2015 Panini Crown Royale



I bought this retail box at a Target in Arizona. It was $40 for four packs. I actually couldn't find the price in the card section when I grabbed the box, but again, it was Christmas and it was new product to try so when it scanned as such at the cash register I decided to keep it.

Pack 1:



Okay, the autograph is in the first pack that I open. It is numbered out of 75. I can't say that I watched the Saints much this year so I'm not very familiar with Stephone Anthony, but looking at his season stats, I think he had a pretty good rookie season, starting all 16 games.

The Rivers card is a base card, with the Roethlisberger red parallel card being numbered out of 99. I think I prefer the old crown die cut, as opposed to the gradual curve but as a fan of die cut cards these are still pretty nice. The crowns in the card seem to pop nicely in these scans.

I like the Regal Rookies card of Tyler Lockett - it is a nice die cut pillar on the end. Obviously I would have preferred a Browns player.

The Doran Grant card is the base rookie card. The player is cut out in front of what is a slightly mirrored/reflective background. (The Anthony card is in the same style.) I like the look and don't think they scan as nicely as they appear in person. These rookie cards are roughly twice the width of a regular card.

Pack 2:



Base cards of Justin Forsett and Delanie Walker. Base rookie of Dreamius Smith.

Dreamius? How have my friends and I missed that name when we discuss names we have never heard before.

Neither of the King's Court cards are numbered, so I don't know which is the base. Looking at the back of the box...



...we see they list them Red/Green/Blue. Does that mean red is base? Anyway I like group cards like this and it is an interesting die cut.

Pack 3:



Base cards of Derek Carr and Matt Ryan. Base rookie of Zach Zenner.

Neat red Men at Arms die cut of Alex Smith, although I think it is the weakest of the die cut insert designs so far.

And my memorabilia card...a nice All Pro patch card of Aqib Talib with a pretty nice swatch. I like seeing the stitches in the light green. Flip it over, oh, my. It is numbered 2/5. Pretty cool!

Pack 4, and hoping for a Browns card:



Base card of LeSean McCoy, and base rookie of Charcandrick West. (Yeah, Charcandrick jumped right out at us earlier this year.)

I'm assuming that the Tannehill is the platinum parallel, numbered out of 199.

The green Regal Rookie of Marcus Mariota is pretty nice. What concentration!

I really like the Pink Ribbon die cuts. I'll have to look and see if there is a Brown in that subset.



All in all, I like the Crown Royale cards, but as a team collector I was disappointed to not pull any Browns. This, and not being one to sell cards, is why I don't buy that many boxes. I would rather direct my money straight to cards that I know that I want. I will be sure to look for the Browns from this set.

Panini, nice product, and a brand I look forward to continue seeing.