2021 Panini Chronicles: Box Revew

I'm back with another box from my ongoing Breaker's Club #5!  One of the fun side-benefits of hosting the Breaker's Club is that I get to double-dip with the blog and write some of these Box Reviews for sets that I otherwise (most likely) would have never ripped for myself.  

Today's box is a great example of a set that I wouldn't have purchased for myself - the 2021 Panini Chronicles set.  The Panini Chronicles set is probably best described as a "hot mess" of a set.  Ostensibly, the base set is only 100 cards BUT you don't even get a single base card (on average) per pack!  All of the other cards in the 8 card packs are either hits (autos or relics) or cards from other sets that live within the Chronicles brand.  It's a confusing mess so buckle up as I try to make sense of it all!

Our box of 2021 Panini Chronicles contained only six packs with eight cards in each pack.  The box promised "3 autographs and 1 memorabilia card*" as well.

*on average.

Let's begin with the aforementioned base cards.  

These are super thick cards called America's Pastime.  I actually like the look of the base cards quite a bit though the make-up of the checklist kind of confuses me (for the most part, the America's Pastime players are all current players but then there are a few retired greats included such as Ryne Sandberg, Rickey Henderson, and Ichiro as you can see from the above scan).  

I'm not going to attempt to go through each of the other sets that live within the Chronicles box - but just as a quick preview for you, here are some of the other cards we pulled:

Quite the smattering of designs - some quite nice and some can only best be described as "this should never be a standalone design."  I will say, you never quite know for sure what you'll get in each pack of 2021 Chronicles and I guess that counts for something.

Moving on to some of the "hits" of the box, let's start with a pair of Prism parallels:

I kind of like the design of the Overdrive set - definitely has a "Topps Chrome" vibe mixed with Miami beach.  

Next, we pulled two numbered parallels in our box.

The Ian Anderson is #220/299 while the Alex Kirilloff is #46/99.  Definitely nice pulls for the Braves and Twins, respectively.  

Finally, we get to the four promised hits.  Our box did, in fact, deliver the three promised autographs plus the relic.  Our first two autographs were of the rookie variety:

Both autographs are sticker autos which is kind of a bummer but at least each is on a decent card design.  That Taylor Trammell Black auto could be a good one in the future if Trammell ends up being as good as many teams (including the Reds) thought he'd be.

Our third autograph was arguably the hit of the entire box:

That's a lovely silver signature of Cristian Pache numbered 66/99 (and the autograph is on-card which is even better).  I love the colorful design on this one!

Finally, our lone relic of the box:

The relics are as thick as the regular base cards - and I guess it's a way to deter people from feeling up packs in an open box (in say a hobby shop) though I can't help but think most people would rather have one of the three autographs over the relic anyhow...but hey, what do I know?!

Overall, I give the 2021 Panini Chronicles box the following rating:

Set Design:  D-

Collation:  A

Opening Thrill:  C

Overall:  C-

For me, Panini Chronicles hurts almost every collecting bone in my body.  As someone who is a set collector first and foremost, the 20+ set mish-mash hurts my brain...and I can't even tell what (or how) one would actually collect this set.  That being said, there are certain sets within this mash-up that I like quite a bit (especially some of the acetate cards) but not enough for me to start collecting this stuff myself.  I think we did perfectly fine with our hits but I had to knock the "Opening Thrill" score quite a bit because for me each pack was more confusing than excitement.  

All that said, it was a fun inclusion for the group break (and perhaps my thoughts on this box would have been a bit more positive had it yielded even a single Reds card...but alas, Cincinnati was shutout within the box)!