[Baseball Nut]

For a while, there has been a void for hockey cards. Plenty of trading cards for set builders, plenty of ultra premium sets for super-collectors, but not much that strikes a balance for those that want premium hits in a collectable set but can’t put down several hundred dollars for a box. Panini has filled that void with 10-11 Playoff Conteders Hockey and it just might be the best version of the Contenders line for any sport.


Contenders Football falls into our premium cards category. Each hobby box contains 24 – 5 card packs with four autographs per box on acerage. Just like the Football version, there are Golden Ticket redemptions for immediately available cards made out of 11 grams of 14K gold. Lets take a look at the cards we pulled from the box.

NOTE- Some of these cards are really hard to scan because of their mirror foil finish,
like the Classic Ticket and Draft Tandems below. In person they all look great.

First from the base set

Alex Ovechkin Season Tickets Front and Back

Stanley Cup Finals Goalies Roberto Luongo and Tim Thomas Season Tickets



Luc Robitaille Classic Ticket and Kyle Palmieri Rookie Ticket #/100

From the inserts

Jeff Skinner Rookie of the Year Contenders



Bobby Ryan Lottery Winners



Ray Bourque and Mark Messier Draft Tandems



Carey Price Award Contenders



"The Roadrunner" - Yvan Cournoyer Legendary Contenders



Joe Thornton and Roberto Luongo Perennial Contenders


Dustin Byfuglien Against the Glass



Sidney Crosby The Great Outdoors



Dwayne Roloson and Mike Smith Leather Larceny

Here are our hits

Two Alexanders
Alexander Burmistrov and Alexander Vasyumov Auto Rookie Tickets



Evgeni Malkin Autographed The Great Outdoors



This redemption card for which we have done a Photoshop mock-up



Steven Stamkos Autographed Lottery Winners


Overall Look

The familiar design of contenders works well with Hockey. The players really stand out on the base cards and the rookie cards have plenty of shiny. The autograph zone for the Rookies Tickets looks great. Leather Larceny cards with their faux leather textured surfaces are fantastic and Against the Glass cards work well with their clear acetate zones. The photography for The Great Outdoors cads is... well... great! As with the Football release the Golden Ticket cards are amazing.

Quality and Variety of Players

The checklist is tight! With a majority of these cards carrying autograph parallels, that’s a good thing. The quality of the players is outstanding.

Do the Hits satisfy? Are the cards too base heavy?

If you just pull 4 Rookie Tickets as your autos, you should be happy. For those lucky enough to pull a legend or really hot prospect as one or more of your autos, this box with exceed your expectations.

Will you keep coming back for more?

I could easily see prospectors with case orders. With the perfect storm of Rookie Tickets during a year of super rookies, adding the Lottery Winners inserts that dip into previous rookies, Legends cards, Draft Tandems and Leather Larceny, these boxes will get consumed at a high rate. Add the Golden Ticket chase and that case order just might increase to two.

Rating

5 out of 5

2010-11 Playoff Contenders is a great product and a welcome addition to the stellar lineup of Hockey Cards being produced by Panini this year.



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