Over the last few months the twitter algorithm has been showing me Sports Cards and it’s got me interested. I’m coming from playing Sorare, where digital sports cards are collected and used to play fantasy sports games. But, I’ve collected and played TCGs like Magic the Gathering previously so spending lots of money on pieces of cardboard is nothing new!
Based in the UK we don’t have access to the wide variety of packs you can find in Walmart and Target. The long running Tops Match Attax cards are the most commonly available cards. Panini’s Adrenalyn cards are also widely available. Both are game based trading cards that can be widely found in newsagents and supermarkets. Otherwise Panini Score the only thing I could find on the High Street, available from Game.
I ended up going with Panini Score. I like the clean design without any game stats on the front of the card more than the alternative. As a Newcastle fan, if I want any of their cards I need a Premier League set rather than UEFA. So that put Match Attax cards off the board immediately.
The Panini Score pack is pretty affordable at £3 a pack from GAME, so I grabbed 5 packs to test the waters. Each pack contains 10 cards, one of which will be a non-base card on average.
The Cards
In the very first pack I opened I found this #/199 Autographed Sol Campbell card. Looking into the pack odds, this was an absurd long-shot to find! I’m really chuffed with this one and as first auto’d card in my first ever pack I think this will be a card I’ll keep forever.
In the fifth and final pack, I opened this #/45 Bernardo Silva pink swirl parallel. As a key part of Man City’s treble winning team and with him potentially moving on this summer he’s a really fun card to get! The swirl effect is a pretty cool variant, whilst keeping the overall clean card design.
There was a bunch of other cool cards across the packs including base rookie cards for a couple of South American forwards, Brighton’s Julio Enciso and Manchester City’s Julian Alvarez. I also found a non-numbered Rodri silver swirl parallel. Plus some fun inserts including a nice Marcus Rashford ‘Score Team’ card and ‘Breakthrough’ cards for Marc Guehi and Julian Alvarez.
Beyond those there was a variety of nice base cards including and Erling Haaland card. There wasn’t much in the way of Newcastle cards unfortunately. Chris Wood, who has already moved on to Nottingham Forest, was the only one I found in these packs.
The Verdict
Getting an autographed card at the first chance was really cool and, honestly, I think I have the bug already! I’ll definitely pick up some more Panini Score packs to open now and then. I’ll also have a deeper look into what is available in the UK, either from physical stores or online.
I’d love to see to your best cards, favourite sets to collect and best places to get cards in UK on what to buy next. Drop a reply in the comments below or message me on Twitter @thinkingfantasy
Thinking Fantasy 
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