With the release of Series 2 next month trading card collectors start getting really excited… because Series 2 means PREMIUM quality cards are back.
By Premium we mean:
- More cards in a packet,
- Better quality card stock = thicker cards that are harder to damage
- Premiership Predictor redemptions
- Signature inserts (real signatures not printed ones)
- Limited box release (unlike Series 1 which at times seems unlimited)
- Signature redemptions, and of course
- Higher priced packs to cover the additional production costs.
Let’s see what this means for the new 2009 AFL Pinnacle Series.
Each pack of AFL Pinnacle will contain 8 cards plus 1 Holographic Guernsey Die Cut card (2009 Champions had 7 plus 1 GDC). There are 195 cards in the Pinnacle common set which is 11 cards per team plus a team logo.
Here’s a look at the common cards…
The Holofoil Guernsey Die Cut set is a 195 card parallel set to the common set, it’s just harder to complete because you only get one per pack.
Series 2 are always printed on thicker card stock. See for yourself by holding a card from each release. It will be obvious which is thicker.
One of the regular feature insert sets in Series 2 has been the All Australian sub set.
All 22 players named in the 2008 All Australian Team are included in the set. They are:
- Scarlett - Geelong
- Morris - Western Bulldogs
- Harley - Geelong
- Hodge - Hawthorn
- Bock - Adelaide
- Fisher - St Kilda
- Bartel - Geelong
- Corey - Geelong
- Cooney - Western Bulldogs
- Johnson - Geelong
- Riewoldt - St Kilda
- Harvey - North Melbourne
- Fevola - Carlton
- Franklin - Hawthorn
- Medhurst - Collingwood
- Cox - West Coast
- Judd - Carlton
- Ablett - Geelong
- Enright - Geelong
- Pavlich - Fremantle
- Richardson - Richmond, and
- Sandilands - Fremantle
Here’s a sneak peak at the design which is inserted 1 card every 8 packs…
Medal cards are another regular feature sub set in Series 2. They celebrate the 5 major medal winners from 2008.
The Pinnacle Medal Cards are inserted 1 in 36 packs and will include:
- Adam Cooney - Brownlow Medal
- Lance Franklin - Coleman Medal
- Luke Hodge - Norm Smith Medal
- Rhys Palmer - Rising Star, and
- Gary Ablett - Leigh Matthews MVP
Premiership Predictors are back again. Inserted 1 card per 36 packs, you will be able to redeem a full set of 16 for a limited edition 16 card sub set which should be limited to 400 (or less).
This year, the Predictors look like this…
Draft Pick Signatures featuring REAL signatures are again included in the Series 2 release. Pinnacle includes the first 16 draft picks from the 2008 National Draft and are inserted 1 card per 36 packs.
- Jack Watts - Melbourne Demons
- Nick Naitanui - West Coast
- Stephen Hill - Fremantle
- Hamish Hartlett - Port Power
- Michael Hurley - Essendon
- Chris Yarran - Carlton
- Daniel Rich - Brisbane Lions
- Tyrone Vickery - Richmond
- Jack Ziebell - Kangaroos
- Phil Davis - Adelaide Crows
- Steele Sidebottom - Collingwood
- Lewis Johnston - Sydney Swans
- Tom Lynch - St Kilda
- Ayce Cordy - Western Bulldogs
- Mitchell Brown - Geelong, and
- Ryan Schoenmakers - Hawthorn
The Draft Pick Signatures for 2009 are limited to 400 cards per player and look like this (proofs shown without signatures)…
Double Trouble Cards are a new addition to Series 2, but they have been in Series 1 before. In fact, there are 10 Double Trouble cards in the AFL Pinnacle release which completes the set started with the 6 Double Trouble cards from AFL Champions 2009.
They are inserted 1 card for every 72 packs (which is 1 card per 2 boxes) and are sure to be highly sought after. We don’t know who appears in all the Double Trouble cards but here’s a look at a couple of cards so far.
Another new addition to Series 2 is the inclusion of 4 Signed Rookie Sensation cards. These are REAL signatures again and are inserted 1 card per 144 packs on average. That’s 1 card per 4 boxes with each card limited to 400. The names of the featured Rookies haven’t been released yet, but I think I recognise 3 of the 4 players from the early release photos. EDIT: Names now corrected.
Aaron Joseph from Carlton and Dayne Beams from Collingwood
David Zaharakis from Essendon and Liam Picken from the Western Bulldogs
And lastly… the Pinnacle of the 2009 Pinnacle Series will be the Captain Signature Cards. There are 7 in the Series with just 60 cards signed by each of the featured Captains.
These will be the hot items because of the low number of cards per player (scarcity) but also because they feature many of the games top players (demand). The 7 featured Captains include:
- Chris Judd - Carlton
- Jonathan Brown - Brisbane
- Matthew Lloyd - Essendon
- Matthew Pavlich - Fremantle
- Sam Mitchell - Hawthorn
- Brent Harvey - Kangaroos, and
- Nick Riewoldt - St Kilda
The Captains Signature cards feature the same design as the 2001 Select Authentic Series which remains one of the most sought after sub sets in recent history. Here’s is what they will look like…
The 2009 AFL Pinnacle Series will see a new type of official folder released. These red vinyl folders are the perfect way to store your cards… but unlike previous years these are limited to just 1500 folders. They look fantastic don’t you think?
There’s only two weeks to wait for the release of the 2009 AFL Pinnacle Series. Release date is expected to be Monday, 13th of July. We will write to you again soon with the opportunity to pre-order most cards in the Series, including sealed boxes. So stay tuned.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, the Pinnacle Series is a limited release Series. Only 400 cases will be released which is 6400 boxes in total.
Last year the AFL Classic sold out in just a few weeks and I expect the Pinnacle Series will be no different. If you’re keen to open sealed boxes you will need to move quickly to secure them early.
Details of the NRL Classic series will be released very soon.
As soon as we get more detail we will write to you again and we should be in a position to give you full prices and pre-order opportunities for both the AFL and NRL releases.
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