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The Contenders brand celebrates its 20th birthday today. Fifteen years ago the brand revolutionized our hobby completely by introducing us to the original “Rookie Autograph Card.” Although most card shops won”t be receiving their shipments until later this afternoon, many people began busting boxes last night and immediately posted their hits on eBay. We don”t have too much information to go on, but here is what we know so far…
- Confirmed Redemptions
- So far we have confirmed that Russell Wilson, Alshon Jeffrey, and T.Y. Hilton will have redemptions in this product
- No word yet on whether Robert Griffin III will be in the packs yet, but I am guessing he”ll be a redemption
- No word yet on whether Leon Sandcastle”s autograph will be packed out or not
- UPDATE: Nick Toon and Bryce Brown have been confirmed as redemptions
- Base Autograph Designs
- There are two main designs: On-Card and Sticker
- Apparently they changed the design from what was previewed (more on that below)
- Sticker auto looks nice
- On-card auto looks decent but the faded bottom portion detracts from iconic design
- UPDATE: Cracked Ice autographs look pretty awesome
- Playoff Ticket Autograph Designs
- Dark foil looks great
- Sticker autographs look awesome with foil beneath them
- Pen seems to work well on the foil board (unlike 2009 Contenders)
- This is a great addition to the product and a nice throwback to earlier Contenders products
- Changes to Original Autograph Designs
- The original design (left) did not “fade” the Rookie Ticket design to white
- Original design (left) had player centered on the card
- New design (right) moves player to the right so player does not have room to autograph
Not sure why they changed the design. Seems like they tried to force players to sign on the bottom, but why do this if you already have a perfect design, well suited for a vertical autograph (see original design to the left)? Now Andrew Luck”s autograph is condensed. All of the other players I”ve seen have signed on the bottom, making some of them hard to see. This product is still beautiful and will be a contender (pun intended) for Product of the Year, but if they had maintained the original integrity of the design, as previewed, this would be the hands-down favorite. Still a lot more to see with this product as only a few packs have been busted thus far. Bookmark this page and keep checking back as we will be updating it all week.
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