On their blog yesterday, Panini released the first live images from Gridiron Gear football, due out in the next few weeks. After the failures to build on the brand in both 2008 and 2009, many people were surprised to see this set make a return after EPIX seemed to take its place. After seeing previews for the cards a few months ago, I was optimistic as to the possiblilities that could come from this product after two long years of utter fails. Well, as they have with just about every product this year, this set is a melty sundae of horrendousness topped with a few sprinkles of good looking cards placed sporadically through the whole thing.
Starting with the focus of this set, the rookie gridiron gems, they actually had a good concept for the first time in a long time. No foil, nice and simple background, good possibility to fit everything on the face of the card and make it look like it goes with the overall design. In fact, the only thing they needed to do was NOT parallel the shit out of the cards, and every single one of them would look fine. As usual, instead of filling out the set with cards of multiple subsets, they just created fifty different parallels of each, 90% of them looking incomplete as a final product. Lets run through this, just for those of you that are unfamiliar.
Each rookie gridiron gem has multiple parallels – here they are:
1. base single jersey
2. base single patch
3. base single jersey auto
4. base single patch auto
5. dual jersey/football
6. dual patch
7. dual jersey/football auto
8. dual patch auto
9. triple jersey/football/jersey
10. triple patch/football/patch
11. triple jersey/football/jersey auto
12. triple patch football/patch auto
13. dual logo/tag patch
14. dual logo/tag patch auto
15. gridiron gems pull out auto
Fifteen parallels (off the top of my head) of every rookie present at the premiere, most numbered into the hundreds. So, when you consider that players like Marcus Easley are going to have close to 1000 different cards you could pull to destroy your box hopes, it makes you kind of worried. Secondly look at how many of those cards use event used football swatches. Seriously, they have over 5,000 cards with pieces of ball cut up after being tossed for two throws at a rookie event. What. A. Disaster.
Lastly, for the rookie gridiron gems, all cards without the requisite Panini sticker auto, the swatches were NOT adjusted on the card to adapt for the lack of an autograph. Well, it takes time and effort to do that, so I guess im not surprised that Panini opted for shitty incomplete looking cards instead of parallels that actually look done correctly.
In fact, this set is so packed with stickerless jersey cards with floating swatch windows that its hard to see that the autographed cards look pretty good with few exceptions. I honestly do not understand how someone could look at one of the single jersey cards, see that there is a huge empty space below it where the autograph would be if they had pulled the more valuable parallel, and like them.
I also see that Panini found it necessary to use the played-out plastic helmet autographs for their third set this year. Yes, they are so lazy in their design that there are card types used in more than one product per year. Manu-patch autos? Five sets per year. Plastic Helmet autos? Three plus sets per year. It goes on and on. I will never hesistate to admit that Upper Deck made some unforgivable mistakes in some of the products they released, but those unforgivable mistakes were one and done. Once the complaint was lodged, the cards were gone. Panini builds their brands around ridiculous mistakes that come back year after year.
Also, why has the word “orientation” become such a buzzword for Panini? Its like they feel like they are being slick by incorporating that most freshmen in college go to some sort of oreintation to learn about their new situation. Guess what, though? Orientations are boring, and this buzzword is completely stupid. When Panini has already had a stupid subset called “freshmen orientation” this becomes overkill to the Nth degree.
When all is said and done, Gridiron Gear is nothing more than one of the four hits, 1 auto, $90 bucks per box products that blur together in the middle of the year. It’s a complete slap in the face to the collectors that buy, and I for one am beyond tired of these practices. I get that floating swatch windows and rehashed card designs save money for the manufacturer, but they damage the overall quality of the cards in the hobby. Its time to say that more time and more effort benefits more than saving a few bucks here and there.
Here are some of the images:
Some of the cards look good, but like you said most look incomplete without the auto. They should use the same concept, but different layout for the jersey’s and the autos so the jerseys don’t look like someone forgot the auto. But it does look better than all the other panini stuff so far.
From what I see, some cards do indeed look good. There are too many incomplete cards though. This is really the same old boring rehashed panini card set.
I love the people on that site that suck up to Hackler. That product sucks and they know it. Please cardboard gods strike down those who make incomplete cards. The pull out jersey thing can be a cool element but its handled terribly. New flash no collector wants event used anything anymore with the possible exception of all star and pro bowl mem.
Way to keep the positivity going. Happy Holidays, gents.
What if we feel that there is very little to be positive about? Its obvious that some of the cards will look good, but the majority of the others fail where many of the previous products have failed. That is where the negativity stems from. Its the same mistakes over and over and over and over again.
Tracy, interesting that you are the only one paid to keep things positive.
A lack of positivity isn’t keep the card industry from declining, its a lack of innovation. Free markets would definately help to restore some momentum but we could really use a healthy dose of card companies listening to the customers instead of dismissing nay sayers as pessimistic blowhards.