The first post-premiere product of the year in 2013 Prestige is live now, and much to my anticipation it is not meeting what I felt was a FAAAAAAAR superior product in 2012. I think the design has been drastically downgraded, and though micro-etched cards are making their debut in this set outside of Totally Certified, it doesnt add all that much. I just cant get past the way the cards look.

2013 Prestige Geno Smith On Card Passport Auto – Gross, just gross.

2013 Prestige Jonathan Franklin Auto RC – Why foil?

2013 Prestige EJ Manuel Draft Destinations Auto

2013 Prestige Eddie Lacy Draft Destinations On Card Auto

2013 Prestige Tavon Austin Draft Tickets Auto On Card

As I have said on numerous occasions, 2012 Prestige was one of the best looking products of the year on the Panini side. The rookie cards and rookie autos were done EXACTLY the way they should be, and when the design was ditched for 2013, they replaced it with a bunch of needless foil and more needlessly enormous text.

Similarly, the on card autos from 2012 were actually not bad, with a few exceptions, and this year, they seem to have fallen in quality significantly. The photoshop work to get the player’s college pics into an NFL Uniform was a complete fail, as its obvious they were rushed and poorly executed. Everything from the numbers to the helmets and the collars look horrid, and it takes away from the overall aesthetics of the card.

Let me clue you into one of the worst parts of this entire product, and it is really something that might be a decision so derpy, that it has no logical explanation. For years, Panini has put base RC variations into their set, depicting shots from the draft. This makes sense, as I understand why they would want to highlight them on stage during the biggest moment of their life. There are a few of those this year as well, but Panini added another variation for players NOT at the draft. Despite having ACTUAL photos from the rookie premiere of the players wearing their NFL uniforms for real, they stupidly decided to use the poorly photoshopped and retouched college pics that were used for a lot of the other cards in the set.

Yes, you heard that right. Why use the real thing when you can show the lack of skills your design team has in retouching cards? This is just beyond my understanding. To see that they also inexplicably decided to use these same pictures for insert sets that had potential to use shots from the premiere, makes this even more inexcusable. What a joke! Why even have the premiere if you are going to opt for this type of crap?

Against my better judgement, and for reasons I cant explain (Im too excited for 2013 football, maybe?) I busted a few boxes at Sports Cards Plus. Although I came away with a few nice pulls, I couldnt get half excited as the cards were so ugly. I know, speak with your wallet, and that is NOT what I did. I feel dirty, almost.

Elite comes out next, and for the most part, the cards that were so awesome last year, similarly took a dive. We have yet to see what the rookie autos look like, but its safe to say that they wont match the beauty of Inception if they continue down this path.

Consider me EXTREMELY disappointed.