In previous years, Prestige has functioned as the curtain jerk on a card year by being the first post draft NFL licensed product. This year, Panini has postponed the release so far, that it almost seems as though it should be held to expectations of the products done after the rookie premiere. Luckily for Panini, the product’s design is so vastly improved over last year, that it almost shines past the prestige name. It still lacks a bit of pizzazz in a lot of areas, but those areas are not the main focus of the product.
The first cards and autographs have been posted on eBay, including the first of Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin.
2012 Prestige Robert Griffin III RC and RC /999
I really think that there are some people at Panini that have no idea what they are doing. Actually, I think there may be a lot of people. I still have zero clue why they have such an obsession with the rookies posed for pictures like they are amateur models, and yet they are all over so many of their products. Panini had the rookie premiere shots to use for just about every card in this set, with the exception of the cards signed during the event, and yet we still get these goofy and somewhat creepy shots of the rookies looking thuggish.
The draft variations are back for the third year in a row, and I like the idea of including the SSP cards in a lower end product like this. It gives a lot of reason to look through all the cards, and also gives the top rookies more cards to have in packs. I think they have dropped in value significantly since being included one per box instead of case, but we will still need to see how rare they are for this year.
Additionally, Panini definitely made the right call waiting for the premiere’s photography on the base cards, as the retouched photos do not look as sharp as the real thing. The banner style design works really well with the team colors in the card, and they also AVOIDED the big white box behind the stickers for the first time in years. Overall, these rookie cards look great, and I think that Prestige is on the up and up. Now, if we can get this kind of quality in late may instead of late june, we might have something.
I am going to buy a box or two of this, just because I am starved for NFL licensed cards. If I am making the choice between Inception and this, I still choose inception, but this design makes the decision a bit more difficult. That’s saying something for Prestige, even though it still has a lot of missed potential.
Here are some other cards that have been posted:
2012 Prestige Justin Blackmon RC
These look awesome! Massive improvement from last yrs debacle.
For all the crap that Panini has rightfully gotten over the past few years, they deserve a TON of credit for this inclusion in 2012 Prestige: http://paniniamerica.wordpress.com/2012/06/27/panini-america-honors-eric-legrand-with-special-card-in-2012-prestige-football/
From a Rutgers graduate and season ticket holder, big props to Panini for this one.
I assume that a percentage of the profit made by Panini will be used to fund medical research in honor of Eric.
What’s that? Nothing? oh.