2011 Sage High and Low Series

Press Pass and Sage are two products many collectors ignore. I collect LSU players and these products are usually a must for me even if I just decide to buy singles. Losing the NCAA license hurt Press Pass dramatically this year - how will Sage fare?

Price Paid: $55.99 for low $79.95 for high
Sale Value (on ebay): Low: $21 High: $45

Design: The base cards in Sage are normally very forgettable, but easy to collect since there are just 40. The same rings true this year. The last time I remember liking the base for Sage was 2006 and this year's isn't bad per se, but it's very vanilla. There is giant position text, giant name text, and a giant weird looking football player logo in the background. All anyone cares about in this product are the auto cards anyways. If you are familiar with Sage, you are used to the giant stickers. They don't bother me - what bothers me is how busy the cards are and how poor some of the photography is. The design is a bit too much for my taste with the big steaks on the side with a caged looking design. Furthermore, two of the three main inserts are awful. The write stuff looks like a bunch of yellow vomit with a portrait of the player on the right and the Big Time cards are embarrassing. Big Heads are not cool. Period. Score may be able to pass something like that because it is kid-friendly - Sage should not be doing this. Also, the Make Ready inserts are so god-awful is makes my head hurt. They are printing plates /50 that just look like a giant piss stain on cardboard. All of that being said, I've seen worse and the Artistry set is very nice looking with professional design and nice action shots. 2.5/5

Checklist: It is pretty weak for the low series. I counted 9 players I would be happy to pull out of the 40 listed. I would also immediately sell any autograph from Big Time or the Write Stuff. What is sad is there are only 7 players I would be happy pulling from the High series. The price is simply high due to the fact that Cam Newton is included (the 10 autographs is cool too, but the checklist has tons of commons). 2/5

Fun: Sage is always a fun break because it contains 30 packs and lots of autographs. One out of every three high series pack will have an auto and one out of every five low series will contain an auto. Other than that, there are tacky silver/gold parallels and some odd looking inserts. The fun solely relies on the autographed cards which about 80% are commons. 3/5

What I got:
Low:
Two make ready inserts
Scotty McKnight Silver auto
Torrey Smith silver Auto
Stephen Skelton Silver Auto
Jeremy Kerley Red Auto
Rahim Moore Silver Auto
Jerrel Jernigan Red Auto

High:
Two make ready inserts
Austin Pettis Auto /250
Ricky Stanzi Big Time Auto /100
Taiwan Jones Silver Auto
Aldon Smith Red Auto
Marcus Gilchrist Silver Auto
James Cleveland Red Auto
TJ Yates Gold Auto /250
Curtis Brown Silver auto
Jamie Harper Gold auto /250
Drake Nevis Silver auto


Overall/Value: These are about average as far as value. There is potential for some nice autographs; however, the majority of the break will always be commons. These prices won't last as more products are coming out and the value will only increase if one of the UDFA guys included performs well. The price tages are still about $15 too high for this to be worth your time. 2.5/5

My Break/Tilt: The low series was complete garbage and the high series was tolerable. I do not want to keep any cards I pulled except the Newton artistry card. These products are forgettable and Sage needs to step it up for anyone to take them seriously anymore. 2/5

Overall: 12/25 F-