[hawaiiborn12]

contenders, playbook, or triple threads? is there anything im missing?

[Midwestconnection]

they are all nice products. i would buy contenders because they seem to hold their value.

[savagenate]

Is there an "all of the above" options? Lol, I personally really like contenders and playbook, and many of the triple threads cards too...

[Nado15]

My vote would be for Playbook, really like the look of their cards better than Contenders.

[GnC_Fricker]

Tough one. I prefer the look of triple threads but I don't like the way they did their parallels. Very little difference visually between each version. The portion of the card that changes is tiny. Whether or not the jersey autos are prime seems random too. You'll get a card out of /99 with multiple colors only to get the same card out of a much lower number with solid color patches. May be the reason the card values seem to level out below some slightly less expensive sets in the eBay arena.

A box of contenders guarantees more autographs than the other two sets, a good amount are on card, and they hold their value super well. Photo variations help keep the set from getting boring, otherwise; every card looks pretty much the same. Oh yeah, if you pull a cracked ice or playoff ticket of a decent rookie, you likely just paid for most of the box or more. Some sell in the thousands. Down side is you could also end up with "Guy Mc Practice Squad" as your autograph. I opened one box and three of my autos were Cobi Hamilton. Not sure what the odds on that were but I hated it. I had to wikipedia him and I'm pretty hot with my team rosters. To be fair though, I've also opened a box with a cracked ice and three playoff tickets as four of my five autos.

Playbook is nice because the booklets add some originality to your collection. The base autographs can be pretty hit or miss. I pulled a kicker's auto and Ryan Swope as my two base autos. You'd think that a higher end brand that doesn't release until later in the season would have a decent handle on who didn't make a team at all.


I'm a huge fan of Panini Black. Much tighter control over which players are invited to sign, pretty decent veteran auto selection, nice variation between the cards in the set. Check those out. Roughly the same price point as what you were looking at.

[bselje]

+1 for contenders. NO gimmick needed.

[Midwestconnection]

i like black but at 180 a box that is highway robbery.