5/17/2007 9:22:11 AM

How do you know that the 2007 football card season has officially begun? Because Playoff Prestige, annually the first dual-licensed product released that features the first Rookie Cards of the year, went live on Wednesday. In honor of that highly anticipated occasion, here's a hands-on look at 2007 Playoff Prestige, as well as an extensive gallery that should whet your appetite until you're able to make it by your local dealer's.

Box Breakdown

Packs per box: 24

Cards per pack: 8

Cards per box: 192

Base set completion w/o SPs: 72 percent (179 of 250)

Duplicates: 0

What We Pulled

There are 24 packs per box and we pulled 25 rookies. The best were Adrian Peterson, Dwayne Bowe, Robert Meachem and Marshawn Lynch. The Xtra Points Gold parallel falls 1:14 packs. We pulled Roy Williams (WR) and Leon Washington. We got one Xtra Points Red (#’d to 100) of Clinton Portis. Our other parallel was a Draft Picks Blue (#’d to 999) of rookie Lawrence Timmons. We got two jersey cards in our box: a Stars of the NFL Roy Williams (WR) and a Prestigious Pros Jerseys Eli Manning. We pulled a few other inserts, but nothing crazy.

What We Think:

Well, it’s finally here—the first NFL-licensed football card product of the year. With it comes the first Rookie Cards of 2007. It’s refreshing to see a product with so many Rookie Cards per box. They don’t have jersey swatches, autographs or serial numbering, but they are simple and, most importantly, are first out of the gate. They also feature the rookie’s NFL team name on the front with a logo on the back. Pretty impressive being less than a month removed from the draft. There also are a few unannounced short-printed Rookie Cards. (Rest assured: we’re beating Donruss Playoff over the head to give us this info. Keep checking Beckett.com.).

We didn’t pull any autographs, but we have seen some scans of Donruss Playoff’s new clear autograph sticker. This is a big change since the company has used silver stickers for since 2001. They look decent on these cards, although the rainbow-type foilboard on some cards makes the autograph area a little dark.

The Draft Picks Rights Autographs are little different this year, as they are parallels of the Rookie Cards instead of having a different design. The Super Bowl Heroes set is interesting with 10 Colts and Bears from last season’s game. These have autographed versions. League Leaders is a 25-card set with dual and quadruple jersey swatches, grouping the NFL’s top stat leaders like LaDainian Tomlinson, Peyton Manning and Larry Johnson.

Playoff Prestige is a simple product. Don’t expect big hits in boxes. The base set photography is nice, but some of the players among the 150 veterans are odd choices. Do we need Ronald Curry, Troy Williamson and John Madsen? On the other hand, it was cool to see some lesser-used guys like Marion Barber, Mike Furrey and Brandon Jacobs. You know, guys that actually produce.