2013-14 Panini Prime Box Break

After going in for three boxes of 2012-13 Panini Prime last year, and pulling my top 2 hits of 2013, naturally, I had to give in to this year's product. Prime, every year, strives to be the top-of-the-line product when it comes to game-used memorabilia cards, and this year, they went big. With Panini's NHL & NHLPA licenses running out at the end of the 2013-14 collecting season, they dumped all of their leftover autographs, jerseys, patches, skates, gloves, and whatever else they had in stock, and the collectors benefited in a big way.

Each seven-card box of Prime is guaranteed to contain seven cards, which should consist of one base card, one autographed quad-jersey rookie card, one autograph, one memorabilia card, two additional autograph or memorabilia cards, and one additional base card or insert. Many boxes also contain an extra card or two of hits left over from previous releases.

Here's what my 8-card box gave me:

Base: Jonathan Quick 230/299, Erik Karlsson 102/299
The base cards this year actually combine elements from the previous two years. We have the diagonal design for the player name & brand logo like from 2011-12, and there's a closer-up photo in front of a smoky team-colored background, which is similar to 2012-13. I was also pretty happy with the players that I pulled. Of course, I wanted a Penguins, but with Quick and Karlsson, I could have done much worse.

Prime Rookies Autographed Quad Jersey 37/199
They did a great job this year of tying the design of the rookies with the design of the base cards. I know they have done similar things in the past, but I think this time they made them the most similar.  Laughton was drafted 20th overall by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. Since then, he made it up to the NHL for 5 games during the 2012-13 season, but failed to register a point. He was returned to the Oshawa Generals of the OHL for the 2013-14 season to get some additional seasoning, and he lit it up, scoring 40 goals and 47 assists in 54 games. He seems like he'll turn out to have a pretty good NHL career once he's ready. If only he wasn't a stinkin' Flyer.

Dave Dziurzynski 2013-14 Contenders NHL Ink Autograph
This is my bonus hit from the box. I'm not sure if these were leftover cards, or if they ended up being unfulfilled redemptions that people requested replacements for, but either way, I'm always happy to accept a bonus autograph.

Joakim Nordstrom Prime Time Rookies 26/50
The Prime Time Rookies cards are weirdly low-numbered,  considering it's just a jersey card. Of course, it is a jumbo swatch, so maybe the size has to do with the rarity. It's also a really cool card when you get into the patch /10 and NHL shield 1/1 variations.

Taylor Hall/Adam Henrique Prime Duals 77/200
These are the cards Prime is known for. Basically, anywhere from one to four players are depicted on the card. Jersey swatches are placed behind die-cut letters that tie the two players together. In this case, "FIRE" is in reference to the Windsor Spitfires of the OHL, where Hall and Henrique played junior hockey.

Viktor Fasth/Frederik Andersen Prime Signatures Gold 5/25
These are just great looking cards. You get player images on the left side, which are a bit pushed together, but there is plenty of room to the right for both players to leave their signatures. Like the Prime Duals card above, the Prime Signature Duals tie the two players together with some kind of connection. In this case, both players were Anahem Ducks goaltenders during most of the 2013-14 season. Andersen worked his way up to a starting position with the team, and Fasth was traded to the Edmonton Oilers, where he will compete with Ben Scrivens for the starting job. And as an extra bonus, this card is a gold parallel, with a /25 serial number.

Jamie Benn Prime Skates Extreme 1/1
Now this card is really what Prime is all about. The product has built up a reputation for showcasing some truly unique pieces of memorabilia, and this year saw the debut of Prime Skates Extreme, which is a 1/1 card showcasing the brand logo from a player's skate. In the case of Bauer, the logo is almost like a bubble, with it literally bursting out of the card, in fact, from the side, you can even see where the top layer of cardboard couldn't even make it to the rest of the card, due to it being pushed out so far. 

Just a day or two after opening this box, the card was already out of my hands. I sold it to another member of a Hockey Cards Facebook group that I am a part of. I almost made my money back on the box & it was just too good of an offer to pass up. I used that money, along with a little of my own, to purchase another Prime Skates Extreme card. I'll be sure to post it when I get it, but be assured, while I wasn't sure of whether or not I wanted to part with the Benn in the first place, it was a no-brainer to get rid of it for the card I landed.