[Baseball Nut]

2011 Panini Gridiron Gear Football is a solid set of cardsthat can be a bit of a chase if you are trying to collect all of the baserookies. With some nice hits, thisset serves as a good middle ground between the set building of Prestige andRookies & Stars and the premium hits of Certified and Absolute Memorabilia.


Gridiron Gear Football falls under our premium cardscategory. Each box contains 18 – 8card packs. It says on the box youget 2 Autograph OR Memorabilia cards per box but I think it should be 2 AutosAND 2 Memorabilia cards because that seems to be the norm.


Here are some of the cards we pulled from our box.

Base cards

Drew Brees base, front and back


Aaron Rodgers, Adrian Peterson, Tim Tebow



Wes Welker, Frank Gore, LeSean McCoy


Rookies - Denarius Moore, Prince Amukamara

Base Card Parallels

Matt Schaub #/250, Dane Sanzenbacher #/250, Marques Coleston #/250


Peyton Hillis #/100, Robert Quinn #/100

Rookie Orientation

A.J. Green non-numbered, Titus Young #/250, Jamie Harper #/100


Ray Lewis - Rashard Mendenhall Crash Course #/250



Arian Foster Breast Cancer Awareness #/250


The Hits

A.J. Green Memorabilia #/299, Beanie Wells Prime Material #/50, Martez Wilson Auto #/299


Vincent Brown Rookie Gridiron Gems Auto #/299



Overall Look

The design is pretty consistent with previous releases ofGridiron Gear. The inclusion of Breast Cancer Awareness cards is a nice touch.The standouts, from a design level, are the Rookie Gridiron Gems pulls outautographs and the Gridiron Signatures.

Quality and Variety of Players

There is a fine selection of 150 veteran players. At 100total, the rookie cards checklist is deep.

Do the Hits satisfy?

There are many low numbered big hits here, but this iscalled Gridiron Gear so expect some of the bigger hits to come in theMemorabilia cards. Even having saidthat, the autograph cards cannot be overlooked.

Will you keep coming back for more?

This is the type of product that crosses line, working fordifferent types of collectors. Since only a handful of Rookie Cards can befound in each box, set builders will be in for multiple boxes breaks.

Rating

4 out of 5

2011 Panini Gridiron Gear Football is somewhat of a hybridrelease that finds a comfortable place in the middle of the pack, providingopportunities for a wide range of collectors.



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