In the spirit of the Super Bowl this weekend, I wanted to write a special Android App Review. Sports card manufacturers Topps and Panini have both released mobile NFL trading card apps. Not only that, but they also incorporated fantasy sports competitions into them. Since they both want to eat your money, having a side by side comparison could be helpful.

OVERVIEW

Both apps have a lot of similarities and are free to play friendly with numerous ways to earn coins or cards. They do a good job at scratching the card collecting itch I remember from my childhood, they are officially licensed by the NFL and NFLPA and have different rarities and inserts just like physical playing cards.

They also both have average reviews in the app store, 3.6 for Topps and 3.4 for Panini. This is mainly due to the number of issues both apps have.

Topps is horribly laggy on my tablet. While it doesn’t crash, it takes a while for anything to happen. It works much better on my cell phone. Panini works fairly well on my tablet as long as my internet connection is stable. Connection flickers tend to cause the games, or even the app, to crash. Unfortunately Card Hunter, the Pokemon Go like augmented reality game, is virtually unusable on my phone.

From a fantasy sports perspective, I prefer Topps. From a fun app perspective, I prefer Panini.

FREEBIES

To me, second only to fun, the most important thing about mobile apps is what you can do for free. I’m happy to pay for a game, but I don’t want to be plagued by micro-transactions to accomplish anything. For both games in the two weeks preceding the Super Bowl I was able to earn enough cards to compete in their fantasy contests. They are both fairly generous.

During the day Topps will regularly reward me free packs. The interval between them gets longer as you receive more, but resets eventually. When I first login each day, I receive a daily login bonus of 10,000 coins (more after a week of logins) and XP. I also receive one pack immediately. I’ll receive a second two minutes after that, a third ten minutes later, a fourth thirty minutes later, and a fifth after an hour. The cards are usually “base” junk but they still help with the fantasy game. You also receive a card for leveling up, and can receive cards as rewards for complete sets and such. The coins will typically allow me to buy somewhere between 5 and 15 cards.

Panini has many more options to earn coins but is both more and less generous with respect to earning packs. A week’s worth of logging in will earn 3400 coins. That’s 30+ cards, depending on the type of packs you purchase. You also earn a free pack of all rare cards as well as 250 coins every four hours. You can earn more cards and coins through the games and daily quests. Unfortunately you are spending a lot of time waiting if you aren’t willing to pay to play games and a lot of contests have entry fees.

PAID BENEFITS

Both games offer benefits to people who actually spend money. For Topps you get access to better card packs and some cards are only available for real money. For Panini you gain access to the VIP shop which gives better packs at cheaper prices as well as access to more stuff. In Panini’s app you can win free VIP access which makes it more free to play friendly.

TRADING AND SELLING

Both games have fairly active trading communities. I haven’t participated myself because the sheer number of cards makes it feel fairly unwieldy, but you can regularly see people posting offers and requests.

Topps strictly forbids selling cards for real money. Despite that you fairly regularly see requests to sell or seeing people requesting cards from their other sport apps. I personally wouldn’t take the chance unless I had a secondary trading account. Panini allows you to sell cards for coins but also doesn’t allow selling for real money. Still it's an improvement over Topps. I would gladly dump all my duplicates on the market.

GAMES AND PRIZE WHEEL

Panini wins hands down for games. The only thing Topps currently has is the Prize Wheel. They used to have a game called “Fusion” but I have no idea what that is. Their Baseball and Soccer card apps have a guessing game similar to Panini’s Mystery Box, but Topps’ prizes pale in comparison.

PACK BATTLE

Pack Battle is a player vs player card playing game. Each person secretly opens a pack of cards and the players see who has the “better” card. The person who plays first, places a card and chooses two stats from it to determine their power. The other player is then told what stats are being used and has to try and play a card with a higher power. Winner keeps the card they played while the loser of the round gets nothing. It's a good way to pick and choose cards to keep. You can play this hourly for free.

CARD HUNTER

This is Pokemon GO football card style. Cards spawn at different real world locations. You need to use sleeves to capture common cards or hard cases to capture rare inserts. Its straightforward and lets you get free cards. Plenty of cards spawn within range of my own home so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding some.

MYSTERY BOX

This is a game of chicken. Each round you are presented four boxes to choose from. One of these makes you lose (or pay to continue), the others have various prizes consisting of card sleeves, coins, packs or free VIP access. The longer you go, the better the prizes get, but if you run out of coins to continue you lose everything. Unless I earn a lot of coins while playing, I quit after my third continue. You get one free, the second costs 375 coins, the third costs 1000, and the fourth costs 2000. You can get some great stuff, and the prizes are usually good even when you are cautious. Unfortunately you can only play this once a day for free.

PRIZE WHEEL

Both games have a prize wheel. Panini’s just showed up today, either because I hit level 15 or because they just added it. From what I’ve seen so far, Panini’s is superior to Topps.

The Topps wheel is straight forward, it has eight slots of cards and each spin earns you one of them. Future spins will skip already claimed cards and the wheel resets daily. In order to spin you spend energy which you earn at a rate of one point every twenty minutes. The price to spin increases with each spin, starting at three before increasing to six then nine and eventually fifteen.

The Panini wheel also has eight slots, though the prizes are a mix between special cards, coins, and sleeves for the Card Hunter game. You earn extra spins over time, and each prize you win is immediately replaced. You can buy more spins for 2000 coins but at this point that doesn’t seem worthwhile. The coins you earn for free certainly help build your collection.

CONTESTS

Both apps have distinct fantasy sport approaches. I like Topps’ approach a lot more as its more interactive and free. There will be multiple contests open at a time, for the Super Bowl there are three. Assuming the same approach as their Hockey and Soccer apps, there would likely be daily contests and weekly contests during the regular season.

When you enter the contest, you assemble a team of eligible players. In the case of the Super Bowl, you can choose any player from the 49ers or Chiefs. Their actual position doesn't matter, any played from the teams is permitted. Each card will score points depending on their performance and that value will be multiplied based on the card's rarity. Typically the rarer a card the more points it will score. The best part of the contests is that you have a set number (or infinite in some cases) of plays each game. As you watch the game live you can adjust your players to reflect what’s really happening. Depending on how well you do you will win cards or XP.

Panini also has multiple contests to enter, each with different costs and prizes. You can win physical cards in some cases, but there are a lot fewer winners selected compared to Topps. Panini is much stricter about your entry, you need to build a proper team of eligible players. Though the players can come from either team, they must be assigned to the correct position. You are essentially choosing which player from either team you expect to perform best in a given position. Once the game begins, your entry is locked and you can no longer change it. Like the Topps version, each card has a different multiplier which will impact the score.

If you are a serious competitor and collector then Panini’s approach may be more to your liking. If you want to actively participate and receive consolation prizes, then Topps is better suited to your needs.

THE END

That’s it! Both apps have their strengths are weaknesses and I suggest trying them both to see which suits your needs better. If you are looking to spend money though, I’d wait for the crypto equivalent to come out.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Let me know what you think of each app and feel free to message me about trades. My username in both is VERYAN.

---

All images are screenshots from their respective apps