2012-13 Panini Certified Hockey Cards

Product Review

2012-13 Panini Certified Hockey Product Review

Reviewed by Kevin Ransom

Good: Panini Certified features some of the best talent on the ice year after year, with some of the best early-season rookie autographs.

Bad: The rookie talent pool is lacking due to the lockout, causing some of the hits in the product to be a little less desirable than would normally be found in the product.

The Bottom Line: Panini Certified has always been a well-received product. However the lockout has caused a lot of the excitement of the product to be put on the back burner while the NHL deals with its own issues.

Card Design: 4.2/5.0

The card design is something you come to expect with the Certified brand. Players have a great action shot. Backgrounds have enough holo-foil to make sure your hair is looking good. One of the issues I constantly think about when opening this brand is, "Are the cards too shiny?" At some point, the glare from the cards takes away from the design and this time I feel it really does. However, the Mirror parallels look fantastic as they are toned down just enough.

Speaking with the front of the card, I find the cursive lettering sort of blends into the card a little too much. It should either be a little bigger or a different font. My eyes aren't old yet, but it's something that you should be able to read easier.

Despite the base cards, the rest of the inserts look fantastic and are definitely stronger than in the past. One of my favorites is Goalie Pulls that have a goalie on acetate stock. You can pull him out of his net. It's nothing ground-breaking, but the creative attention to detail was enough for me to love it.

Checklist: 3.7/5.0

The checklist lacks the excitement that a product coming out at this time should really have. Yes, you have all your veterans you find in your products. You also have your rookies who got ice time late last season, which is standard as well. But the lockout has played a huge part in creating a checklist that is void of your new breakout stars and your recently drafted rookies that would be making an impact in the league as we speak. If you don't think the lockout affects more than just the players, owners, and people who work at the arenas, you're mistaken. The lack of rookie star power isn't Panini's fault, but it's still an issue.

That said, the Fabric of the Game checklist continues to keep with the tradition of featuring players who have been established stars in the NHL for some time. The same goes for the hits that have extensive checklists of veteran and retired stars. They usually find the players that people want to collect and that is always welcomed.

Value: 3.8/5.0

Again, the lockout continues to take its toll on new products. In general, hockey cards are slumping on the secondary market. It doesn't help that the lockout has caused a serious issue with getting better content in new boxes. While the hits are normally what you would find in a Certified product, the rookie autographs lack the excitement and value than if there was a season going on. For instance, you can pull an autograph of a little-known rookie. If the season were a go, that rookie could have a breakout season, which adds further value. This is on top of the bump that would occur if top draft picks like Nail Antropov were in the set as well.

The only issue with the lack of the rookie content is that I can't really see where that content was replaced. New to this year are the "hot box" parallels, so that may be a bit of content that was added. But many would argue that memorabilia swatches hold less value than autographed cards. Unless, of course, you can find some of the rare stick cards that made their debut this year. It's tough to look at what the product could be if we actually had a NHL season.

The Fun Factor: 4.0/5.0

Overall, 2012-13 Panini Certified Hockey is a fun product to bust. Despite the lockout, hockey fans need to keep their mind on the sport they love and Certified hockey does the trick. With four memorabilia cards per box, you're still going to find some nice cards to add to your collection with a large number of different players. Low-numbered parallels are another major plus.

While the lockout has caused issues in hockey card products, that should not cause you to stop collecting. If anything, it might be a way to bring you closer to the game in these trying times.

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JEREMY LAMB 12-13 CERTIFIED MIRROR GOLD HOLO PARALLEL ROOKIE RC UCONN SSP 14/25

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