From last season’s final cards to a new crop of draft-oriented issues, there’s a solid dose of football in the first half of April’s new sports card releases.
Courtesy of Maine Sports Cards, here’s a look at some fresh-to-the-market products and a few others coming before the middle of the month.
2017-18 Donruss Optic Basketball (4/4)
Optic puts a shiny touch on Donruss. Each hobby box will have one autograph card but the emphasis will be on inserts and parallels with 20 in every box. The Rated Rookie autographs will be on-card but Optic will honor past greats with its Hall Dominators, featuring sticker autographs of some players who have been enshrined into the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame.
Online pricing for hobby boxes is $90-$100.
2017-18 OPC Platinum
Hockey (4/4)
Now in its fourth season, Platinum will offer one on-card autograph card in every hobby box. Each will also have five Rainbow Parallels, six OPC Retro cards, two Violet Pixel parallels, one Retro Rainbow parallels, two other numbered parallels and three inserts.
Online box prices are sitting at about $60.
2017 Panini Flawless Football (4/4)
Flawless puts the bow on the 2017 football card season by arriving in its usual metal briefcase that will hold one ten-card pack. Inside each are six autographed cards, two with gem stones and two memorabilia cards.
All cards in Flawless are #’d/25 or less, all base cards are numbered no higher than 15 and all autographs are on-card or cut signatures.
Boxes are being offered online for $1,300 to $1,400.
2017 Panini Elite Draft Picks (4/6)
Elite Draft Picks offers the chance for collectors to snag signed cards from potential picks in the upcoming 2018 draft as well as some past college greats (yes, there are Tim Tebow cards in the product). Players are, of course, pictured in their collegiate 
uniforms.
Elite delivers five autos, five inserts, one insert parallel, two Draft Picks parallels and two base parallels in each box. They’re online for around $90.
Josh Rosen, Josh Allen, Baker Mayfield, Saquon Barkley, James Washington are among the top names you’ll find inside.
2018 Leaf Metal Draft (4/6)
Leaf has been producing draft-oriented football cards for quite a while and their latest edition arrives Friday.
Each box promises five on-card autographs and Leaf is adding Colored Wave parallels this year for every color in its’ Prismatic rainbow. That should give the product more color than in the past. Leaf says it has placed a “substantially higher emphasis on skill position players than ever before” and that production will be cut “substantially” from the 2017 Metal Draft release.
Josh Allen, Josh Rosen, Nick Chubb and Sony Michel are among the top players in the product. Boxes are selling online for a little over $100.
2018 Leaf Pearl (4/11)
Leaf Pearl is the company’s new ultra high-end product with each base card numbered to 10 or less and carrying (of course) a pearl embedded in the card.
Each box has 11 cards with numerous past greats on the autograph checklist like Nolan Ryan, Larry Bird, Barry Sanders, Jerry Rice, John Elway and Magic Johnson.
The big prize, though, are the 1/1 History Book Cut Signature cards, each of which has a piece of memorabilia and a cut autograph. Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle are both on the checklist but other cut signatures in the product include Lou Gehrig, Abe Lincoln and Marilyn Monroe.
2018 Donruss Diamond Kings (4/11)
Built upon the 1980s subset, Diamond Kings Baseball will deliver the first autograph memorabilia cards of the 2018 rookie class with its Rookie Materials Signatures cards.
On average, each hobby box (eight cards per pack, 12 packs per box) will yield two autograph or memorabilia cards, three Framed parallels, two SPs, two variations and 11 inserts.
Panini’s deal with the Mickey Mantle family means there will be some Mantle content in the product including cut signatures.
Maine Sports Cards offers daily breaks of current and past products you can watch online. You can learn more about how to get involved in their box and case breaks and even sell your cards through their website by clicking here.
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