Toward the beginning of the decade, Leaf Certified Materials Football's claim to fame was having the largest set of memorabilia cards in the hobby, Fabric of the Game. Other brands have closed the gap, but Certified still packs a powerful game-used punch, and its Freshman Fabric rookie cards help add more value.
Hobby boxes of 2008 Leaf Certified Materials Football hold 10 packs of five cards each. Four memorabilia or autographed cards should be found in each box, with at least one Freshman Fabric rookie card among them.
Base Cards and Parallels
Leaf Certified offers a four-part base set, with memorabilia cards making up two of the tiers. Leading off are 150 NFL veterans, allowing for slightly wider player selection than most other Donruss products. The design sets the player photo against a foil background that looks slightly reminiscent of a cattle skull, with foil team logos at the bottom and the player name at the top.
The next base cards are New Generation rookies, which use the same layout as the veterans but are numbered to 1500. The Mirror parallel system used in previous seasons is back again, with five different colors (reflected in the foil color in the "skull") ranging from Red (limited to 100 copies) to Black (1-of-1). The New Generation rookie cards also have autographed parallels numbered to 999.
Freshman Fabric rookie cards cover 34 2008 newcomers, most of whom are top picks. These cards are numbered to 699 and feature oversized jersey swatches cut from event-worn jerseys. They also have Mirror parallels which utilize different combinations of multiple swatches, prime swatches and autographs.
The final subset is called Immortals, and it lives up to the name with game-used cards of 21 NFL legends numbered to 100. Johnny Unitas, Emmitt Smith and Walter Payton are just a few of the featured athletes.
I opened a random hobby box to review and found cards from three of the four subsets. I pulled 45 commons, one New Generation rookie, a Mirror Blue New Generation Jordan Dizon numbered to 50, and a Freshman Fabric Steve Slaton.
Memorabilia Cards
Fabric of the Game game-used cards are still a big part of the Leaf Certified blueprint, and they can be found in a total of 17 different varieties for 2008. Among the twists Donruss employs are die-cut windows shaped like team logos, position abbreviations and jersey numbers, game-worn college jersey swatches and a number of patch pieces.
All of the cards are numbered to 100 or less, with some as low as five copies. The overall Fabric set has a checklist of 125 current and retired players, with 34 rookies getting their own College Fabric of the Game cards.
Other memorabilia cards are parallel versions of inserts like Certified Skills, Gold Team and Certified Potential. The first two sets focus on some of today's best NFL players, while the last is devoted to 2008 rookies.
The About.com sample box produced a Fabric of the Game card of former Dallas Cowboy Bob Lilly with an NFL die-cut, numbered to 50. Also inside was a Certified Potential Materials card of Kansas City Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles.
Autographed Cards
The standout autographed cards in this year's set are called Souvenir Signature Stamps. Actual U.S. postage stamps of several varieties are incorporated into the cards along with on-card signatures from just over 30 of this season's rookies, which aren't found in too man Donruss products. They aren't the first football cards to use stamps, but they are some of the nicest looking ones so far.
More rookie autographs can be found in Certified Potential Signatures, including the card I found in my review box: a Darren McFadden autograph numbered to 50.
The Last Word
Leaf Certified offers similar content to some other brands in the Donruss football lineup, but its theming and overall design aren't quite as strong. There are some cool tweaks for this season though, and the Freshman Fabric rookies are probably the best yet.
One other nice thing is that with four hits in only ten packs, there's some good value to be had buying by the pack as well as the box. Look for packs to run around $10, with boxes selling in the $75 to $90 range.