Despite my feelings on the product, National Treasures is an important set each year. Although I think many more products are extremely more deserving of the attention NT gets, its not worth having another discussion about that. There are some definite elements that work for this year’s treasures and quite a few that dont work at all. Here is a breakdown.
Rookie Auto Patches – PUSH
Unlike 2012, where I thought the design failed miserably for a very important class, this is an update that works slightly better. The player is still pushed way to the left side of the card in order to house the oversized patch, and its frustrating to see because of how well 2014’s design worked. The spirograph topographical pattern behind the player is both worthless and confusing, and shouldnt have been included. Overall im giving this a push only because I KNOW it could have been a lot worse.
2015 National Treasures Marcus Mariota Rookie Auto Patch
2015 National Treasures Melvin Gordon Rookie Auto Patch
Booklet Cards – GOOD!
As always, the NT booklet cards look great. For whatever reason, people dont seem to put the same kind of value into these that they do the significantly worse looking RAPs, but whatever. Im sure it has to do with all that true RC bullshit. If you want the best rookie cards in the product, its these.
2015 National Treasures Barry Sanders Veteran Booklet Patch Auto
2015 National Treasures Marcus Mariota Titans Logo Booklet RPA
2015 National Treasures Stefon Diggs Vertical Booklet RPA
Rookie Sticker Autos – FAIL
Not only do these cards look completely different than the on card stuff, but the player picture and design in the middle of the card is covered up by a big white area. Although it isnt a defined box for the sticker, its still oddly separate from the rest of the card. These are not good looking at all.
2015 National Treasures Thomas Rawls RC Auto
On Card Veteran Patch Auto – NICE!
This is one of my favorite designs in the product, if not only because Panini didnt feel the need to use giant typeface or needlessly oversized patches. Its a simple design with hard signed autographs. I love this look and wish more cards in the set followed this same formula.
2015 National Treasures Tony Romo On Card Patch Auto /5
Horizontal Rookie Patch Autos – FAIL
The only bad part about these cards are the posed pictures, which I cant fucking stand. I wish this was the main rookie auto patch design, and I also wish they used action photos instead of the awkward studio shots. These photos ruin what would have been a great card. Too bad these lame pictures are all over this product.
2015 National Treasures Todd Gurley Horizontal Rookie Auto Patch
2015 National Treasures Nelson Agholor Horizontal Rookie Auto Patch
Veteran Sticker Autos – NOT BAD!
Although stickers used in NT are a complete fucking joke, the cards dont look bad. The design is simple, and though it doesnt fit the theme of the on card stuff (what the hell?) it doesnt look bad at all. Pretty standard sticker auto.
2015 National Treasures Brett Favre Auto /25
2015 National Treasures Bo Jackson Auto /25
Vertical Jumbo Patch Cards – AWFUL
These might be the worst looking cards in the product, if not only because so much of the player is covered up by the patch. They did horizontal versions of some of the cards, and they look SO Much better. Horrible card.
2015 National Treasures Allen Robinson Jumbo Patch
2015 National Treasures Devonta Freeman Jumbo Patch
Colossal Auto Relics – MEH…
So, Panini found out that putting the relic ABOVE the player on a vertical card gives them a bit more space. Its not great but its not horrible to me. Had this been relic on the bottom, yeah, that would have been bad. I just dont get why they dont do this horizontal for all cards and save us all the agony.
2015 National Treasures Karlos Williams NFL Sheild Auto 1/1
2015 National Treasures Ameer Abdullah Colossal Patch Auto
Hats Off Cards – FAILLLLLLLLL
I hate the concept of this set, I hate the tongue in cheek dad joke name of the set, and I hate the pictures. Nothing more needs to be said about these disasters.
2015 National Treasures Devante Parker Hats Off Auto Dolphins Logo
Base Cards – GOOD!
Like the rest of the sticker autos, these REALLY look different than most of the rest of the set. I have a feeling its because the on card stuff was just rehashing college NT and NT baseball, where this is new. Its completely disjointed in terms of a product, but the base dont look bad.
2015 National Treasures Derek Carr Base 1/1
After about a week to digest the cards since the preview breaks, I think this year’s set is far worse than 2014. I see 2014 as the best designed NT in the run, and this falling behind 2013, but ahead of 2012. Panini needs to step up their game.
This is a garbage product. I don’t rly like the design of most of the cards. Like you I loath the posed RC photo. But this product usually sells well, and I’ll take a shot at a product I don’t rly like if I can make a few bucks to offset the cost of buying what I like to keep. But not this year. I’ve watched dozens of cases and I don’t know how panini thinks they will get away with this. First there is a massive amount of stickers. Then nearly every “patch” is one color. Even the low numbered parallels. In fact most of the color is only found on the glove and hat relics. For this price point it’s a travesty. I’ve already noticed that even breakers are having trouble selling spots of this crap. This is panini’s flagship product. It might take a year or so but if this continues ppl will simply not buy. I say let the football hobby die until panini either overhauls their whole team or simply quits.