Just the Hits Ma'am (Limited Pack Break #3 & #4 and Certified Box Break #2)

Each time I pick up some Panini Limited, I become more and more of a fan of the product. This is evident as their latest Baseball issue, Prime Cuts gets released to severely underwhelming reviews from box breakers disappointed with a high price and low return.

I must say, four packs into this high end product, I am still a fan, and can honestly say that I have not yet been disappointed with my results.I picked up two more packs at my LCS and I'll cut right to the chase with what was easily the hit of the night, a Cam Neely Prime Jersey auto /10.

What I really like about this card is that there seems to be a conscious effort on Panini's part to play equal favor to the yellow and black on the swatch. It may not be at a perfect 90 degrees, but there's nothing worse than seeing a full-colored swatch with just a hint of a secondary color off on the corner. Not only is that great, but Neely has an Awesome looking signature, PLUS, the serial number is 8/10, matching up with the jersey number that this card is dedicated to.

In addition to the Neely, this pack also yeilded a Ryan Kesler Jumbo Jersey 68/99 and a Keith Yandle Jersey 81/99, at ANY time during the season, if you would have guessed which of these players would have been in the second round of the playoffs, and which one wouldn't, you would have been wrong.

While most packs have a variety of hits, pack #4 came with three jumbo swatch cards, with some slight variations. The big one, obviously, was the Ryan Nugent-Hopkins 60/199. While last summer's #1 draft pick's cards aren't carrying the same value they were at the beginning of the season, RNH's cards still retain a good bit of value. While I don't care too much for the Red Wings, I have no problem pulling a Pavel Datsyuk (64/99), especially, with that bright red swatch jumping out at you. The Erik Gudbranson (36/99) was my auto of the pack, and so far, the Freshman Jumbo auto cards are the only stickers I've seen in the set. Most everything, like the Cam Neely, Jaroslav Halak, and Jordan Staal cards from the previous 3 packs, are all hard-signed, but the rookies are the exception. I suppose there are just so many inserted, that from a logistical point of view, it's just easier. I don't know.

I also decided to pick me up another box of Certified.  The base cards look great, and four hits are guaranteed per box. My first box gave me five, and this second one was no different. The cooloest was the Dion Phanuef 54/99 featuring a three-colored swatch. I'm not sure where this jersey came from, but I remember seeing another Maple Leaf with a similar swatch on his card. There is also a cool variation of the Ryane Clowe jersey featuring the name of his homeland (19/25), as opposed to a simple square, like the Ryan Suter (199/399) I pulled. My two autos were of Cameron Gauce on-card and a sticker auto/jersey card (41/499) of John Moore.

Here's a couple of other cards that aren't hits, but still pretty cool:

Limited: Jimmy Howard Crease Cleaners 1/199

Limited: Doug Gilmour Stanley Cup Champions 157/199, Joe Thornton Team Trademarks 25/299, Brenden Morrow Ruby Parallel 4/49, Keith Yandle Banner Season 21/299

Certified: Henrik Zetterberg Mirror Blue 93/99, Pavvel Datsyuk Mirror Red 109/199, Sidney Crosby Certified Champions

Well, that's it for those. Two good boxes of Limited and one to-be-expected box of Certified. I've already picked up two more packs of Limited, which I will post on in a couple of days, and in my opinion, I'm six-for-six. It's just a great product overall.

I'm keeping the Neely, but everything else is up for trade, if anyone is interested.