You know the NFL Draft isn’t far behind when the college-oriented football card boxes start arriving on store shelves. Traditionally first out of the gate is SAGE, which tries to earn the dollars of collectors who prefer pigskin and can’t wait for the officially licensed products later in the spring. 2011 SAGE football has been out for 
a few weeks, but boxes haven’t always been seen in retail stores until recently.
SAGE and the other non-licensees have to be creative in presentation. They can’t use team logos and can’t even mention the schools the players represent.
They do offer collectors two guaranteed autographed cards per blaster box and six in each hobby box. Sticker autographs abound here and the autos ar
e packaged in a cello overwrap so there’s not much suspense in the rest of the packs on the retail level.
Fifty cards comprise the base set, so you’ll have no trouble scoring at least one full set out of a blaster…and close to a second. We also pulled a pre-rookie insert group of five cards (PR 1-5) that shows players in their high school uniforms including Cam Newton, the Heisman Trophy winner who could be the number one overall pick.
2011 SAGE blasters aren’t terrifically exciting, but for autograph collectors, it’s hard to beat the price point.
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