If you've never seen these cards in person, you're missing out. By far one of the greatest sets to be put out in the last 30 years. 2010 Panini World Cup.
These cards, IF you can ever find them, aren't cheap. Thankfully I don't need too many more, having tackled it back in 2010 until the pack supply dried up. I was soooooooo hoping for another go for the 2014 World Cup, but Panini crapped the bed by putting out Prizm instead. Prizm is probably Panini's ugliest set across all sports. And the feetsball was no exception.

These country cards are so shiny. You could signal aircraft with these things.
 Cameroon
 North Korea
and Paraguay. My crappy scans don't show it well, but the country name is ghosted on the left side going from bottom to top.

 These next two are clear acetate cards. Two of the bigger stars I was missing. Thankfully Rooney, Ronaldo, and Messi are already tucked safely into my binder...

 I always wanted a son named Yaya.

 Wrapping up with two more base cards...


I was grateful to find a single seller with eight cards I needed. And even more grateful that he was having a sale. These set me back just under $9. His normal price was around $27. Yay sales!

I now need #'s 15, 27, 32, 34, 35, 46, 56, 88, 119, 153,

When I finish it, I'm scanning every page for posterity.

and to prepare ourselves, let's dive into a little Panini Prizm. You were probably expecting stickers... but I'm not quite done my book yet. Only about 65 to go.

So until then you get Prizm.

Back in 2010, Panini put out one of the best card sets of the modern era for the World Cup. I loved it. I never did finish the set because boxes and packs dried up so fast. (if you have any of those cards, hit me up... seriously. Here's a link to that rather sadly written post four years ago. LINK )

This World Cup? We get Prizm. (insert Price is Right fail horn here) On the plus side, they improved Prizm from the offerings found in baseball and hockey. And the autograph checklist is fantastic, Although it's unbelievably hard to pull one.

Here we go... Packs of 6 cards are $6, Hobby boxes have 24 packs of 6 cards and are $130. Hanger boxes are $20 and have 4 packs of 6 cards.

I bought a hanger box, and then did some old fashioned swapping to get a bunch of base cards from a couple of cracked hobby boxes.

The box... nothing special, and it didn't scan well either.

the wrapper. Did I mention you get 6 cards per pack?

The base. I grabbed a few of the Manchester United cards I had available. You're welcome.

Javier Hernandez. you may call him Chicharito.

Nani. Panini added some much need colour to Prizm, focusing on team colours.

Valencia! His play faltered when Rafael got hurt. This winger needs a fast right back to play behind him.

Mr Van Persie. Can the Dutch finally take it all?

The 'Fro.

He's not a United player, but just in case Dayf is still awake.

There are several insert sets included as well such as World Cup Stars.


Team cards. This insert is actually a parallel of an insert. It's a refractor prizm.


Of course there are also parallel sets to chase. In fact, every card, including inserts, have multiple parallel versions.
Here's a purple prizm

This is called a 'Red and Blue Blue Wave Prizm'. And no, I didn't stutter.

This is a Yellow and Red Pulsar Prism.

and of course the Red White and Blue Power Plaid Prizm.

(No, I did not make that up.)

In fact, let's see if I can name all of the insert sets and the parallels. Chime in if you think I missed any.

Base set (201 cards)

Insert sets...

Aerial Assault
Cup Captains
Eusebio Tribute
Fuleco Tribute
Fans of the Game
guardians
Net Finders
Signatures
Combo Signatures
World Cup Match Ups
Team Photos
World Cup Posters
World Cup Stars

Now... I'd say 90% of those cards also comes in all of these parallels.

Base
Prizms
Black Prizm
Blue Prizm
Red and Blue Blue Wave Prizm
Purple Prizm
Gold Prizm
Gold Power Prizms
Green Crystal Prizms
Red Prizms
Yellow and Red Pulsar Prizms
Red White and Blue Power Plaid Prizms


Yikes. Good luck building THAT master set.

19 days and counting........

 Yes. Serbia. I'm going to the ends of the Earth to finish this damn book before the end of 2010. Nice of them to stop the war long enough to swap stickers.
Some of the stickers that came trans-Atlantic were Brasil,
 one of the greats to ever play the game, now sadly past his prime, Ronaldinho..
 Mr Higuain, looking more Greek than Argentinian...
 and German keeper Rene Adler. I post Mr Adler for the oddity that in the 2010 World Cup, Germany played two keepers. Panini oddly put two keepers in the German team set, when most countries only got one.
But the two keepers Panini included did not play at all. So we ended up with stickers of two keepers who didn't play, and no stickers of the two that did.
What are the odds?

Now with the help of my LCS (four stickers) and after a trade arrives from a fellow blogger, giving me two more stickers towards my goal, I will be down to needing TWO stickers to complete this set.

#36 and #259.

Somebody, anybody, please help.

it's odd how some phrases can mean totally different things depending on their context. This is one of those.
When I jumped up at my dining room table and yelled, "I've got Kaka!!!", at least a dozen of you would know instantly what I was talking about and been happy for me.
My wife, on the otherhand, took my jubulant phrase in a different direction, and gave me an according look.
Those of you who tried to build Panini's Virtual Sticker Book online during the World Cup know of what I speak. I can think of at least 9 guys who needed the Brazillian star as the LAST player to complete their make believe sticker book, myself included.
Fast forward to the real world, and Voila!
In fact, not only did I receive Kaka, I ended up with double Kaka. So if any of you still collecting need Kaka, I'm your guy.
I wonder if I just set the record for most mention of the name Kaka in one post.....


Kaka.

Just because the World Cup is over for another four years... doesn't mean the collecting and trading should stop.
Check out my wantlists, I'm down to just over 200 needed for this set, and I'm not giving up.
I've got doubles... let's swap.

At the last trade night at my lcs, one of the main reasons I went was to grab some more sticker packs of Panini's 2010 World Cup set. Aside from the 10 packs of those, I also grabbed a box of this...
Not stickers, actual cards. I wasn't going to do it... I had resisted it the last time I was there... but someone else bought a box and broke it right then and there. After seeing all those cards, I was hooked.

The details - 36 packs per box. 6 cards per pack. 4 base cards and 2 sp's. Now the sp's come in four different forms. The first is a shiny foilboard team logo found one per pack. The sixth card of the pack could be one of three varieties, all featuring star players. A shiny foilboard version, a glitzy, 3D relief style card, or a clear acetate card.

Unfortunately, my scanner does not do any of these cards justice. they are amazing looking cards.
Card #1 - The Header card
What it's all about....

my latest additions come from two ebay sellers in England and France. That right there should let you know I'm not talking about Adam LaRoche.

Scanning ebayUK I was able to find a few new Edwin van der Sar cards for my collection. Now most of you may not be very familiar with Mr. van der Sar. Well he's a football player. Soccer to you Yanks. He's a Keeper really. An outstanding one. (That's what they call goalies) Think Patrick Roy and Martin Brodeur all rolled up into one 6'6" goofy Dutchman. Awesome.

The first five new cards are actually stickers. From Panini. You may have heard of them. They've been in the news lately. Well, this is what made them famous and rich. Well, actually wealthy. Not rich. There is a big difference. Like Chris Rock says, Kobe is rich. The white dude who signs his cheques, he's wealthy. Anyways...