[ginge01]

This is my Playoff - Panini Contenders New York Jets collection, from the start thru to the latest release. It is a year by year summary, I’ve not uploaded every card I own, but the best cards from each year.
Newly updated with 2012 and additional autos picked up since last year

1993
Where it all began, all the Jets cards, Marvin Jones was the 1st rd pick that year so the only RC. The Esiason card doubled up as 1 of the 6 checklists for the set.


1994
The second year and the product now includes inserts. The base set includes the 1st rd pick Aaron Glenn RC

Playoff introduced a Back to Back insert set, one card has two Jets otherwise I was competing with another team / player collector who’s player had some link (in a lot of cases) with the Jets player. The Art Monk / Heath Shuler was once worth $80, today $15. I got it for a $1, great deal, the dealer did not know what he had. The front and corresponding backs are shown.



1995
The Jets had a horrible year (3-13), in the 150 card set they got two cards, starting QB (Boomer Esiason) and their 1st rd pick TE Kyle Brady.
I’ve included the Curtis Martin RC because he had a successful Patriot career for 3 years, then became a great Jet. I’ve picked up all his true RC’s, so I include it here.
The inserts were the 2nd and last year of the Back to Backs.
Boomer Esiason’s reverse was 2010-2011 Jets backup QB Mark Brunell. Curtis Martin shared a card with Terrell Davis, an expensive insert card to acquire in the 1990’s.
Also included are the plastic Rookie Kickoff inserts of Kyle Brady and Curtis Martin.


1996
Playoff Contenders get funky. Every three card pack contains a Leather ticket, a parallel pennant and a parallel Open Field foil card.
The first scan has the tickets, the top row is the parallel accent inserted 1 in 216 packs, QB Neil O’Donnell, 1st rd pick WR Keyshawn Johnson & 2nd rd pick WR Alex Van Dyke. The middle row is the Accent, Ground Hog Insert and base ticket of Curtis Martin, the bottom row is the base cards of the 3 Jets players.

The next scan are the pennants and the open foil cards.
All three types of cards were colored scarce (green wording), rare (purple wording) or ultra rare (red wording) Very confusing at the time. Easiest to tell on the Open Field Foil cards.


1997
The base set was bland, the foil cards were silver, the parallel cards had blue on them. I show a mixture of them, the Jets RC’s were 3rd pick WR Dedric Ward and 4th rd pick Leon Johnson.

The inserts were imaginative, Playoff did a great job so I included them. They were not ready to give up on the leather and felt pennants. And the Blue parallel persisted through the insert sets.
The top cards are Contenders Clash with Keyshawn Johnson against Mike Alstott with the blue parallel, also Curtis Martin and Warrick Dunn with the blue parallel.
The leather appeared as the Leather Helmet Die Cuts. Curtis Martin has the Silver, the Blue parallel and the #ed to 25 red parallel

The Rookie Wave pennants were produced, each rookie had 4 colors, so Leon Johnson had a green, blue, orange & black. Also shown are the Performer Plaques with blue parallels of Keyshawn Johnson and Curtis Martin


More Felt. Curtis Martin was 1 of 36 players who had 6 different felt colors, green, blue black, purple, orange, red and purple. The borders were silver foil. A parallel blue foil was also produced with the same 6 felt pennants so a total of 12 Curtis Martin felt pennants. Had to tell apart with the scan.



1998
The arrival of the rookie ticket, the Jets have no 1998 rookies in this years set.
And the final year of leather and felt, 1998 is like 1996 but on steroids.
Also the 3 sets, Ticket, Leather and Pennants are not exactly parallel sets, different players appear in the different sets. Curtis Martin has now become a Jet.

The Ticket, Jets have Wayne Chrebet, Keyshawn Johnson and Curtis Martin, also the red foil parallel. Red was the popular 1998 Playoff base parallel color.


The Leather, Jets have Glenn Foley with Keyshawn Johnson & Curtis Martin, also the red foil parallel.


The Pennant, Playoff went crazy with the felt. Jets have Vinny Testaverde, Keyshawn Johnson & Curtis Martin, There are 6 base felt variants, Green, Red, Yellow, Blue, Purple and Orange, all have Silver foil, unknown quantity made. The bottom row has two parallels, the right parallel is grey felt with red foil, unknown quantity made. The left parallel is a shortprint #ed to 98 parallel is black felt with Gold foil.




1999
The Jets base cards are shown. Ray Lucas was added after the release to supplement Shaun King who did not sign his cards, Lucas has 1825 autos (how I wish there were that many autos of every Jets player every year). A couple of inserts also included, including a Triple Threat Red #ed to 63.


2000
My collection will now be showing mainly Contenders tickets starting with the 2000 release.
Jets have two RC tickets, one of their 4 1st rd picks QB Chad Pennington & 3rd pick WR Laveranues Coles. Also shown is ROY Contenders insert cards, the auto of Pennington #ed to 100 and the base card of Coles.


2001
Playoff getting crazy with collectors, auto stickers are on cards, and the craziness begins.
Whether it was the remaining number of stickers of a particular player Playoff had to use up or a contractual agreement, super low print runs start to become part of Contenders legacy, causing mass frustration to many collectors.
The Jets have two tickets, 1st rd WR Santana Moss and 2nd rd RB Lamont Jordan.
The Jordan is announced to be 50 copies. The card was once worth $250 for a player who underachieved during his long career.


2002
A dull year for the Jets, 1st rd pick was DE, 2nd a S, 3rd a TE & 4th a DT.
Contenders only Jets rookie ticket was a FA returner who never made the team!!!
He was cut in August before the start of the regular season, I know Playoff had a lot of his autos to use up but putting him in a set 5 months after being cut, amazing!!!
The scan has the base cards, Tavon Mason’s RC and a Santana Moss & Lamont Jordan Sophomore Contenders auto cards.


2003
The Jets 1st rd draft pick is DT DeWayne Robertson who initially signing some early season product (mainly Upper Deck), then stopped signing stickers, a Contenders redemption card eventually is redeemed for a card stamped ‘NO AUTOGRAPH’. The other ticket is 6th rd pick QB Brooks Bollinger. Also scanned are inserts, with 3rd rd pick B.J. Askew who did not get a Contenders RC ticket card. 2nd rd pick LB gets no Contenders cards.


2004
Jets have a better draft, with 1st rd LB Jonathan Vilma the NFL defensive rookie of the year, also 4th rd WR Jerricho Cotchery, 5th rd S Erik Coleman and 7th rd pick RB Derrick Ward were given Playoff Contenders RC tickets. Jets draft was 10 players.
Cotchery signed with a blue ink pen only, never saw a black ink auto. The other three have black ink pen AND blue ink pen variants.
Ward, had most of his RC cards as a Jet, the Giants signed him off the Jets practice squad, by the end of 2004 Playoff recognizing him as a Giant. The Contenders picture shows him in Jets a minicamp uniform with a Giants logo on the card.


2005
The Jets trade away their 1st rd pick for a 2nd and TE Doug Jolley who lasts one year.
The two 2nd rd picks are K Mike Nugent & CB-Returner Justin Miller who signed no Playoff cards. The three RC tickets were Nugent, 6th rd RB Cedric Houston & signed off waivers WR Dante Ridgeway a 2005 Rams 6th rd pick, all his Jets cards have him in a Rams uni. His NFL career, 2 catches for the Jets.
Houston’s card was a redemption one of 116, he did not get his stickers back to Playoff until 2007, by then he had already retired. That redemption cost me $150 back in 2006. Jets draft was 8 players, starting all season 4th rd S Kerry Rhodes was missed by Playoff for a RC ticket.


2006
Start of the Eric Mangini era, the Jets need to rebuild after 4-12 in 2005. Two 1st rd picks were starters all 2006 T D’Brickashaw Ferguson & C Nick Mangold both now Pro Bowlers. Mangold did not get a RC ticket. Playoff misses again. Jets draft was 10 players.
The RC tickets were Ferguson, 4th rd RB-Returner Leon Washington, 4th rd WR-Returner Brad Smith, 2nd rd QB Kellen Clemens and 3rd rd S Eric Smith. Smith signed some stickers with 33, some without, both are shown.


2007
A new drafting strategy for the Jets, trade up. They do it twice in the 1st and 2nd rd and win big time, getting 1st rd pick All Pro CB Darrelle Revis and 2nd rd pick LB David Harris. Jets have 4 draft picks. The RC tickets were Revis, Harris and 7th rd WR Chansi Stuckey who spent 2007 on IR, presumably signing lots of Playoff, Topps and Upper Deck stickers. He’s everywhere.

I picked up some cool Darrelle Revis autos, one with David Harris and one with Laron Landry was a Jet for 2012



2008
Jets draft is 6 players, apart from their second 1st rd pick TE Dustin Keller who they traded up for, it was a collective bust. 6th overall pick was DE-OLB 1st rd Vernon Gholston who’s NFL career has ended after 3 years with as many sacks as any Beckett forums participant, zero.
The RC tickets were 1st rd Gholston and Keller and 4th rd DB Dwight Lowery who was a reasonable player for the Jets. 2nd row is 5th rd QB Erik Ainge and 6th rd WR Marcus Henry, neither played a regular season game for the Jets. Ainge was another shortprint, one of 107, ironic his card cost almost as much as the other 4 players combined.


2009
Jets policy to trade up continues under Rex Ryan. Goodbye Brett Favre, Jets trade up with Cleveland (thank you Eric Mangini) to get 1st rd QB Mark Sanchez, trade up again to get 3rd rd RB Shonn Greene. Their RC tickets, autos on card are shown with 2009 1st rd pick Aaron Maybin. True, Maybin was not a Jet in 2009, he arrived in 2011 and did what Gholston could not do, rush the passer, get sacks & cause fumbles, helping the Jets win a game in Washington. His RC ticket is a shortprint, one of 99, Maybin has very few autos, I picked it upwhen he started contributing, sadly his form and this card value vanished in 2012 as he was cut by the Jets. The Jets draft was 3 players, only current starter 6th rd LG Matt Slauson did not get a RC ticket.

Now Shonn Greene has gone, who knows how long Mark Sanchez has, but in 2009 these autos were crazy prices to pay to own them

These Jets will always be Jets legends, not rookies hoping to be great one day



2010
Jets draft 4 players, and have 2 ½ RC tickets.
4th rd pick RB-Returner Joe McKnight goes to the rookie premiere, signs on card two variants on the top row. The second row is 5th rd pick FB John Conner & the Jets ½ ticket. It’s Sergio Kindle 2nd rd pick of the Ravens.
For some reason this card looks to have originally been for Jets 1st rd pick Kyle Wilson but Playoff did not complete it. My guess, Wilson was not easy to get auto stickers from so they replaced him with Kindle. Around the Rookie ticket area of the card is Jets info in silver, it was overstamped with Kindle and the Ravens. Behind the purple foil RAVENS is the word JETS, the Ravens logo almost entirely covers the Jets logo, it says AFC North over AFC East and SERGIO KINDLE in purple over KYLE WILSON. Check out the scan closeup.



2011
Another crazy year for the Jets, another crazy year for Playoff Contenders.
Jets draft 6 players, 1st rd pick Muhammad Wilkerson signs no cards. The era of Contenders variations continues, three rookie players, four RC tickets with three SP’s,
top row 5th rd WR Jeremy Kerley 1 of 82 & 6th rd QB Greg McElroy 1 of 204,
middle row 4th rd pick RB Bilal Powell with the photoshopped SSP 1 of 25 (the undershirt is colored black, the riddell logo on his helmet is whitened out), the base rookie is to the right.
bottom row auto inserts
Signs of Greatness Shonn Greene 1 of 25
Legendary Contenders Curtis Martin 1 of 25
Rookie Ink Bilal Powell 1 of 25


More Rookie Inserts and parallel autos all 1 of 10
Rookie Roll Call Bilal Powell
Draft Class Jeremy Kerley and 7th rd Scotty McKnight who did not get an individual RC ticket
Draft Class Bilal Powell and Greg McElroy


2012
Bringing the definition of crazy to a new level, the Jets front office makes bizarre personnel moves, giving Mark Sanchez below average WR's, injuries to Dustin Keller & Santonio Holmes ensue and a disastrous 6-10 record.
Another year of Contenders, the cards say Panini Contenders, the redemptions say Playoff Contenders, so what are they?
Jets draft 8 players, the era of Contenders variations continues, grows to new heights, four Jets draftees get two versions, one of them was not a Jet during any of the regular season, cut in preseason, had a year of some Jets cards, some in preseason uniform with 'Signed by Rams 9/1/12' eventually Rams only cards until Contenders.
The draft class who got cards
1st rd DE Quinton Coples (Contenders)
2nd rd WR Stephen Hill (Contenders) Redemptions so far
3rd rd LB Demario Davis (Contenders)
6th rd S Josh Bush (Got an Absolute but no Contenders bah)
6th rd RB Terrance Ganaway (Contenders in Jets and Rams!!! unis)
7th rd S Antonio Allen (Topps cards only, double bah)
7th rd WR Jordan White (Topps cards only, triple bah)

The cards
top row, veterans
middle row, variations of 1st rd Quinton Coples 1 of 115, 3rd rd Demario Davis and 6th rd Terrance Ganaway in his Jets uniform 1 of 200
bottom row, same three guys in their base autos, Coples 1 of 550, Ganaway correctly in his Rams uniform!!!


Stephen Hill, please sign your Panini stickers, I have entered the redemption codes, I want the cards.
base auto, variation auto 1 of 200, playoff ticket auto 1 of 99
Rookie Ink auto 1 of 75, Rookie Stallions auto 1 of 25, Rookie of the Year Contenders auto 1 of 10
Draft Class Auto with Quinton Coples 1 of 15 & the base inserts


If any more autos are acquired, or the Stephen Hill redemptions arrive, I will update this thread.

J-E-T-S

[cody_allen]

Man I can't see pics from 98 on! I was getting really into this

[saintfanncowboyland]

Awesome collection, it really tells a story. You got my attention for 15 mins lol

[Sajman01]

Awesome man, loved it.

Gotta tell you tho, I think '98 and '02 had the best designs wish they'd return to those.

[ginge01]

Man I can't see pics from 98 on! I was getting really into this

I hope you can see all the scans now, did you try a refresh?

---

Awesome collection, it really tells a story. You got my attention for 15 mins lol

I'm glad it was a good 15 minutes for you, thanks for the compliment.

---

Awesome man, loved it.

Gotta tell you tho, I think '98 and '02 had the best designs wish they'd return to those.

I liked 2002 base, I wished the tickets were vertical also.

1998, return of the felt, that would be cool, bring back the felt!!! LOL
As long as they are not all numbered to 99!!! LOL

The first Jet I saw was a Vinny Testaverde Green, I thought 'cool', find the other two (Keyshawn Johnson & Curtis Matin), teamset sdne, I saw a Randy Moss purple and assumed every player has a felt trim pennant of their team.
Then I saw a Curtis Martin yellow, a Keyshawn Johnson yellow, I was thinking 'what?!?!?!' then a Keyshawn Johnson purple and 'cool' again.

There are multiples of each player, figured out looking at about 60-80 being sold by a dealer at Whittier on a Friday night (anyone been to that show?) that there are six colors and players seem to have them all. Watching a Dolphin fan next to me say 'Dan Marino in Jet green!!!', that made everyone laugh out loud LOL.
He still bought it, I said I was searching fror Testaverde, Keyshawn and Curtis Martin in Dolphins orange so it was an equal indignity for both of us. Bakerman will probably see the humor in it.

Pre internet, I couldn't find those 18 base, with the internet other sellers around the country were still trying to move them. I thought I'd found the greatest toystore in the world with ebay. Sellers were selling base cards individually, so I completed the base, got the grey parallels and a set collector decided to break up a set of black #ed to 98 around 2000.

Happy days being a team builder with funky cool imaginative products, interesting parallels and a reasonable ability to find the cards you want, no numbered to 5, or 1 of 1 superfractor auto etc.

[mickey871]

I truly enjoyed the read. I especially like this year's cards. I was Jeremy Kerley's QB coach in high school, so I have quite a few of his cards already. I just have a hard time paying for his auto when I taught him in sophopmore English and coached him in FB and baseball for 4 years. But, I do it for my boys, who idolize him. You may not know that he was heavily scouted by MLB scouts until he committed to TCU his senior year. Outside of Kerry Wood, Matt Belisle, and Homer Bailey, I never coached for/against a better baseball player. Pretty amazing person.

[gadsden86]

Except for the fact its the Jets very nice. I have been doing this w/ my Dolphins PC but not like you have. I need to get back to finishing this.
Stinks that one of the phins this year is #/99

[ginge01]

Except for the fact its the Jets very nice. I have been doing this w/ my Dolphins PC but not like you have. I need to get back to finishing this.
Stinks that one of the phins this year is #/99

Gadsden, thanks for the backhanded compliment, LOL

Yes it stinks when there are cards for our team collections that are #ed to 99, for me Kerley #ed to 82.
Who is the Dolphin, did he play much in 2011 or an unknown, or worse still, the dreaded redemption.

Your avatar makes me nuts, one of these times, Gadsden going to drop it, or Damien Robinson is going to tattoo him!!!

As I wrote earlier 'Watching a Dolphin fan next to me say 'Dan Marino in Jet green!!!', that made everyone laugh out loud LOL.
He still bought it, I said I was searching for Testaverde, Keyshawn and Curtis Martin. Are you trying to get all the 1998 pennants variants?? good luck

And thanks again for taking the time to look at the thread and reply, we're all collectors in it together, rivals with our teams when they compete against each other.

[gadsden86]

No prob man. I love looking at peoples PC's weather it be Dolphins, Jets Pats whatever. Its just nice to see what people put into thier PC's.

The Dolphins contenders is both its a redemption but also #'ed 99 ... BOOOOO. Its Charles Clay our fb/te he played pretty well last year and hope to get better so at least its not a no namer or FA guy.

I have a few of the Pennants and will start looking for the others. I have a few variations of ink for my rookies and still need to get a few as i couldnt get myself to pay too much for guys like Ginn.

Maybe one day i will post something like this of my dolphins PC.

[ginge01]

I truly enjoyed the read. I especially like this year's cards. I was Jeremy Kerley's QB coach in high school, so I have quite a few of his cards already. I just have a hard time paying for his auto when I taught him in sophopmore English and coached him in FB and baseball for 4 years. But, I do it for my boys, who idolize him. You may not know that he was heavily scouted by MLB scouts until he committed to TCU his senior year. Outside of Kerry Wood, Matt Belisle, and Homer Bailey, I never coached for/against a better baseball player. Pretty amazing person.

Thanks for your reply, I enjoyed putting the Contenders thread together, took several hours with the scans and the write up, a little information that I hope other collectors can use for their favorite players, teams etc.

Great to hear you were Jeremy Kerley's QB coach, I forget against who but he completed a 41 yd pass on his only throw this year so he must have been a talented high school QB. I think he throws left handed, is that correct?

He seems like a nice person, not too much drama or diva behavior. I hope he does well for himself and the Jets. I hope you still get to meet him, it will be a great thrill for your boys knowing an NFL player who could develop to have a nice Terance Mathis (ex Jets and Falcons player) like career. Similar size and style, Mathis had a better career as a starter in a run and shoot offense in Atlanta after leaving the Jets in 1994.

I wonder whether Panini ran out of his sticker autos at the end of the year. His Contenders card with just 82 made, crazy, not his fault. I should upload my Jeremy Kerley cards in the next few days for you and your boys to look at, I've collected him as part of my Jets collection. Will try to upload a selection of my 2011 Jets cards also, that will take a little more time.

Thanks again for your reply.

---

No prob man. I love looking at peoples PC's weather it be Dolphins, Jets Pats whatever. Its just nice to see what people put into thier PC's.

The Dolphins contenders is both its a redemption but also #'ed 99 ... BOOOOO. Its Charles Clay our fb/te he played pretty well last year and hope to get better so at least its not a no namer or FA guy.

I have a few of the Pennants and will start looking for the others. I have a few variations of ink for my rookies and still need to get a few as i couldnt get myself to pay too much for guys like Ginn.

Maybe one day i will post something like this of my dolphins PC.

I hope you get Charles Clay, I do remember his name from 2011.
The dilemma of buying the cards the year they come out, they may crash and burn in value(Ted Ginn). The reverse of that, I remember when RC tickets arrived in 1998, no one could have predicted how Peyton Manning's value would grow. The Ryan Leaf fans remain quiet to this day!!

For the Giants collector (Collinsfanatic) who's personal Contenders collection is currently been shown on the boards, going back and now trying to add Hakeem Nicks and especially Eli Manning, that's going to be expensive.

I've been dinged heavily in the wallet collecting Jets by 2001 Lamont Jordan, 2005 Cedric Houston, 2008 Erik Ainge & now 2011 Greg McElroy & Jeremy Kerley. I hope Kerley has a Terance Mathis like career, that will make me feel better, for McElroy to play, he has to leave the Jets (that would be frustrating for me) or Sanchez is not playing (bad news). I still remember in 2005 watching Brooks Bollinger as a 3 year backup who had to start, trying to beat the Dolphins, no matter how hard that guy tried, and he played well, the Jets would lose by a touchdown!

And 2009 was expensive with Mark Sanchez, I hope he wins more playoff games including the ultimate game, then my initial purchase will be better value.
I can't complain, I voluntarily spent all that cash on Contenders singles. It's my fault but when they're all seen together, I like the look of them collectively.