Collect call: 2010 Donruss Elite Football

Posted Jun 22, 2010 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Jun 22, 2010 at 07:52 PM

Panini is not wasting any time jumping on the Tim Tebow bandwagon.

Can’t say I blame them, either, since he was box office as the University of Florida’s quarterback and has proven to be a marketing godsend to the Denver Broncos, who drafted him this spring.

So Tebow’s image graces the box top of Panini’s newest football issue, Donruss Elite 2010. He’a also the player on the wrapper of the 20 packs you will open in a hobby box.

But this set is just not about Tebow.

It’s a spiffy, 100-card base set that has an additional 100 rookie cards, plus each hobby box guarantees four memorabilia or autograph cards per box.

A hobby box contains 20 packs, with five cards to a pack. The box I sampled had 85 of the 100-card base set. On average, a box will yield four rookie cards numbered to 999. The box I saw had some local flavor, as I unwrapped a card of former University of South Florida defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul, who was drafted by the New York Giants. There also was a numbered card (999) of Ndammukong Suh.

The base card design is shiny and relies heavily on red and silver as its color scheme. The player’s name is stenciled in white against a red bar, and there is a thicker red bar running down each side of the card (there also are parallel cards sporting different colors). The photographs are isolated and sharp.

There was one die-cut rookie Aspirations card of Charles Scott, numbered to 32.

The box also included a pair of NFL Shield insert cards of Dez Bryant and Taylor Price (Bucs first-round-draft pick Gerald McCoy is also included in this subset).

Passing the Torch is an interesting 15-card insert set that has a different player on each side. The front side commemorates an old-timer, while the back has a newer player. The box I sampled had Eagles tight end Pete Retzlaff (who played from 1956 to 1966 in Philadelphia) and Brent Celek , the Eagles’ fifth-round draft choice in 2007.

The box also contained one insert from each of these subsets — Zoning Commission, Stars, Chain Reaction, Prime Targets and Elite Series. The set also has Throwback Threads, Down and Distance and Super Bowl XLIV inserts.

This particular hobby box delivered as promised as far as sizzle cards, with two autographs and a pair of relics. Both autos were rookies — Golden Tate (numbered to 249) and Shay Hodge (numbered to 499).

The relics are jersey swatches — one is a Chain Reaction card of Giants quarterback Eli Manning, numbered to 299. The other is an Elite Series swatch from a Pro Bowl uniform worn by the Cowboys’ Jason Witten.

There are plenty of nice base cards and decent rookies to be had in this set. Even with a $6 price tag per pack, it’s not a bad deal at all.