2013 Panini Playbook Box Break

Playbook is a rather interesting product, in that it highlights a piece of collecting that is quite rare in other brands: the booklet card.

A hit-only product, Playbook comes in a four-pack, one card per pack box, with each box containing two booklet cards. Of those two, at least one will be autographed, and there is also guaranteed to be one autograph out of the non-booklet cards.

Now, with the booklets themselves, there is a uniformity to them, but at the same time, there are also many different variations to them, giving quite a variety of what you could find. Some will be autographed, some will contain patches, some will contain jumbo jersey swatches, and some will contain 1-of-1 NFL shield swatches.

These boxes can be pricey, but if you find the right deal, you can purchase a box for a pretty reasonable price, and if not that, most of these booklets are VERY affordable on the secondary market.

Anyway, here's the video of my box, with scans to follow:

Zach Ertz Mammoth Jersey 77/99
Sometimes with jersey cards, there is the possibility of the swatch blending into the background, but this one looks fantastic. While they do utilize team colors on the background, the area of the card where the green jersey swatch is placed is a simple white, which provides a great contrast. I always like to see the jersey piece, big or small, stand out from the rest of the card, and they did a great job with this one.

Jamar Taylor Rookie Autograph 74/99
While Taylor is by no means the biggest name you'll find in this product, it is still a great looking card. The spot for the signature is designed to look like the lines of a piece of notebook paper, to keep in like with the "Playbook" theme. While that is a cool enough feature, they really made the rest of the card look nice as well, with a full-colored, zoomed-in team logo, next to a picture of the player.

Denard Robinson Rookie Signature Booklet 141/199
Mike Gillislee Rookie Signature Booklet 61/271
I must say, with these booklets, Panini pretty much threw  every element that they could at these. To start things off, the far left of the booklet features a shadowbox, with a black and white photo printed on the background, with an acetate layer raised above it, right next to a full-colored image of the player right next to it. Then, to fill out the remaining space, Panini included a jersey swatch. On the right side of the card, you have a signature on an acetate surface, which is slightly raised above the white surface with a grey NFL logo. Lastly, you also have a large piece of a multi-colored patch, to just round out the awesomeness of these booklets.

I may not have gotten any of the big names of the 2013 rookie class, but I was pretty happy with what I got. Each one of these cards looks fantastic, so it could never be a total loss. I would recommend giving this product a shot, but I would say, do some pricing before you buy, because there are some amazing deals on this stuff if you take a minute to look.