I kind of like it. Its less clutter on the front.


My one qualm with Panini is that some of the sets start to look alike and its tough to tell what is from where. Thankfully they all have some sort of logo determining what set they are from. They love foil board too. Sooooo many shiny cards from Panini, you usually need sunglasses. I don't know if football collectors even put sets together, they seem to go for jerseys/autos and rookies mainly but there are some nice looking sets to be had.

I'll stick with Topps for baseball (namely because I have to) but for football its Panini all the way. Kind of really makes me want them to be able to do baseball, give Topps some real competition.