Printing plate booklets arrive in Panini Playbook

By Susan Lulgjuraj | Contributing Editor

Panini’s 2011 Playbook Football offered a surprise for collectors.

The high-end product has just four cards per box, but every card is either an autograph, material card or a mixture of both. But the cards that sneaked through photo galleries and preview images could very well be an industry first – printing plate booklets.

There are a number of horizontal booklets in Playbook Football with a portrait and an action photo of the player on the left side. On the right, a horizontal piece of fabric with an on-card autograph at the top.

The printing plate versions of these cards are also in the product, making for an interesting twist on 1/1 cards that have become popular over the last several years. Card companies have found different ways to use printing plates in products such as adding autographs to them, but Playbook may be the first time printing plates have been incorporated into booklets.

Perhaps next on the list, all four plates on fold out making for the ultimate 1/1.

Panini Playbook Football does not come cheap with around a $200 price tag.

Just two of these cards have popped up on eBay with two San Francisco 49ers: Colin Kaepernick and Kendall Hunter.

Susan Lulgjuraj is a contributing editor for Beckett Media. You can email Susan here. Follow her on Twitter here.