Panini NPN - People actually do win something

When it comes to NPN ( No purchase necessary) entries, I have literally no luck. For years I have entered countless ones with UD and for years I received nothing in return. At least with UD, they don't require any postage or cost to enter, they are just literally an online entry and that is that. To be honest, I don't even know if UD does these any more as I have long given up hope.

However, this past fall, I bought a blaster of 11-12 Pinnacle. The results were very under-whelming as my hit was a dude and I got no rookies that interested me. But upon reading the package of the cards, I could see that they offer a mail-in offer for free cards NPN. So I did get a chance to try and improve my poor box by entering the draw for additional cards. Of course, there is a limit of 2 per household so I sent in my two and waited.

I figured since it had been many months that there was no way I had won, but sure enough in July a little treat arrived!

11-12 Panini Pinnacle Game Night Stephane Da Costa Prime /50 

Not a bad card from an upcoming player and arguably already one of the better players to ever come from France. This card is a prime swatch which features a nice seam of black and white that bulges from the card!

Eric Staal Game Used

When it comes to game used cards, unless it is a patch, it is often hard to tell where exactly the piece came from. That is not the case with this piece, I recently landed a nice Eric Staal game used card for 2 bucks and my only reason for bidding on it was I wanted a piece of a fellow Thunder Bay boy Eric Staal. When the card arrived, I first noticed that texture was odd and very elastic. Also, the black stripe was pretty small and looking at the picture of him I couldn't see where it exactly came from.

11/12 Panini Pinnacle Threads  #/50

However if you look at  the jersey as a whole, I think it was part of the bottom trim.

Eric of course has had a pretty busy few weeks getting ready for his younger brother's wedding and then helping him move his stuff from Pittsburgh to Raleigh is likely on his to-do list. This coming season is going to be very exciting for Canes Fans, and with Marc still playing in the NHL maybe they will form a Staal reunion next season. After all, they already have the rights to Jared, it would only make sense to land the 4th and final piece of the bunch.