I have to admit, when I saw the redesign of the Absolute RPM cards from the preview, I was intrigued. Panini was finally taking steps to go the right direction with cards that have been horribly outdated and ugly for years. Not only are the cards scheduled to be done hard signed, but they switched to a more signature friendly horizontal orientation. Yes, that part of this stale product was fresh.
Then we see yesterday that Panini has posted routing table previews from the other parts of the set, and all I see is exactly what they release in every other set. Although the pack format is 1 hit per pack, more times than not, you are going to end up with an RPA, a crap jersey card, a scrub auto and one other card that is usually not much better.
On top of that, we also see that we are going to have many more cards that look oddly composed, boring and missing a sticker when it is not an auto parallel. Bascially Absolute is going to have one part of the set that is vastly improved (but still not at top level), and the rest of it at the normal awful standards set by most of their previous product. Tons of rainbow foil, condition sensitive cards, and veteran sticker autos in a higher end product.
To see what I am saying, realize that all of the previews below have places for both the sticker and the swatch. Because of the way Panini horrendously approaches production, for the plain jersey and patch parallels, they just remove the sticker. They do not change the overlay of the card. Take away the sticker spot and you will see that the cards look ridiculously incomplete. Like someone forgot to put on the sticker.
I have not bought a single out of Absolute since 2007, and I don’t think I am going to start this year. At least some parts will be better, but most of it will just be same shit, different day.
Funny you mention “condition-sensitive” since your beloved Inception seems to have major edge and corner issues!
Overall I agree with your assessment, but I was wondering…did you ask any of the Panini people at the NSCC to justify why they design in ‘reverse’? I am sure they see your point, but there must be a reason (cost?) why they do not re-arrange based on card content.
It just seems to me that every Panini product gets the same criticism, but nobody has tried to find a reason why.
Surprised you didn’t comment on the “helmets off” war room card pics. Those are usually a cool card in the set…this year, not so much. Might as well set them on an awkward looking staircase while they stare deeply into your eyes. I mean the card says “WAR ROOM” key work WAR, what part of that card makes you think WAR.
Panini has to know and I think it has less to do with cost and more to do with simple laziness. Last years National Treasures has to be the worst of the lot and regardless of the cost on a high-end product like that, they should have fixed the problem. Until the sales of a product actually are affected then there is no reason to change anything and collectors seem to take whatever is given to them in their lust to open new product.