Rookies & Stars: A Review

So for Christmas I was able to pick up a box of anything.  I chose Rookies & Stars for two reasons.  The first is the fact that I wanted a football product.  The second is my local card shop had more Panini Black Friday packs, and this was the only product at that price range that got them.  My Black Friday packs contained a Ryan Tannehill patch and nothing else noteworthy.  Now that we're done with the back story, on to the review.  

Here are all the hits plus some inserts.

Here we have the base card and the True Blue parallel.  They run roughly seven per box.  They have a very clean design.  The base design looks like your typical $3.50-$4.00 per pack cards should look.  There's nothing wrong with that.  While Kirk Cousins is a fourth round pick, it would have been nice to have a  non-practice photo.

This is the longevity parallel numbered to 249.  They fall one per box.  The camera doesn't do it justice.  They are quite nice to look at.  They really glisten and give off a rainbow effect.  It would be nicer though if there were more than one parallel per box and it would be better if they had more than one level of parallel since they do increase the overall value of the product.  

The team pennant cards run about two per box, while the player ones run one per box.  These are a nice alternative to the typical die-cut you usually find.  Having two different types of pennants means more for set builders which does add some value.

The Statistical Standouts insert looks like it was meant for the Prestige set.  To me, Prestige felt a bit cheap in terms of design which makes takes away from this product.

This Greatest Hits insert is numbered to 500.  I like the card from a purely design standpoint.  Two pictures of the athlete are nice to look at.  What they should have is an autographed version with the signature over the secondary picture.  Now onto the actual hits.

Base autos typically run one per box.  It is quite literally the base card with a sticker auto.  Nothing remarkable here.  This card is numbered to 999.  I personally think anything over /499 shouldn't even have a number stamp on it, with the exception of the value sets (Score, Topps base sets, etc).  Very low in terms of value with this as a hit.

Both of these are longevity parallels numbered to 249.  The designs are quite elegant.  Nice jersey swatches draw your attention while the team logos offset the empty space.  It would have been nice, however, if there was some color in the patches.  These aren't the base rookie materials and should have better swatches.

The "hit" of the box.  It's the base signature numbered to 499.  The white swatch makes sense here as it's the base version.  It still has the elegance of the regular rookie materials, just with a sticker autograph over the team logo.

Overall, this box didn't have much in terms of value.  When you spend anywhere from $80-$100 on a box of cards, you hope to get at least a small return.  These hits are currently worth about $20 on eBay.  I know that things are random in terms of players received in a box, but it would be nice if I didn't get what is pretty much the base box, in terms of what hits you can get.  There are many other insert signatures/game-used cards that they could have randomly inserted into my box, but they didn't.  Maybe the fact that I got such a low value box means that the median box is much better.  If not, that's quite unfortunate.  

Base Design: A-

Insert Design: B-

Die-Cut Design: B+

Materials Design: A

Value of my box: B-

Overall: B+