Product Review: 2012 Panini Certified Football Hobby Box

Panini has continued to impress me this year and again has done it with another great Football product. 2012 Panini Certified came out this week and it provided more punch into the depth Panini has provided to collectors this year. 2012 Certified comes in a ten pack box providing four hits per box. The four hits can be a combination of Autographs and Memorabilia, along with parallels of base cards and the same autographs and memorabilia. Each pack with contain one of these along with four base cards. The base cards this year sport the very common backing that Panini is known for with team colors. The front of the cards are again a Panini trait with the shinny silver reflective design. Parallels for the base cards range from Mirror Red /250 to Mirror Black 1/1. Two sets within the set are Immortals /999 and the New Generation Rookies /999. Both also include the same amount of parallels to chase down.

Autographs are plenty in this product. You are guaranteed to pull at least one autograph per box, which could come from Rookies, veterans, or retired stars. Of course these are all Sticker autographs, but at least you shouldn't have too many show up as a redemption.
Memorabilia,  Memorabilia and more Memorabilia! Again Panini has packed a product loaded with lots of memorabilia used cards. These range from Veterans, Retired Stars and of course a very heavy Rookie insertion. Now some might say there are way too many memorabilia cards to pull from this product, but I say bring it on. Of course with the amount of memorabilia in this product your chances of pulling a top player could be harder, but Panini is usually pretty good with their box assortments.

As with most collectors, I was waiting for this product to arrive. It has always given good results in the past and I really like the designs of the base, autographed and memorabilia cards. Aside from the hits and the parallels, the cost of this product (which is around $100) is great for any collector. Here are my results:

Base: 42 (no doubles)
Base Mirror Red Parallel: Aaron Rodgers /250
Base Mirror Blue Parallel: Alex Smith /100
Immortals: Irving Fryar /999
New Generation: Devon Hill /999, Vick Ballard /999
New Generation Red Parallel: Ryan Lindley /250
Autograph: (2) Lavonte David Red Mirror /250, Matt Kalil Red Mirror /250 (Redemption)
Memorabilia: Ryan Tannehill Certified Skills /299,
Prime Memorabilia: David Wilson Fabric of the Game Prime Patch / 49

This was a very good box overall. I really like the base card design, even though you might end up with finger prints on your cards. Also I didn't end up with any damaged cards in this box, the last few Panini boxes I had some damaged corners but this box was clean all the way through. The Parallels are nice looking for the base and rookies, very new reflections off of them and the cards really standout. As for the Rookies in this box they were not as abundant as in previous releases where they are over flowing. It does turn out to be a good small size and this will provide a higher secondary market value due to this point.

I was able to pull two autographs and two memorabilia cards of decent draft picks. A split in this assortment was nice, even with sticker autographs and one being a redemption. Not to mention the David Wilson Prime Patch is a very sweet looking card, the patch has a lot going on too and it seems like it's over flowing off the card.

I really like this product for the value, amount of cards, design and the number of hits per box. For a product with only ten packs per box, this really pulls all the stops. I do have to say this box was one of the better ones I have seen busted so there is a chance to pull some basic memorabilia with just one autograph, but I think the chance is worth it on this great looking product.

Gambler Overall Rating: 4.4 out of 5
Cost: 4.5/5
Autographs: 3.5/5 
Memorabilia: 5/5

Design: 5/5

Rookies: 4/5
Fun Aspect: 4.5/5