The single-most important Football release each season is Panini Contenders. This is the quintessential rookie card and has become the standard for judging the merits of a NFL Rookie class (within Hobby). This season we’ve seen multiple releases start off with some hesitation but ultimately do what 90% of all releases have done… see wax prices increase. This will not happen with Contenders. 🙂
While overall football single prices have been much muted than you’d think… the last 4-6 weeks have been very impressive within the football market. This can been attributed to various factors including; the meteoric development of Baker Mayfield, solidifying of Saquon Barkley, and the impressive finishes from Allen, Darnold, and a multiple other Tier-2 rookies..
Which leads us to this weeks release of 2018 Panini Contenders Football. Just about every football collector with any interest in their players/teams is jumping into breaks and soaking up the excitement around this release. If you want to snag a box or case, check out LIVE pricing across the hobby on the 2018 Contenders page. But…if you are looking for singles or breaks, this landing page is intended to help you navigate the craziness.
THE CONFIGURATION
Before we dig into the details of the checklist, here is a summary of the configurations.
Hobby Boxes include: 18 packs per box. 6 cards per pack. || 5 Autographs
Retail Boxes include: || 1 Auto & 2 Relic
Blaster Boxes include: 5 packs per box. 8 cards per pack. || 1 Auto or Memorabilia
THE BREAK ANALYSIS
First off, if you want to dig into the data yourself…by all means just use our 2018 FOOTBALL CHECKLIST and do all of the slicing/dicing that you’d like.
Here are the rankings for AUTOGRAPHS for TEAMS:
This looks at the Total Number of #’d Autographs for each team. You can see how there is a massive difference between the Top half and bottom half… in fact it’s 4x more likely that you’ll hit a Cowboys Auto than a Giants auto. That’s an INSANE disparity.
Of course you have to factor in prices for each of these…and we will in a few days… but keep these stats in mind when purchasing teams.
[wpsm_button color=”red” size=”medium” link=”http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=4&pub=5575220332&toolid=10001&campid=5338457557&customid=&mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fsch%2F215%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_nkw%3D2018%2BPanini%2BContenders%2BCracked%2BIce%2BAuto%2B%252F24%2BRC%2B%26_sop%3D1″ icon=”none” class=”” target=”_blank”]CRACKED ICE AUTOS || ENDING NOW[/wpsm_button]
VALUE TEAMS
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Cleveland Browns
It’s hard to argue with 4 of the top 40 statistical players in the product… including the #1 RC quarterback.
2. Pittsburgh Steelers
4 of the Top 35 statistical players… and a QB with plenty of upside. In addition there are multiple vet autos that have actual value.
3. Denver Broncos
Once again, 4 of the top 35 rookies from the same team. With a couple of sleeper autos in McCaffrey + Davis.
[wpsm_button color=”red” size=”medium” link=”http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=4&pub=5575220332&toolid=10001&campid=5338457557&customid=&mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fsch%2F215%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_nkw%3D2018%2BPanini%2BContenders%2BCracked%2BIce%2BAuto%2B%252F24%2BRC%2B%26_sop%3D1″ icon=”none” class=”” target=”_blank”]CRACKED ICE AUTOS || ENDING NOW[/wpsm_button]
Overall Breakdown of Players
Here is a snapshot of the Top 35 Rookie odds for #’s Autographs.
Here is the breakdown for NON-AUTO – serial numbered cards. DING DING DING.
Ultimately I realize that value is what drives all of these players/teams. So… this will be interesting to analyze at this time next week. But in the meantime, use this to prevent yourself from spending money on bad investments. 🙂
Stay tuned and we’ll update this with $$’s.
