Panini Unwrapped “In-Home” Edition: The New 2011 Plates & Patches Football

In this special "in-home" edition of Panini Unwrapped, Panini America's Tracy Hackler rips through one autograph-intensive box of the new 2011 Plates & Patches Football.


In this special “in-home” edition of Panini Unwrapped, Panini America’s Tracy Hackler rips through one autograph-intensive box of the new 2011 Plates & Patches Football.

What Super Bowl XLVI participants will he uncover? What on-card-autographed, prime-piece memorabilia Rookie Card did he pull? Watch and find out.

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22 Replies to “Panini Unwrapped “In-Home” Edition: The New 2011 Plates & Patches Football”

  1. Love this product. Can’t wait for the Totally Certified Football to come out as well. Would have liked to see a sealed card like last year but still excellent jersey/patch cards in this set. Thanks Tracy for busting that box. Boom!

  2. I’m d-lighted to report that, after the big Giant win, I was feeling positive MoJo and broke the 1 box of P&P my LHS had scored for me. The Da’Rel Scott ‘graph was appropriate for the day, the Casey Mathews was neat, and the killer card was the 3/C Cam Newton auto patch. Inspired pull!!!

  3. Thanks for the video Tracy, ive been going through “Panini Unwrapped” withdrawal! lol. I love plates & Patches by the way. Ive probably busted 7 boxes so far and have pullled some pretty NICE hits! Keep up the great work Tracy!

  4. Great product. Great design. A real winner. My customers love it. Three or four autos in every box. We have seen many boxes with six hits! Chris (one of my customers) pulled an auto patch print plate and a 1 of 1 Demarco Murray auto NFL Logo patch from the first three boxes he bought. Needless to say, Chris came back for more.

  5. The Plates & Patches cards look great but the signing of Gordie “Mr. Hockey” was just plain awesome! Great job Panini!

  6. I thought my box was crappy. Glad to see yours was just as bad. Product seems a little pricy for so-so autos and single color patches. I know you can’t always pull a 1/1, but come on. My cards would fetch about $30.00 bucks on ebay (as would yours). Where is the quality control? Seriously, I would love to see a piece on how you guys pack these out, and how you “rank” the cards to come up with a good mix with value in every box.

    1. Shane, I had a weak “Limited Football” break…but the Stocker & Kerrigan ‘graphs that disappointed woukd certainly be treasure to other collectors. Yes, I was fortunate enough to pull 3/C Cam Newton auto patch. However, I have come to the understanding…as the majority of long-time collectors have; collect because you love cards and have a passion for the game. Purchasing boxes and equivocating the contents with a scratch-off Lottery ticket is a recipe for disappointment.

      1. I totally agree with that statement. Thanks for the reply. My post might have seemed a little cynical, but my main point is if your going to drop $130.00 on a product you should get at least one really great card to get excited about. An oncard auto-Austin Pettis-single color patch does not qualify in my book. The “big” hit in my box was a oncard auto-Shane Vareen-single color patch. Thats just lousy quality control. For the record I buy a hobby box for almost every football product that comes out because I absolutely love the cards for their beauty and design qualities, and I will keep doing this, but lets face it everybody wants some value for there buck. And I really would love for Tracey to take us behind the curtain and show us how they pack these boxes out.

  7. Nice Gmen hits!!! Go Giants!! Hynoski is the man!! And Bradshaw!

    Nice looking stuff. Esp the Austin Pettis prime piece auto.

  8. Shane, I want make sure you understand that in no way am I trying to be patronizing. I wish I had the ability to go back in time and make better decisions regarding the purchase of certain products, if not entire years!
    I recall seeing a “Certified Football” behind-the-scenes, “pack-out & quality control Hackler exclusive.”
    I understand your disappointment, as I stated when I cracked a box of the Limited Football. The let-down is profound when a $125/1 pack box yields…a 1/C Austin Pettis auto swatch as the “Jelly-hit,” just as a “fer’ instance.”
    The collect community wants to know of bad experiences just as they love to hear about great breaks. I always research product reviews prior to a purchase as do most of our fellow cardboard crack addicts. I mean collectors. I’m also willing to bet a 1/1 3/C Ingram auto patch on the fact that T-Hack’, Scott and the folks at Panini want to hear criticisms and observations about disappointing collating for nothing spurs improvement like target-market disappointment. And there will be a better break next time brudda’ : )

    1. Jamey, I don’t feel that you were patronizing at all. I love the conversation that we are having. I really appreciate the interaction and I really appreciate the fact that Panini is posting and listening to the community. Kudo’s to Mr. Hackler for following up on this string. The real impetus for the post wasn’t to Bit** about a so-so break. I really wanted to use this one example to ask Tracy to take us behind the scenes ( as he has done so many times ) and shed a little light on how they pack these boxes out. He has taken us inside the production line many a times, and I LOVE to see those assembly lines pumping out packs and boxes. I was just wondering if there is something beyond that. Is it totally random? are 2 color patches separated from 1 color and 3 color patches? Do they rank the check list and try in build the packs and boxes based on a point system perhaps? Are the 1/1 cards inserted by hand and kept separately for certain orders? Do they treat the $500 Cam Newton cards the same as the $20 Blaine Gabbert’s. These details are probably considered confidential but it doesn’t hurt to ask!! I have an insatiable curiosity about these details. I should just sell my company and start my internship at Panini and experience the dream for myself. But at 43 I fear it is too late for that !!! Pull back the curtain Tracy, let us in!!!!

      1. Great stuff all the way around. That’s one of reasons we started this blog in the first place, to engage passionate collectors in meaningful — and sometimes just fun — dialogue about this great hobby of ours. We never EVER tire of constructive criticism and honest feedback about how we’re doing. As for your questions, Shane, for most products, cards are placed into “loops” that are then dropped according to pre-calculated rates into their appropriate slots on the line.

        For example, some products may have several common loops, parallel loops and then insert loops that are broken down into rarity. One loop might be engineered to fall one every 10 packs, another might be 1:20 and so on. To be sure, the sleeve of cards in a loop that’s supposed to drop one in, say, 100 packs is card after card of autographs, prime material cards, etc.

        Where the situation gets really intricate is on those products that are completely packed out by hand, such as National Treasures.

        I’ll get with our product development folks and see if there are any greater details they can give me.

        Keep the conversation going, gentlemen. It’s compelling stuff.

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