Buzz Break: 2020 Panini Playbook football cards (mega box)

From time to time, Buzz will break a box of something and post the results here. Like this and want to see more? Or maybe there's a box you'd want to see busted? Send Buzz an email at BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com.

The box: 2020 Panini Playbook football cards (mega box)
First Buzz preview: Click here
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com (for hobby)

Keep reading to see a full breakdown and gallery of everything that was in this one.

Packs per box: 4
Cards per pack: 5
Cards in this box: 20
Base set completion: 
15 of 200 (7 percent)
Duplicates: 0

Base cards – Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, Dak Prescott, Byron Jones, Brandin Cooks, Austin Hooper, Joey Bosa

Rookie Cards (8) – Xavier McKinney, Joe Reed, Denzel Mims, Quez Watkins, John Hightower IV, Ke'Shawn Vaughn, Kristian Fulton, Antonio Gandy-Golden

Insert cards: 4 (all cards from box in gallery below)
Orange parallel (1) – Ryan Tannehill
Orange Rookies parallel (1) – Devin Asiasi
Zoning Commission (1) – Damien Harris
Next Up (1) – Justin Herbert

Autographs/Memorabilia: 1*
Panini Rewards (1) – 150 points (I turned it into a Spectra NBA non-hit base card parallel ... for $8.63 shipping ... as pickings are slim at this level.)

What's Buzz-worthy: Playbook's retail configurations make me think this one may have run into some COVID issues to get it done and out the door -- I could be wrong here but keep reading. Why do I say that? These $45 mega boxes this year are the same size as last year's blasters, though last year may or may not have guaranteed a hit. Meanwhile, this year's $12 hangers include 30 cards -- more overall and more inserts and parallels but fewer Rookie Cards. Is the hit worth $30-plus more or were things shuffled around? (Why do I say that? There were no blasters for this one that I saw in its debut for my area this week.) To top it off, my hit was ... points, and I'll got to pay shipping on that non-base card I picked. All in all, disappointing this time but it's in a brand I like quite a bit with all of its potential configurations. At retail, we get exclusive base cards for this brand -- hobby is about hits -- and this duality I like, too, but it feels like there should be some type of middle-ground here. Sure, there are a lot of people simply wiping retail shelves into their cart with a swipe of an arm, but does this one arriving in both formats make sense? (It doesn't to me ... and, again, I like this brand.) This box was pretty decent on the base/rookie front but only the base presence was meatier with Brady and Mahomes. The parallels and inserts? Not great, though Herbert helps a lot among the four. I'll rip the hanger box sometime between now and the Super Bowl here ... probably sooner than that so you can compare them yourself.

Product Grade: A
Box Grade: C+ (Brady, Mahomes and Herbert saved it)
Fun Grade: C+ (see Buzz-worthy section)

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