Black Boxes Are Ready To Rock

Press Pass is ready!  Upper Deck is ready!  And by the looks of it Panini is getting ready as well.  When it comes to making promos and giveaways, Panini really takes the cake.  Their legendary Black Boxes are one of the main attractions during the annual Industry Summit.  This year will not be any different.  Attendees will find a shamrock-shaped Rated Rookie logo T-shirt inside their welcome bag.  Five random collectors will be awarded a Black Box early on Monday if you’re caught wearing this T-shirt.

Upon completion of Panini’s presentation on Tuesday, the rest of the Black Boxes will be distributed.  Whats in a Black Box you ask?  Every Black Box will contain a special Industry Summit exclusive autograph or relic.  Collectors will also find Industry Summit exclusive 2013 Select Football Green Prizm parallels.  Each of these parallels will be limited to 15 copies.  Promos made for specific events such as the Industry Summit that can be integrated within an already established card set like Select are a fantastic idea.

No word yet from Topps on what their Industry Summit promos will look like.  It wouldn’t surprise me if it has something to do with 2014 Topps Heritage that comes out very shortly.  But that’s just a guess.

Ruby Parallels

I’ve mentioned on here before that one of my favorite products of the 90’s was 1997 Skybox Premium Football.  It wasn’t a high-end product at all and you weren’t suppose to get any “hits” per box.  There were no relics, but you did have the chance of pulling an autograph.  I just really enjoy the design of the cards.  I can still remember attending a small card show in Harrisburg and purchasing a Dan Marino base from ’97 Premium for my Dolphins collection.  Even with all the autographs, my favorite inserts would have to be the ruby parallels.  The ruby inserts are each serial numbered to 50 copies and are very hard to pull.  I’ve only seen them on eBay and never in person.  Most of the time these rubies are worth more than the actual autographs from this product.  Being a Dan Marino fan, I’d love to add a ruby Marino to my collection.  I’m sure if one shows up for sale, its going to be very pricey.  I’m seriously think of purchasing a box of ’97 Skybox Premium just for the heck of opening something old.  I bet it would make for an interesting break.