There Is A Major Change In 2022 Panini Spectra Football – What’s In This Year’s Release? [Checklist Updated]

2022 Panini Spectra Football is going at a high price point. Sure, the boldly designed in-your-face chrome cards have their niche. Yet, it is not one of the most beloved products in their arsenal.

So, is it worth plunking close to $800 for? Find out in our 2022 Panini Spectra Football review.

Check out prices for 2022 Panini Spectra Football hobby boxes on eBay

What is Panini Spectra Football?

The concept of Spectra is simple yet effective. They produce the shiniest and most metallic-looking cards on the market and supply them with many hits. The cards are thick and sturdy. If so, subtlety is not what the Spectra line is all about.

The product is big on autos and parallels. Initially, the product shied away from the memorabilia card side of things. However, there has been some change in that regard recently. For example, in the release this year, there are as many memorabilia cards as autos.

While never one of the most beloved Panini products, it has found a permanent place in the Panini release schedule. Since the debut of Panini Spectra Football in 2013, the release has remained a mainstay and found a dedicated audience. The line was ahead of its time in emphasizing hits at the expense of base.

Panini Spectra Football 2022 release date

The 2022 Panini Spectra Football hobby boxes will drop this month on January 13th, 2023. The First Off The Line (FOTL) boxes already went on the Panini website through their trademark Dutch auction process. The bidding stopped at $1010.42, which is certainly lower than it was in previous years. The Spectra line does not release retail formats.

I have never been a big fan of buying a product with the previous year on it. I mean, by the time you purchase it, the box already seems dated.

Last year, they managed to pull out 2021 Panini Spectra in the correct year, dropping it on December 8^th. But I guess Panini has not yet fully caught up on their schedule.

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2022 Panini Spectra Football pros

The designs are very unique. The Panini blog has referred to this line as “Panini America’s fabulous, flashy, fire-breathing Spectra Football.” Even though I am not the biggest chrome guy who ever lived, they look great to me. So, if the flashy and shiny card is your thing, these are some of the more cohesive versions of that genre.

But the most significant advantage of this release, easily, is the number of hits per box. Especially how auto-heavy this release is. You are guaranteed 4 autos, one of the highest totals in the entire hobby. And generally speaking, they are likelier to be good autos from legit stars and rookies than in most releases.

Panini Spectra Football is particularly social media friendly with its combination of flashy designs and high volume of hits. If you rip a box, you are guaranteed to get the sort of cards that will look great on your Instagram and Twitter accounts.

So, there is instant gratification involved. For boxes in that price range, Spectra probably offers the most in terms of that immediate feeling of landing an Instagramable hit.

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2022 Panini Spectra Football cons

The price, the price, and the price. Considering that Spectra rookies will never be the definitive card for anyone, many collectors wonder why they should pay inflated prices for a box of Spectra.

However, researchers say that the best predictor of success is the ability to delay gratification. And that is something for Spectra fans to remember. Other boxes may feel less flashy and offer fewer immediate hits but can provide more long-term value for less. We will look into the value of these boxes in a bit.

The product has also undergone a recent downgrade, which collectors will not appreciate. 2021 and 2022 Panini Spectra Football offered a guaranteed rookie patch auto (RPA). In fact, that was a major part of its appeal.

After all, the rookie autos have the best value, and RPAs are even better. But now, the guaranteed RPA is gone. So now you have the genuine chance of getting hit with four veteran autos and a serious case of buyer’s remorse.

Panini Spectra Football 2022 formats

The Spectra Football release is one of those hobby box-only deals, as you would expect from such a hit-heavy product. There are two varieties available, the FOTL and the standard hobby box. Here are the specs.

2022 Panini Spectra football hobby box

• 4 Cards per pack
• 4 Packs per box:
• 8 Boxes per case
• Boxes resell for $900
• Cases go for $7,200

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As we have mentioned, Spectra football comes with a more significant number of hits than most. Here is what you can expect in the standard hobby box:

• 4 Autographs
• 4 Memorabilia Cards
• 1 Inserts
• 7 Base Cards or Parallels

2022 Panini Spectra FOTL Hobby Box

• 4 cards per pack
• 4 packs per box
• Includes 1 wave RPA, 1 wave parallel #’d/10, 3 other autographs, 4 memorabilia, 6 base/parallels, and 1 insert per box, on average.
• Boxes went for $1010.42 at their lowest point on the Panini website.

Shop for 2022 Panini Spectra Football FOTL hobby boxes on eBay

2022 Panini Spectra Football checklist info

The Spectra release is light on base cards. Honestly, I am not even sure why they bother having any. They could just remove the few regular base cards included and make them all numbered parallels. But I digress.

The checklist hasn’t dropped yet. But we will update this article as soon as it does. Still, there is no reason to believe it will differ significantly from 2021 Panini Spectra Football.

In that release, the base checklist was 200 cards long. Of those, 135 were veterans, while the rest were rookie cards. All regular base cards are numbered /149.

That seems needlessly elaborate for a hits-heavy product like Spectra. I get that when the product was first released back in 2013, just about every release had a hefty base checklist. But Panini should move with the times.

No one is buying Spectra football to complete a base checklist. Who could afford to anyway? All this does is water down the release with veterans no one wants. That’s fine for the Score and Donruss releases of this world. But it seems counterintuitive for a hits-heavy product like Panini Spectra Football.

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Anytime you draw a non-parallel base in this kind of product, it feels like a significant letdown. But the parallels tend to be solid in Spectra football. The many die-cut variations tend to be particularly popular.

The 2022 Panini Spectra Football parallels include:

• Celestial – /99
• Hyper – /75
• Interstellar – /60
• Neon Blue Die-Cut – /50
• Astral – /40
• Neon Green Die-Cut – /30
• Meta – /25
• Neon Pink Die-Cut – /20
• Neon Orange Die-Cut – /15
• Universal Die-Cut – /10
• Neon Splatter – /8
• Psychedelic – /5
• Neon Marble – /4
• Nebula – /2
• Gold – 1/1

2022 Panini Spectra Football autos

Far more important for the product’s appeal is the autos’ quality. In 2021, the best autos were the RPAs, by a country mile. Meanwhile, the regular rookie autos were mediocre. That wasn’t a big deal because you were guaranteed an RPA per box.

But since this year, you aren’t guaranteed one; we hope they at least make the rest of the auto checklist more attractive than they have in the past. However, I wouldn’t bet on it.

Although none are guaranteed, there is still a pretty good chance of pulling a rookie auto. So the release includes a bunch of first-year-oriented options. They have Rookie Patch Autographs, Aspiring Patch Autographs, and Radiant Rookie Patch Autographs. Meanwhile, the Dual Patch Autographs series includes veterans and rookies.

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The rookie memorabilia autos come in the following varieties:

• Celestial – #/99 or less
• Hyper – #/75 or less
• Neon Blue – #/60 or less
• Neon Green – #/35 or less
• Neon Purple – #/30 or less
• Neon Pink – #/25 or less
• Neon Orange – #/15 or less
• Meta – #/10 or less
• Neon Black Light – #/10 or less
• Neon Splatter – #/8 or less
• Psychedelic – #/5 or less
• Neon Marble – #/4 or less
• Nebula – #/2 or 1/1
• Gold – 1/1
• Gold Tag NFL Shield – 1/1
• Gold Tag NFLPA Logo – 1/1
• Gold Tag Nike Swoosh – 1/1

Veteran-oriented autos can be found in the Full Spectrum series and the Icons one. They each have the following parallels:

• Base – #/149 or less
• Celestial – #/99 or less
• Hyper – #/75 or less
• Neon Blue – #/50 or less
• Neon Green – #/35 or less
• Meta – #/25 or less
• Neon Pink – #/15 or less
• Neon Orange – #/10 or less
• Neon Splatter – #/8 or less
• Psychedelic – #/5 or less
• Neon Marble – #/4 or less
• Nebula – #/2 or 1/1
• Gold – 1/1

2022 Panini Spectra Football inserts

Spectra is not an insert-heavy release. Therefore, Panini hasn’t bothered to introduce many new inserts in this year’s release. Because of the orientation of Spectra, that isn’t a huge deal.

Still, they could have shown some more creativity and included a couple of new ideas. Anyway, you can expect three new inserts in 2022 Panini Spectra Football: Rookie, Spectraverse, and Wavelength.

2022 Panini Spectra Football value

Boxes of this product are not cheap. The FOTL closed at over $1,000, and the regular hobby box reached close to that mark. But in return, Panini promises a strong bunch of hits in every single box. So, does the math work in your favor? We looked at the numbers, so you don’t have to.

Wax

Spectra has been around for almost a decade. Therefore, we have a reasonably good frame of reference for the value of closed wax. How do previous years fare on the open market?

The math here is very consistent. If you have an excellent rookie class, a box of Spectra will go for over $2,000. Meanwhile, your average class gets the box into the $1,100-1,200 range. Considering that you are very unlikely to lose any money here, these are pretty good odds.

So, despite the complaints of the folks over at Blowout Forums, these boxes aren’t bad value for money. If you believe in the 2022 rookies, stashing a couple of these babies is a good use of your closet space.

Check out prices for 2022 Panini Spectra Football hobby boxes on eBay

Singles

But what about all those big hits that Spectra comes with? Do they justify the significant outlay?

These are some of the bigger Spectra Football cards I could find on eBay. As you can see, plenty of solid cards will repay an entire box. But not as many as you would like.

In addition, there was a notable lack of monster cards. You are very unlikely to score any truly massive hits here. The Josh Allen was a significant outlier, which doesn’t compare to the big cards that come in other releases.

But considering there are several hits in each box, your chances of making back the money appear reasonable. More likely than not, you will take a significant loss. But, of course, that is true for just about any box.

The final word on Panini Spectra 2022 Football

Ripping Spectra Football offers instant gratification. You get a bunch of awesome-looking hits quickly. And you get to put them on social media and sell them off. Can’t argue with that. In addition, the boxes age surprisingly well. Buyers won’t be losing any money off them. There is a lot to recommend in these boxes.

But as always, there is a downside. The singles don’t age particularly well. There is a lack of real monster cards among all these hits. The RPAs here do not hold up as well as they do for other brands.

But of course, those are good problems to have with the 2022 Panini Spectra Football release since RPAs are no longer guaranteed. Time will tell if this will lower the value of the unopened boxes.

Check out prices for 2022 Panini Spectra Football hobby boxes on eBay

Full 2022 Panini Spectra Football checklist