Collect call: 2011 Panini Limited Football

Posted Feb 13, 2012 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Feb 13, 2012 at 07:40 PM

Panini America has kicked off the new year with some high end football product, a set tailored to the wants of hit-seekers, autograph collectors and rookie card lovers.

Draft day geeks probably will enjoy this set, too. And with a $100 price tag for an eight-card box, you’d have to hope there was enough sizzle to justify it.

For starters, every card — including those from the base set — are numbered to 499 or less. There are 100 “common” cards, 50 Legend cards, with names like Jack Lambert, Bob Griese, Barry Sanders, Joe Namath, Jerry Rice and Sam Huff, to name but a few. Finally, the base set wraps up with 50 Phenom cards.

Material Phenoms cards are numbered 201-236 in the set and will contain an on-card autograph. In the box I sampled, this card appeared as a redemption for a Julio Jones autograph. That’s a nice pull, but my feelings on redemptions remain the same — as a collector, when you plunk down $100 for a box, you want instant gratification. I understand the theory behind redemptions, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

The box I opened also contained a pair of Initial Steps relic cards. One was of former Polk County (Lake Gibson) standout Bilal Powell, who is with the New York Jets. This card had a nice green swatch and was numbered to 99. The second relic, also numbered to 99, was of Denver’s Von Miller.

Another card I pulled was a parallel refractor card of the Chiefs’ Dwayne Bowe, numbered to 50. Former Oakland Raiders tight end Dave Casper was the Legends card, while Denver’s Quinton Carter was the phenom card. Both were numbered to 499. And there were two base cards.

There are other sizzle cards to be had from this set. Draft Day relic cards are broken into four subsets: Limited Lids (13 solo cards that have pieces of the hat the player wore when he was drafted and walked to the podium on draft day), pairs (five cards), trios (four cards) and quads (also four cards). For example, one quad card features Cam Newton, A.J. Green, Julio Jones and Von Miller. Newton and Jones are featured on a second quad, two, along with Alden Smith and J.J. Watt.

Rookie Lettermen (like the one of Jake Locker featured in this post), has a large patch also signed by Newton, Andy Dalton, Christian Ponder and Blaine Gabbert.

The biggest autographs in the set will be contained in the Limitless subset, including Tom Brady, Joe Flacco, Tim Tebow, Michael Vick, Sam Bradford, Dez Bryant Adrian Peterson and Darrelle Revis.

There’s plenty of different subsets to satisfy the high-end collector. This is not a set you would necessarily want to build, although I guess you could. The autographs and relics? That’s a different story. It’s a strong lure.