If you have been reading this site over the last few months, you already know my feelings on 2012 Prizm. Aside from the fact that I cant understand why it is named Prizm with a “Z” instead of Prism the way its supposed to be spelled, every card I see, makes me think this is just going to be a Chrome knock off. Poor design, poor concept and lack of on card autos will forever make this product second fiddle to the best of the best, and I fail to see the appeal long term.

Prizm has gone live on eBay today, but I honestly see a lot more fun in SP Authentic to be honest. The big white boxes behind autographs that obscure the bottom of the card look awful, and it looks to be a miracle to pull anything worth the price tag now gracing the box. I have also gotten early reports from case breakers that there are significant amounts of redemptions, as there have been in a lot of the recent Panini products.

Here are the cards:

2012 Prizm John Elway Gold Prizm Insert 7/10 – Why an insert /10 like this would come even close to this ridiculous price is insane to me.

2012 Prizm Robert Griffin III Auto RC /99

2012 Prizm Russell Wilson Auto RC /99

2012 Prizm Andrew Luck Insert RC

2012 Prizm Patrick Willis Auto /25

2012 Prizm Brandon Pettigrew Auto /49

Bottom line, I am wholly unimpressed by the way this product has been created. Because its occupying a space that is already occupied by one of the best sets of the year, I really wanted it to be a true competitor. It isnt. I at least wanted it to drive some sort of unique content that is unavailable anywhere else. It doesnt. This product is Panini doing their best to copy what Topps has already done, and they didnt even do it well.

Collectors have already started to assign value to this stuff because of basketball, but I will continue to loud the fact that basketball is a completely different market. Additionally, many of the basketball boxes were complete duds, and were difficult to win without pulling a RARE parallel. Football will be much worse when your auto is this guy and your red parallel is Phillip Rivers. That is a hard sell at 120 bucks a box.

Today, I retweeted the top boxes in terms of 2012 football products current cost above factory cost from Dealer Net, and it should come as no surprise that Topps is miles ahead of Panini. Not only that, but Panini isnt even a close second, as both Leaf and Upper Deck have had much more success. They try to run a hype train behind their products, but most of the time nothing measures up. With Contenders frequent delays and National Treasures getting serious competition, I wonder what they are thinking with some of these decisions. I mean, do we really need a second Chrome, or even a second Certified for that matter?