Panini has dusted off an old Pacific insert that we have not seen in just about 10 years, Net Fusion has made its way back in to a football product with the inclusion of the insert in the 2011 Crown Royal release.
Between 1999 and 2002 we have seen a variation of Net Fusions from Pacific in baseball, football and hockey releases but with Pacific Trading Cards hitting hard times in 2003 (and shutting down the following year) they did away with a lot of the odd ball inserts while they tried to right the ship. The problem that most people have with the insert is that the nets are not game used and to be specific are not even sports equipment. I guess you could say these are among the original manufactured patches. But, on to the current insert.
NFL Kickers are getting the attention with the re-introduction of the set, 20 kickers are on the checklist including some grizzled vets like Adam Vinatieri, Neil Rackers and Jay Feely along with some younger players like David Buehler and Graham Gano. I would expect to also see Sebastian Janikowski and Jason Hanson (Is this guy having an awesome comeback season or what?).
The cards are case hits and Panini is expecting the cards to hit “unheard-of secondary-market values for kicker cards”. Now taking in to consideration that kickers do not usually have much of a following and it is very rare to find relics or autographs it is possible that these cards may find a niche in certain types of collector’s personal collections. There are a handful of current auctions for 2011 Crown Royale Net Fusions and both Josh Scobee and Billy Cundiff have auctions topping $10 with plenty of time left on each but most other auctions are in the $1-3 range.
