2015 Panini Certified football cards details

By Ryan Cracknell | Hobby Editor

With a little more distance from the draft and the Rookie Premiere, 2015 Panini Certified Football is a more hits-based product than the card maker’s earlier products for the season.

It’s a continuation of a brand that has been around in its basic form for more than a decade. However, collectors can trace the Certified name back 20 years as a football brand to 1995 Select Certified. Throughout its history, the product has been home to a lot of foil and color. 2015 is no different.

Ten-pack boxes of 2015 Panini Certified Football come with two autographs and two memorabilia cards. One of these is Freshman Fabric rookie autographed memorabilia card. Boxes also have lots of inserts, three parallels and a pair of basic rookie cards.

Base Set

2015 Panini Certified Football has a 100-card veterans base set. They’re joined by 75 rookie cards (/999) and 25 Immortals (/999). With rookies landing just two per box, putting together a complete set is no easy task. The first-year players in this portion of the set are those who did not attend the 2015 NFLPA Rookie Premiere.

As with past years, the design relies heavily on foil.

Parallels come in a variety of colors. Numbered to 499, Mirror Silver are the most readily available. These land three per box, one of which is a rookie. The full Mirror rainbow for base, rookie and Immortals also includes Red (/99), Blue (/50), Gold (/25), new Purple (/10), Green (/5) and Black (1/1).

Autographs and Memorabilia Cards

Of the four promised hits per hobby box, one is guaranteed to be a Freshman Fabrics card. Numbered as part of the main set, these are rookie cards. Serial-numbering varies by player with a range from 799 copies down to 199. Top rookies heading into the season like Jameis Winston, Marcus Mariota and Amari Cooper are among the toughest players to pull. Parallels cover the same colors as the main set minus the Mirror Silver.

Fabric of the Game has been a Certified cornerstone for many years. The basic version has 75 cards. Players on the checklist are a mix of current players and retired stars. Walter Payton, Joe Namath, Joe Montana and Russell Wilson are among the top names. All basic Fabric of the Game cards are numbered to 99 or less. Prime versions for select players come with a premium swatch and have no more than 49 copies each. A total of 25 players also have Fabric of the Game Signatures (/99 or less) cards. Andrew Luck, Barry Sanders and Brett Favre are some of the players in this portion of the set.

Certified Signatures takes a basic approach to autographs. Although not exactly the same, the design is similar to the base set with the addition of a sticker autograph. Rookies are the main focus of Certified Signatures but some veterans are sprinkled in. They’re just not A-list returning players. Certified Signatures cards are numbered to 299 or less, although a good portion of the players only appear in the rarer Mirror parallels.

If you are looking for autographs from some of the top current players, Gold Team Signatures has ten of them, although they’re tough pulls. These are an extension of the basic insert set. Luck, Wilson, Peyton Manning, Marshawn Lynch and Cam Newton are among the select few. Half of the cards are numbered to 25 while the other five have ten copies each.

Super Bowl Signatures is a small set of just six cards, each featuring a standout from a big game in the past.

Other memorabilia cards in 2015 Panini Certified Football include Scorching Swatches (/399) and New Generation Jerseys (/799). Both are centered around rookies. Scorching Swatches is a new set for 2015 while New Generation is a returning one. Like most every part of the product, these have several levels of Mirror parallels. There are also New Generation Duals (/799) that have swatches from a pair of players.

Every 12-box inner case has a hot box. These have four autographs and six memorabilia cards — a hit in every pack.

Inserts

2015 Panini Certified Football hobby boxes have no shortage of basic inserts. Certified Legends (20 cards) and Skills (20 cards) are both included at a rate one per box. Stars (40 cards) are more common, falling three per box.

Gold Team and Rookie Gold Team both have ten cards. Insertion rates for these were not announced.

Although the basic inserts aren’t serial numbered, they all have Mirror versions that are.

2015 Panini Certified Football at a glance:

Packs per hobby box: 10
Cards per pack: 5
Set size: 200 cards
Release date: August 19, 2015

What to expect in a hobby box:

• Autographs – 2
• Memorabilia Cards – 2
• Certified Legends Inserts – 1
• Skills Inserts – 1
• Stars Inserts – 3
• Mirror Silver Parallels – 3
• Rookie Cards – 2