The complete set of football cards isn't extinct, but it's definitely an endangered species. That makes 2006 NFL Playoffs Football by Donruss Playoff a creative endeavor for today's market: 150 football cards sold only as a complete set in a metal tin. There's also a bonus pack of five cards that includes four regular parallels and an autographed parallel.
Base Cards
The NFL Playoffs base set consists of 70 veterans and 80 2006 rookies. The card design is simple, with the player picture on the left side, a bit of team color at the bottom with the player information and the team logo and player number on the right. It's a clean design, but the abundance of empty space makes the cards feel a little unfinished.
With so many rookies, just about every first year player of any note was included, and they're all pictured in their NFL uniforms. Getting every rookie in every set is both a strength and a weakness: collectors will be happy to know they're guaranteed to get Reggie Bush, Vince Young and all their classmates, but they can be almost as certain the cards won't be highly valued on the secondary market.
My review tin was missing card 1, but I haven't heard of many problems with the sets, so I assume that this was an isolated error instead of a widespread problem.
Autographed Cards
The bonus pack holds the autographed card, which comes from the Signature Proofs parallel set. All but two of the 150 base cards have an autographed version, and in a nice twist on many football card products, the rookie signatures are all numbered to the same amount. My box produced a Signature Proof of former LSU wide receiver Skyler Green, numbered 121/150.
Some tins contain a Signature Materials Proofs card instead, which have an autograph and a memorabilia swatch. Both groups of autographed parallels have silver, gold and platinum versions numbered to varying quantities.
Parallel Cards
Four other parallel cards are also found in the bonus pack, including at least one rookie parallel. The first level is the NFL Playoffs parallel, unnumbered cards with a red foil logo in the upper left corner. There are also Silver, Gold and Platinum Proofs for all 150 base cards numbered between 1 and 250.
My review box produced two NFL Playoffs parallels - Brett Favre and rookie Jerious Norwood - a Silver Proof of rookie Domenik Hixon numbered to 250 and a Gold Proof of Drew Bennett numbered to 100.
The Last Word
Donruss Playoff deserves credit for doing something different with NFL Playoffs and selling it as a complete set. For collectors looking for an affordable way to get true rookie cards in one easy swoop, it's especially nice.
The bonus pack is also nice and adds a little perceived value, but there doesn't seem to be much point to making multiple parallel versions of cards that aren't sold by the pack. All of those factors add up to make NFL Playoffs a decent if not terribly exciting addition to the Donruss Playoff football card family.