Hobby Musings: Breaking 2013 Totally Certified Football Case – I’ve been fortunate to have some tremendous experiences as a collector. Oddly enough, through it all though, I have never taken part in a case break. Taking advantage of a lower case price of around $350, I decided to break that trend by purchasing a case of 2013 Panini Totally Certified Football.
Though the 2013 NFL rookie class has had its fair share of critics, both in the hobby and the sports world in general. However, the emergence of players such as Eddie Lacy and Le’Veon Bell made this product seem like a worthwhile gamble. Also, the 72 autographs and memorabilia cards, along with more numbered parallels, also offered a chance at some bang for the buck.
Since group breaking is an activity best shared with friends, I decided to bring it to a local shop IDeal Cards and Memorabilia in Canton, CT, where the owner was kind enough to let us conduct the break. Gathering around the table, we ripped into box after box and pack after pack. Unlike many products that offer a lot of hits but not a lot of breaking time, I found that the entire break for this case took well over an hour. While this may not seem like a big deal to many, I found this was a plus as it gave us all a chance to sit down and enjoy each other’s company while sharing a laugh over some of the hits or looking on in amazement at some of the cards we pulled.
As I mentioned earlier, the 12-box case offers 72 autographs/memorabilia cards. While many of the hits were 
admittedly duds, we did come away with some gems. By the end of it all, we figured our top two hits proved to be a Freshman Fabric Totally Red Signature card of Le’Veon Bell and a Team Panini Signature Materials card of Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton.
On the downside, both cards were expired redemptions. All in all, we counted eight redemption cards in the case. On the plus side, Panini honors expired redemptions or will at least give you something comparable in value to them. While there is an inherent risk in breaking older products, going with older Panini products is at least a safer venture than other companies given their more lenient policy with expired redemptions. While it stinks to wait, it should make for a fun mail day to get the rest of the cards in.
Beyond the Dalton and Bell, we came away with a number of other good hits. Among them was a nice autographed jersey card of Texans stud receiver DeAndre Hopkins. I also came away with two medium-sized jersey cards of Hopkins. Other notable rookie hits included, autographed jersey cards of Giovani Bernard and Tyler Eifert. Some cards, including autographed jerseys of EJ Manuel and Geno Smith, would certainly have been considered impressive hits a few years ago but have depreciated because of the player’s performance in the interim.
Looking at it a little more, I was a little disappointed by the lack of veteran autographs in the box. Beyond the Dalton, I pulled veteran signatures of Nick Foles and Charles Clay. I did fare a little better with the veteran memorabilia cards. The two top hits were a quad jersey card of Steve Young, Dan Marino, John Elway and Steve Young. There was also a sweet dual jersey card of Earl Campbell and Walter Payton. While I’m not the biggest fan of memorabilia cads, especially football for its lack of versatility, these were two pretty cool cards to add to the collection.
Beyond the hits, I also managed to put together most of the base 
set and a nice amount of numbered parallels. The two most impressive parallels were emerald cards numbered to five, with Barry Sanders taking the cake over Miles Austin. Among the rookie cards, we did pull a single card of Eddie Lacy.
All in all, 2013 Panini Totally Certified Football proved to be an enjoyable case break and a nice experience for my first time doing so. Though I didn’t pull what I would call an extraordinary hit from a case standpoint, I did come away with a number of nice cards. More importantly than that, I had a fun time with my friends doing the case break. If you’re looking for a relatively inexpensive personal break or even hosting a cheaper group break, you may want to give this a try. I certainly intend to take another crack at it down the road.
Hobby Musings: Breaking 2013 Totally Certified Football Case
Kelsey’s ability to bring hobby coverage to the mainstream sports fan has been a true asset. GTS is happy to feature his thoughts on collecting in Hobby Musings. The opinions expressed are his and do not necessarily reflect those of GTS Distribution.
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