[Baseball Nut]

There is a lot of goodness that comes out of boxes of2011-12 Panini Certified Hockey cards. Chances are you will hit something nice, whether it comes from a topveteran of the game or one of the Freshman Fabric Autograph cards. It doesn’t hurt that the base cardslook great too.


We classify Certified Hockey in our premium cardscategory. Each box contains 10 – 5card packs. with 4 Autograph or Memorabilia cards per box.


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

Base Cards

Alex Ovechkin base, front and back



Ryan Miller, Dustin Byfuglien, Steven Stamkos



The Sedins, Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, Taylor Hall



Tim Thomas, Eric Staal, Brad Marchand



Ryan Callahan, Jordan Eberle, Cam Fowler


Joe Mullen Immortals #/199, Johnny Bucyk Immortals #/500


Marc-Andre Fleury Masked Marvels


Travis Hamonic Collision Course

The Hits

Brent Burns Fabric of the Game Mem #/399, Brenden Morrow Mirror Dual Mem #/150


Eric Condra Freshman Signatures Autograph - Not Numbered



Jeff Skinner Fabric of the Game Prime Patch Autograph #/5



Overall Look

These are great looking base cards, front and back. Kudos to Panini for securing a photosession with Byfuglien soon after the announcement of the Thrashers move toWinnipeg to become the Jets. Hitdesign here is classic to the Certified line of cards.

Quality and Variety of Players

This is a nice selection for the 170 veteran players basecards. All 55 rookie cards are available autographed and checklists for theinserts work well.

Do the Hits satisfy?

You are bound to get a Fabric of the Game card that is yourstandard swatch and unfortunately the classic Certified design does not enhancethose single colored swatches, but get them in the numbered version with primefabrics and that design becomes easier to overlook. What helps everything here is that the majority of the hitsare very solid.

Will you keep coming back for more?

Multiple boxes of Certified is understandable, especially ifyou are riding the way of a hot box or coming off a big hit. As the first really premium offering of2011-12 in hockey, collectors will be attacking cases.

Rating

4 1/2 out of 5

2011-12 Panini Certified Hockey is a great opportunity toflex collector’s premium muscles while pulling some great hits out of theseboxes.



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