2021 Panini Rookies & Stars Football Review

2021 Rookies and Stars continues the lineage of a classic brand with a wide variety of offerings and inserts. The boxes hit on February 9, 2022. In preperation, our 2021 Panini Rookies & Stars Football review will help you determine– is it a rip, flip, hold or pass?

What Is Rookies And Stars

This might come as a shock, but this product heavily emphasizes rookies and – get this – stars. Joking aside, it’s a set that has been around for a long time. The first box I ever opened was a 2007 Rookies and Stars set from Leaf. Therefore, the brand will always hold a special place in my heart. In addition, the release has notably improved and revamped regularly.

This year’s offering keeps the ball rolling with a great base set, autographs, memorabilia cards, and even some opti-crome cards to look for in every box.

Find 2021 Rookies and Stars sealed boxes on eBay

2021 Panini Rookies & Stars Football Review: What To Expect

Rookies and Stars was a hobby-only release in 2021, which helps the brand. But, most notably, the lack of base rookies floating around eBay will help the rookies and stars brand retain value in the long run.

Perhaps the best part of this box is that it only costs $325 at the time of writing, making it a pretty low-cost product compared to the number of potential hits.

How much are 2021 Rookies and Stars boxes selling for on eBay? Only one way to find out.

2021 Panini Rookies & Stars Football Review Of The Formats

In 2021 Panini Rookies & Stars Football Review terms of box structure, here’s what you can expect:

Hobby Box

• 2 Autographs
• 2 Memorabilia
• 5 Numbered Parallels
• 12 Inserts
• 12 Rookies
• 6 Opti-Chrome Inserts

Find 2021 Rookies and Stars sealed boxes on eBay

2021 Panini Rookies & Stars Football Review Of The Checklist

The Rookies and Stars lineup is similar to what we’ve come to know from the brand, but the continued emphasis on parallels will mean some more big-dollar cards coming out of the product.

This year, look for:

• Orange – #/99
• True Blue – #/49
• Red & Blue – #/35
• Gold – #/10
• Black & Blue – #/5
• Green – #/5
• Platinum – 1/1

The green Rookie Signatures are /5. Look for more Devonta Smith autos on eBay.

This year’s six-pack boxes will have four hits on average (2 autos and memorabilia), and this will be marked by the return of a fan-favorite insert: Crusade. The brightly colored Crusade cards have a lot of great parallels to chase and could be a fun set for collectors to build.

You can also look for the popular Dress For Success card, an autographed memorabilia card featuring the top players from the 2021 NFL Draft Class!

Also, Panini advertises that collectors should “be on the hunt for short-printed Opti-Chrome autograph parallels of Crusade, Airborne, Stellar Rookies & new to 2021: Star-Studded!” Short-prints are a great way to breathe life into more common inserts, so this was an excellent call for maintaining the set’s overall health.

2021 Panini Rookies & Stars Football Review Of Value

If you’re hoping to invest in Rookies and Stars 2020-21, the first question to answer is if you should buy singles or wax.

Wax

2020 Rookies and Stars hobby boxes sell for $500, just as Joe Burrow is prepping his Bengals for the Super Bowl. 2018 boxes are listed at $550, powered by a deep rookie class and a couple of extra years of aging. 2019 – the least exciting rookie class of the last several years – can be found for $429.99.

What do all three of these prices have in common?

Namely, they’re significantly higher than the $325 release day price of 2021 Rookies and Stars. That alone suggests that the product is a good hold.

Generally, the value of boxes is determined by the best quarterbacks in the class. But, sadly, we haven’t seen anything too extraordinary from the 2021 quarterbacks yet.

Wax from previous years has maintained value due to big draw quarterbacks. Look for more Mahomes rookies from this release on eBay.

But let’s wait. It’s too early to give up on Trevor Lawrence (spoiler, he’ll still be amazing), Zach Wilson, and Trey Lance. Mac Jones may also be worthy of more than the “game manager” label he is associated with.

Singles

Rookies and Stars rookie cards come in many different forms, but your best hope of finding one that holds excellent long-term value is the popular Crusades insert.

If I’m investing in a single from this set, I’d buy a colored Crusade from the player you believe in the most and get it graded eventually (don’t rush to PSA right now) or a numbered rookie autograph.

The Joe Burrow Crusade base cards from last year are selling for around $30 at the time of writing (again, this is inflated by the Super Bowl). Meanwhile, PSA 10s sell for about $170. Recently, a Pink /50 sold for $90, but it sold before the Bengals got into stride in the playoffs.

If you want something more high-end, a Dress for Success rookie autograph could also be an excellent long-term hold. This Herbert /75 that sold for $450 is a perfect example. But, of course, what you buy should depend on how much you believe in the quarterback.

Dress for Success is a strong patch auto card.

The Bottomline Of The 2021 Panini Rookies & Stars Football Review

With 2021 Rookies and Stars Football, the resell prices of previous boxes suggest they have great potential for a long-term hold. As always, ripping is by far the riskiest, but you can also pay off the $325 price if you hit a nice rookie autograph or a decent auto and some nice parallels. As far as flipping goes, there’s not enough room to make any margins worth messing with, but I wouldn’t call the product a pass, either.

In the end, do what makes the most sense for you and your budget. For example, this box is a “hobby,” While you can make a decent amount of profit off it, hobbies are also about having fun.