Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

I am finally getting around to posting it but I recently had a bit of a hot streak going. Within a 14 day period last month I won contests held by Panini, Upper Deck and Beckett. I am not normally a lucky sports card person, besides coming in a second place  tie last year at Thozul Will Rule's Nightmare On Cardboard III I have not won any contest's lately so this was a nice change.

 It all began with box break of Panini’s Luxury Suite Hockey on Panini’s The Knight’s Lance blog. They asked that collectors leave a message about the box break for a chance to win some of the cards pulled from the break and when I was contacted by Tracey Hackler I was floored. What was even more surprising is that when I received the package I found out that I had won 4 cards and not the original 1 card that I thought I had won.

2011 Luxury Suite Hockey:
Marco Scandella rookie card

Zac Dalphe autograph rookie

Marian Hossa dual relic

Pakke Rinne & Shea Weber dual relic

Next up was Beckett with a box break of 2011 Donruss Football and again, leave a comment about the product for the chance to win one of two cards. I won second place (First place got a Cam Newton Autograph/Relic card) and scored a nice Colin Kaepernick Autograph Rookie card.

The final contest was Upper Deck’s contest for a special unnumbered Abby Wambach 2011 Upper Deck card that was not released in packs. This contest was in support of the Women’s World Cup and the U.S. run in to the finals, 20 winners were selected from those who posted on the USA Women’s Soccer Facebook page. Upper Deck also sent a 2011 Upper Deck MLS Landon Donovan base card with the Abby Wambach card, to bad I am a Seattle Sounders FC supporter.

2010-11 Panini Luxury Suite Hockey

Schedule Release Date: June, 2011
Box Configuration: 4 packs per box, 3 cards per pack
SRP: $200/box

Box Break:
8 Autographs or Memorabilia cards (at least 2 will be autographs)
4 Rookie Cards

My Thoughts:
First up, way to go Panini on an awesome set.

Panini did right with this release and it shows. This looks amazing and even at $200/box I am sure it will sell well. Hockey fans are devoted collectors and stick by their favorite players.

I honestly am amazed at how well Panini did with this release. The entire design is created to highlight the players, relics and autographs. One thing that you will notice about the design is that there are no floating jerseys or extreme negative spacing. Take a look at the Stamkos Prime Patch card and compare it to the Mats Zuccarello autograph/jersey card. The relic die-cut window on Stamkos’ card is centered while the relic die-cut window on Zuccarello’s card was shifted up to make room for his autograph.

I do have a question about the base set. The press release clearly says that every card in the set is either an autograph, memorabilia, autographed-memorabilia or rookie card yet the press release includes a preview shot of an Alexander Ovechkin card which appears to be a base card. So I am not sure if there is a base set or not.

I would have loved to see Jeremy Roenicks Retired Autograph with him in a Coyotes sweater but I understand his longest tenure was with the Blackhawks.


Oh yeah, every autograph is on-card.


Pros:
Nice design

Variety of relics including prime patches, jersey pieces, logos and sticks

On-card autographs


Cons:
Costly (but cheaper than many high end products)

Not sure of the checklist yet (Not really a con)

Rating:

I have to give this product 5 out of 5 because it is so complete. Panini has come a long way with this set and they put together something wonderful that hockey fans will appreciate. I hope this is something that will continue in to basketball and football. I would love to see a NFL Luxury Suite release.