I was originally going to have this be a few sentence ‘Random Review’ like past ones but this took a life of it’s own. Instead, you are getting a rare ‘Angry’ post. I am so Angry that you aren’t getting a picture of the box because I destroyed it.

Readers of this site know that I love Contenders Draft Picks football. In 2017, I put together all the non auto sets. I also have a healthy chunk of the autographs down as well. This year, I really liked the design of the product. I wanted 2 of those autographs in my collection like the box promised. I would have much rather pulled a redemption than points.
This leads me to the following: I like pulling autographs of random people. That is a selling point for me. This is a time where a lot of hits sell for cheaper than boxes, and even packs. If I wanted an autograph of a certain player, I would have bought it. I am not pissed that I missed on a Daniel Jones card, okay I am mad about not pulling him because I like him, but I am not mad that I missed on Joey Bosa or Dwayne Haskins; I am mad that I was robbed of a player to cheer for. Even if I did pull a Bosa or Haskins, I would now have a reason to cheer for them. Fact is, the average collector is like me and doesn’t flip cards anyway. I would much rather get a redemption for a random player, and not just because I don’t want to pay the shipping cost that you have with points. Heck in most of my cases, the shipping cost more than what I paid for the points.
Also let’s focus on the production run. Contenders has a ton of autographs in it’s checklist. I get that athletes don’t always send in their autographs in time for production. However I have pulled redemption cards specific to a player in Contenders before. So what does it say that Panini puts in points? My takeaway from this is that maybe they are making too many of these.

Now normally, I really like points. I used to love it when collectors rejected points because a bottom feeder like me can pounce on them for cheap. I have grabbed some cool stuff from the program. I grabbed a Walker Buehler autograph on there for 150 points before he became huge. I also finished off random cards for my Prestige college. However now that so many people have been exposed to points, I am finding the benefits to them few and far between. Those examples are 2 to 3 years old. I feel that points have run their course. I feel that Panini needs to do something to freshen up the market for little guys like me who don’t have tons of points laying around for the bigger offerings. They definitely need to get rid of the shipping cost because in most cases the shipping costs more than the card is worth and I hate the concept of paying twice for something.

Let me end this with rant about the offerings on points:
I don’t like the Kaboom or White Sparkle packs either. First they are too expensive for my taste. Second, I feel like they ruin something special. What used to be case hits is now dumbed down to a pack. Just because people are paying as if they are case hits, doesn’t mean they are. Who know’s how many Panini produces because they don’t release the production numbers. To me, those feel like the most blatant money grab possible. Sorry for my poor grammar in this paragraph, that is what happens when I get angry.