I have commented previously on the debacle that is 2014 Prestige based on galleries highlighted on Panini’s blog, and now that it is starting to show up live on eBay, I am only further questioning some of the horrid decisions that were made surrounding the content of this product. Although there are some elements that look very good, its clear that Panini is banking on Elite to cover up any misdeeds that Prestige presents on a larger scale. This should make you angry, as they are just expecting you to buy because its there. A strategy that dumbs down their consumer base in this type of capacity is awful.

Here are some of the Manziel cards with the first pics in Cleveland Uniform:

2014 Prestige Johnny Manziel Two Color Patch RC

2014 Prestige Johnny Manziel Prestigious Picks Foil RC

2014 Prestige Johnny Manziel Draft Picks Foil RC

We also get this crap too:

2014 Prestige Johnny Manziel Base RC

2014 Prestige Bishop Sankey RC Auto Base

2014 Prestige Kalil Mack Auto Red Parallel

My biggest gripe has to do with the base rookie cards – a focus for this product, as it is the one thing that I fail to understand the way they are done. If you consider that A) rookie premiere photography is available in other parts of the set, B) retouched NFL uniform pictures are available at other parts of the set, it doesnt make sense that Panini went with C) retouched sideline shots that feature no NFL branding what-so ever.

They are basically delivering forcing us to drive the economy car for the same price we are paying to drive the luxury. From a customer perspective, this does not bode well, as cards without NFL branding rarely sell well. Although Bowman is a stark exception to this situation, Panini should not take that as support to continue down this ugly path. It also goes further to support that the lack of attention to detail is so vast, it almost prevents a loyal fan base from latching on to the product.

Now, some of the cards do look much better than 2013, which was horrendous in its own right. Yet, those aspects are so far overshadowed by the base rookie cards that I cannot put it into words. I still stand by 2012 as Prestige's best year in the entire run of the brand, but to see that things are going down from that peak is disappointing from a staple brand name for years in Football. Dont even get me started on the use of MORE rainbow foil and MORE enormous text, all of which are present in this product.

Lost in all of this is the launch of their new "revolutionary" redemption points system, which to this point has generated little to no buzz industry wide, collectors have seemingly resigned themselves to either loving that they dont have to deal with scrub autos in their packs anymore or shrugging their shoulders in apathy over replacing one issue with another. I have said from the beginning that Panini is trying to fix the wrong part of the redemption problem with this program, as the existence of redemptions is NOT the problem at all. It has yet to be determined how successful this program will eventually be.

Prestige is bad, and I wouldnt waste my time with any of it, just to state your potential disapproval with how the set is constructed. That’s the only way they will learn.