I had no idea that Totally Certified was even coming out this week, and yet, there it was showing up on the doorstep of my local shop last Friday. When that is the amount of buzz around a product, I can easily say that it is NOT worth putting out. Then after watching about 3 boxes broken in front of me, it became painfully clear why there has been absolutely no hype behind it. There are intrinsic issues with every aspect of the product, and I actually chose to break some Press Pass over the utter junk that makes up this lame duck.

First, the evidence:

Cam Newton Gold Patch Auto RC – One of these per box, still using premiere photos. Awful looking.

Starr/Hornung/Gregg/Jordan Quad Jersey – Not even sure why a card like this would be produced.

Mark Ingram Jumbo Jersey – One of these per box. Game photos on these, but not the main box hits?

Dan Marino Jersey Card – 4 out of 6 hits are cards like this. 120 bucks for a box. Wow.

Design

Everyone and their mothers know how little respect I have for the design team at Panini. The lack of creativity, effort, concept and theme in their products is about as respectable as Tim Tebow’s ability to throw the football. Its that bad. Totally Certified is plagued top to bottom by boredom, both in the way the cards are designed, and the way the set is structured. Every card looks basically the same, and my eyelids were quite heavy when the packs were done being ripped. It was crazy to believe that Panini green lighted this set based on post-release hype of the basketball sister set, as most of it was driven by a few overseas collectors with deep pockets, trying to put together a rare set. That is poor connection to the true reason why a set is popular.

Card Stock

Aside from being ridiculously condition sensitive, the foil stock they printed this product on is hideous. I get that this hearkens back to the late 1990s, but seriously, there is a reason the manufacturers stopped making cards like this. After about 30 minutes of staring at the results of the box breaks, my eyes hurt. Actual pain.

Release Date

If there was no “non-totally” Certified, than this might be more welcome on the calendar. I still dont get what makes something “Totally” certified instead of just “regular” certified. However, that isnt the biggest problem, as insane as that sounds. When a product like this is released in late March, I have to laugh. Its like there was an open slot on the calendar they couldnt fill, and this was the only idea they had. This is a borderline September product, maybe even pre-draft, as it is one of the worst products this year. Panini fails to realize they are so late on the 2011 draft class, that many of the collectors give a ho-hum reaction when other 2012 products like Leaf have already made a splash.

Being the hype machine that Panini is, it should scare people when they barely talk about a product. These dogs, like Timeless Treasures and Gold Standard, have become the norm for these guys, and that is not okay. They can say all they want about product improvement at the industry summit, but ill believe it when I see it.