Box Break: 2010-11 Certified

It's taken nearly two months now, but this is the fourth and final box I purchased at the Gibraltar Trade Center card show back on the weekend of New Years. I had seen so many Certified breaks on SCF, that I just really wanted to check it out for myself. 

Base: 

I kind of like the base set design. The shapes at the bottom of the card give it an interesting look, and the grey/black/white color scheme is nice because it works with all of the team colors. The only thing I don't care for is the size of the Certified logo.

Mirror Red Parallel:

This Corey Perry, numbered 048/250 is the only red mirror parallel I managed to pull. There's not much to say about these other than the fact that they are a shinier version of the base card with a little bit of red thrown in.

Mirror Blue Parallel:

Just like with the mirror red parallels, I only got one of these mirror blue parallels: this Vincent Lecavalier numbered 098/100. Same thing as the red, it's just a shinier version of the base with some blue thrown in for good measure.

Throwback Threads:

Talk about a misleading set name. There are no jersey swatches to be found in this set, just these mediocre designs. The idea for the set is nice, but what killed if for me was the massive blank space at the bottom because Panini was too lazy to create separate designs for auto'ed and non-auto'ed versions.

Collision Course:

These are a bit better than the Throwback Threads, but not by much. I do like the shattered glass effect though, it's perfect for this kind of set. I really like the photo on this George Parros too. I wonder what some of the others look like.

Masked Marvels:

These are probably my favorite of the insert sets. I only got one with this Brian Elliott numbered 117/500. I like the idea for this set, but they should have done a better job of capturing the masks, especially and awesome one like Elliott's with Casey Jones.

Freshman Signatures:

I only got one of these and it's another no-name guy for me. This Casey Wellman is numbered 069/1299. At least it's hard signed though, must have been fun for him to sit there and sign 1300 of these things.

Mirror Blue Auto:

Now we're getting to the better hits of the box. This Antoine Vermette is numbered 20/50. It's the exact same thing as the regular mirror blue parallel, except for the addition of the sticker auto. At least Vermette has a halfway decent signature.

Mirror Red Materials:

This was the first memorabilia card to pop out of the box. It's a Steve Ott numbered 067/150 and it's got two plain black swatches that kind of blend in with the picture on the card. Not the best combination if you ask me.

Certified Potential Materials:

This would have to be the hit of the box for me. It's a Matt Duchene numbered 91/99. This one's got a plain white jersey swatch, but hey what can you do. At least it looks better than the standard Potential cards with all that empty space there.

Overall, this box wasn't too bad. I got a lot of nice base cards, no Jimmy though, so that kind of bummed me out a little bit. Other than that, there were some cool looking inserts and some nice auto/memorabilia hits, but nothing overly spectacular.