2010-11 Panini Luxury Suite Hockey
Product Review
2010-11 Luxury Suite Hockey Product Review
Reviewed By Doug Cataldo
Good: Loaded with hits (8 per box), several hard-signed autographs, new product line (though it borrows its name from a previous Pacific Trading Cards product that Panini just happens to own), a rookie card in every pack, including some extremely short-printed ones.
Bad: Rookies #'d to 899, missing Lemieux, Gretzky, Hull and other hockey Hall of Famers, and the box price is sporadic from dealer to dealer.
The Bottom Line: A welcome addition to the Panini family, Luxury Suite delivers a high-end hockey experience for collectors wanting more hockey memorabilia cards and a shot at some not-so-common autographs. Some collectors might not feel comfortable in this price range ($40-$50 per pack), but if you want the goods, you've got to pay the price.
Card Design:
A new product, Luxury Suite delivers a fresh design from the Panini team. The majority of the cards feature a horizontal layout with a black and white nameplate. The Luxury Suite logo is impressed in bronze foil for base set cards. The foil color changes with the different levels of parallels. The athlete is the focus of the card, with a strong color photo and faded net in the majority of the backgrounds. Some use the original photo background with muted color. The rookie cards feature a close-up and an action shot of the prospect. Private Signings, the lone insert set, have a traditional vertical design with gold foil highlights.
Checklist:
You lose points for not having the big three on your checklist. A hockey set without Gretzky, Gordie and Mario simply doesn't make as big of an impact as the one that does. However, Panini's Al Muir is a crafty guy. He has amassed an impressive list of lamplighters, muckers and netminders to fill the gaps. You'll find all-time greats like Johnny Bower, Dale Hawerchuk, Al Secord, Denis Savard and Marcel Dionne among the 25 legends on the checklist. It was actually refreshing to see some of these names and not the usual suspects, though with such a high-end set it couldn't have hurt to see such names as Messier, Yzerman, Roy, Kariya or Jagr appear on the checklist.
Value:
Like most products these days, boxes are hit or miss. There's definitely value in every box and expectations will be high for a $40 per pack product. Not every pack is going to deliver that amount of secondary market value but some will eclipse it. Luxury Suite by the case assures you of two SSP Rookie autograph/memorabilia rookies #'d to 199 or lower, three SP rookies #'d to 299 or less and five gold parallels #'d to 10.
The Fun Factor:
It would be difficult not to enjoy opening loaded packs loaded like the ones in Luxury Suite. Knowing that all the elements many collectors desire such as sequentially numbered autographed memorabilia rookie cards, limited low-numbered parallels, hard-signed signatures from a unique and new set make it very appealing. The box was not the best, but it did deliver some memorable hits and provided autographs of players you don't see flooding the market. The memorabilia cards, not so much, but with the chance of pulling eight hits, you are bound to find something great if you stick with it. Overall, it was a fun experience. It is difficult to find completely new sets these days and Luxury Suite fits the bill. It also meets the needs of hockey collectors searching for something not so traditional.
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Set Checklist
2010-11 Panini Luxury Suite Hockey Set Checklist Index
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4.7 average based on 77 reviews.
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