The 2021-22 Panini Obsidian Soccer checklist has been revealed so let’s take a look at what you can get. This year they upped the checklist from 100 to 200 base cards but lowered the amount of each from 195 to 105. The beauty of Obsidian is you get club and country cards from all around Europe. You get the big rookies from the Premier League and La Liga. There are also women’s cards included though most have already had cards before and there are no big women’s rookies. My favorite cards in the set are the “Flood” cards. They have the continuous color background that really makes them pop. The Contra (white) and Red Flood are back with the additions of Neon Blue and Neon Green. I’ve long contended if Obsidian made all of their parallels like the Floods, the set would be way more popular. The normal Etch parallels just don’t look different enough to get people excited.
2021-22 Panini Obsidian Soccer Overview
Checklist – HERE
*Note that Panini included the print run for each card including autos. To save you some time Messi has 63 total autos and Cristiano Ronaldo has 100.
Hobby Box Makeup (Search on eBay) – 7 cards per pack, 1 Base card, 1base refractor, 1 insert, 4 autos or relics
Print Runs – 21000 hobby boxes, 1750 cases
Case Hits – 1 Color Blast (Search on eBay) and 1 Contra (Search on eBay)
175 of each Color Blast
Rookie Chases – Gavi, Joe Gelhardt, Anthony Elanga, Jacob Ramsey, Carney Chukwuemeka, Brian Brobbey, Michael Olise, Aurelien Tchouameni.
If you want to read Rookie Breakdowns check out this one for UEFA Topps Chrome and this one for Premier League Prizm as these players will be found on one of them.
Harvey Elliott, Yeremy Pino and Ricardo Pepi will likely have a RC but they aren’t really rookies though that won’t stop people from buying like they are.
SCHQ Conclusion – Obsidian is a product that people completely love or ignore with little in between. One thing that could boost it’s popularity on release is that everyone has been chasing 2020-21 Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz Obsidian cards. The Color Blasts are always a chase and the checklist for them this year is pretty strong. The rookies are pretty solid as you get a good mix of players. Gavi is a huge chase right now so that is good for the set that he is in there. Even though they are hard to hit, the chance to get a Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo autograph will always get people excited. There are multiple autos in every box, but you can see from the print runs that most aren’t great. With this being a single pack product it is very boom or bust. With a set like this I suggest buying a case as you are at least guaranteed a Color Blast and a Contra. If you can get a case (Search on eBay) for under $4,000 the ROI on this is pretty good compared to most of the other 2021-22 products that have been released so far assuming the quality control is good. Obsidian has been hit or miss on QC through the years. That has more to do with the current year wax prices than it does about this being a great value. I know not everyone can afford a case and it you can’t I would go the singles route. Most breaks are going to result in you not getting a card unless that are multiple case breaks.
*All Search on eBay links go to Ebay
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