Product Review: 2013 PressPass FanFare NASCAR Hobby Box

Being a fan of NASCAR, I really have fallen in love with some of the products that Press Pass has come out within the last few years. This year's Ignite was a fun break and when we heard about FanFare we just had to give it a shot.
2013 FanFare brings you a Mid-range NASCAR product with a lot packed into the boxes. The Hobby product packaging consists of 8 packs with 5 cards per pack. The power behind this product is that each box delivers 4 Autographs and 4 Memorabilia cards!

Each of the Autographs and Memorabilia cards have parallels to collect along with some scarce Short Prints. Autographs come in a variety of serial numbers from /299 for the Young Guns down to 1/1 for some of the Veterans within the sport.
Memorabilia also has it's share of parallels to keep you hunting down some cool items. Fire Suits, Sheet Metal, Hats, Gloves, Shoes and even Rookie Tape are all found within different serial numbering of /199 down to 1/1.

The Base card set features 100 cards across the different NASCAR series's and include some Legends of the sport as well. Like all sets this one is loaded with parallels Holo Foil Die-Cuts, Silver Foil, and Alternate Photo variations. Some of the Photo Variations are short printed as well adding more value to the product.

Inserts are included but not the focus like other NASCAR products. Showtime, Fan Following and NASCAR Hall of Fame are the three included. The first 4 cards in the Fan Following insert set are short printed which could prove tough and maybe costly to finish the 15 card set.

As you can see this is a loaded product and very intriguing to those collecting NASCAR. I couldn't wait to bust open our box so here is how we did:

Base Cards: 16 (2 doubles)
Base Card Young Guns: 1 - Annabeth Barnes
Base Card Alt Photo SP: 1 - Brad Keselowski
Base Card Foil Die-Cut: 8 - Martin, Vickers, Reutimann, Long, Keselowski, Regan Smith, Ragan, Kahne
NASCAR Hall of Fame: 1 - Rusty Wallace
Showtime: 2 - Dale Earnhardt Jr, Kyle Busch
Fan Following: 8 - Jeff Gordon (SP), Kahne, Ambrose, Pastrana, Logano, Dillon, Edwards, Harvick
Fanfare Autos: 2 - Jeb Burton /125, James Buescher /125

Magnificent Materials Silver: 1 - Joey Logano Race Used Sheet Metal /199

Magnificent Materials Gold: 1 - Kyle Busch Race Used Sheet Metal /50

Magnificent Materials Signature Edition Silver: 1 - Aric Almirola Autograph Race Used Fire Suit Patch /99

Magnificent Materials Signature Edition Gold: 1 - Clint Bowyer Autograph Race Used Fire Suit /50

Magnificent Materials Blue: 1 - Justin Allgaier Race Used Glove & Shoe /50

Magnificent Materials Holo foil: 1 - Michael Waltrip Race Used Glove & Shoe /10

Very happy with this product. The Base cards are done nicely and the foil technology is great. They are on a thin stock so dinged corners could become a problem if not stored properly. We managed to find a Alternate Photo base card which turned out to be one of the short printed ones too of Brad Keselowski. The Die-cut parallels are very nice and have a holographic technology that really stands out. On the down side we pulled 2 doubles from the 16 base cards in the box. This is not great considering you only pull 16 base cards and that the set is 100 cards deep. Assortments like this shouldn't happen on this type of product.

The inserts are not too exciting but are typical for a NASCAR product. Again we found ourselves a short print with the Jeff Gordon Fan Following. The action shots of the cars on pit road are well done and the Fan Following also have some cool shots like the Gordon card signing autographs among a crowd of fans.

Lets get into the goodies shall we. Starting with the Autographs, we pulled Jeb Burton and James Buescher which aren't the stars you would love to get but both are serial numbered /125 and on-card autographs. Buescher coming up the ranks might be a good long term value, Burton hasn't hit the radar yet within the NASCAR series.

 

 Sheet Metal is very common within any NASCAR product and we pulled solid colored ones to boot. Kyle Busch is one of my favorite drivers which was a nice pull. Both are low serial numbers and have a nice design with foil lines throughout the cards.

 We were lucky to pull 2 Autographed Memorabilia cards in Bowyer and Almirola. Love the on-card autographs and Bowyer's takes up some great space on this card. His memorabilia is a solid color but feels like a patch of a sponsor. Almirola's patch is really nice and looks great with the different colors.

Saving the best for last? Well we had too, these are some of the best we've pulled and seen within NASCAR products. The 2 Dual Magnificent Materials we pulled are simply great and the pictures don't do the cards justice. First with the Allgaier, it's a Blue parallel version numbered to 50. the Race Used glove has black and white coloring and is a thick piece of material. the Shoe piece is just as thick and has the standout white with Red trim. the Waltrip card is similar to the Allgaier consisting of a Glove and Shoe relic. The Glove has 2 dark colors on a thick piece, while the shoe is straight black. This is a Holographic Silver type parallel that isn't really defined anywhere on the checklist or sell sheets. The extra value to this one is it is numbered /10.

Overall we did very well with our hits and cards out of this box. The Base card parallels were great and of course the Hits make the product what it is. We've seen a couple of boxes pulled and we had a second box which was just as good but with less Memorabilia flare in it and more focused on Autographs. This is well worth the investment to bust open a box or two. If your geared towards NASCAR or even if your looking to get into something new within the collecting hobby this would be the box for you. By far one of the best products we've busted this year and definitely will be hard to top within the future NASCAR products coming down the line.

Most cards/hits pulled in our breaks end up on our site storefront www.packgambler.com, or our COMC account ThePackGambler. If you are interested in any of the cards we have mentioned please send us an e-mail at packgamblersales@gmail.com

Gambler Overall Rating: 4.9 out of 5
Cost: 5/5
Autographs: 5/5
Relics: 5/5
Parallels: 5/5
Concept: 4.5/5
Fun Aspect: 5/5