Collect Call: 2011 Panini Football Plates & Patches

Posted Feb 13, 2012 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Feb 14, 2012 at 12:11 AM

There’s a small burgundy box inside the main package when you open Panini America’s new Plates & Patches football set. But once you break the seal, that burgundy box can produce some big hits.

These are the kind of sets that high-end collectors love: 1/1 printing plates, cut autographs of NFL legends, and autograph/relic cards of the game’s current stars. That’s hard to resist, even with a $150 suggested retail price. There are 10 cards in that little box, but five of them are pretty good hits.

Panini guarantees three autographs, one memorabilia card and either another auto or relic card.

The box I opened had two memorabilia cards: Card No. 1, a Joe Flacco white piece of a game-used uniform numbered to 299; and a Rookie Blitz card of Saints running back Mark Ingram, also numbered to 299. The swatch on Ingram’s card is is black and a good size, too.

Now, the autographs. The first one is a redemption RPS Rookie Signatures card of Titus Young. Great pull, but you will have to wait for the card. And I will repeat what I said in an earlier blog post tonight; as a collector, when you pay a good chunk of change for a box, you want instant gratification. I do understand the theory behind redemptions, the company has to get a card in the player’s hand to sign it and that isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Still, I don’t have to like that. And I don’t.

The second signature card is a rookie card of Packers tight end Ryan Taylor. The autograph is on a sticker and is a nice size. What detracts a bit from the card (and this is also the case in the base set and silver parallels that I saw), is that the player’s name, team and position is stamped in foil on the right-hand side of the card. Because that foil is a rich burgandy color, it’s hard to read the writing unless you tilt the card.

The final autograph comes from a subset that I absolutely love: Gridiron Cuts. Collectors can pull autographs of greats like Sammy Baugh, Otto Graham, Red Grange, Norm Van Brocklin, Pete Rozelle, Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis, just to name seven of the 50 possibilities.

The card in this particular set was a cut signature of Andy Robustelli, numbered to 49. Believe me, I love this card, but the autograph troubles me just a bit. If you look at the photo that goes with this post, you will notice that Robustelli’s autograph appears to be cut off at the bottom, particularly in the first letter of his first name and the first two letters of his last name. Almost seems like someone put a piece of paper at the bottom and Andy went outside the box. The same could be said when looking at the “y” in Andy. Looks like he went back and added the bottom part.

Maybe I am just reading too much into it. After all, I don’t know when Robustelli signed this card, although since he died in May 2011 at age 85, I know it was obviously before then.

Regardless, a very nice card.

The box also included a pair of inserts: a City Limits card of Jahvid Best, numbered to 249; and an Honors insert of Drew Brees, numbered to 249.

If you are trying to collect the base set (although, why would you be? You bought this stuff for the big hits, right?), there are 100 commons and 100 rookies.

This is a nice high-end product that boasts some of the hottest names in the NFL. Plus, some of the all-time greats. It’s an irresistible combination.