A card from its basketball brother has been in the news lately, but high end collectors, gamblers and breakers have turned their attention to the impending release of 2021 Flawless Football. There won’t be any LeBron 1/1s in this one, but the risk/reward ratio is still among the biggest in the hobby.
Flawless hits the market on Wednesday with its usual array autographs, memorabilia pieces and mini gem stones. A hobby box contains 10 cards that are all numbered to 25 or less, with six autographs.
Panini is promising either on-card or cut signatures for these cards. One or two memorabilia cards and two or three gem cards round out the boxes.
The base set glitters with gems, with parallels of varying scarcity.
Base Ruby cards are numbered to 20, with parallels in Sapphire (15), Diamonds (10), Base Emeralds (5) and Base Platinum (1/1).
Gemstones are combined with on-card autographs in the Rookie Gems Signatures set, with cards numbered to 20 or less. Parallels include Sapphire (15 or less), Diamond (10 or less), Emerald (5 or less) and Platinum (1/1).
Relic cards are well-represented in Flawless, starting with Rookie Patch Autographs. As usual, they sport an on-card signature and a large patch and are numbered to 20. Parallels include Ruby (numbered to 15), Sapphire (10) and Emerald (5). A 1/1 Platinum parallel features an NFL shield.
Rookie Dual Patch Autographs follows the same pattern, using an autograph but adding a second swatch to the card layout. The Silver base card, like the Rookie Patch Autographs, are numbered to 20. Parallels include Ruby (numbered to 15), Sapphire (10), Emerald (5) and Platinum (1/1).
Both of these subsets, as the name implies, feature top rookies including Trevor Lawrence, Mac Jones, Justin Fields and Zach Wilson.
Patch Autographs and Dual Patch Autographs feature NFL veterans.
Flawless Dual Autographs, also numbered to 20, combine two players from the past and present who share a common theme. Parallels can be round in Ruby (15), Sapphire (10), Emerald (5) and Platinum (1/1).
Flawless All-Pro Ink signature cards debut by featuring those players who have been named All-Pro.
Also new are Red White and Blue Booklet Autographs, and collectors can also chase other book cards, such as Flawless Duals, Signatures Gems, Super Bowl Gems and Veteran Booklets. All feature on-card signatures.
2021 Flawless Football boxes are currently online for around $9,500.
You can see Flawless football singles from all years on eBay here.
About Bob D’Angelo
Bob has been a sportswriter and copy editor for more than 35 years and a blogger for a decade. He is celebrating his 50th year of card collecting, and still counts his 1965 Topps Mickey Mantle as his favorite. You can reach him at [email protected].