This is now the third year of the unfortunately named Black Gold football. The title of the set doesnt really make sense, and when you look at the examples of what this product represents, the stupid name really kind of fits. This is really Panini’s main “technology” set, which means that they break out acetate, shadowboxes, and all sorts of weird shit as gimmicks. The problem is some of the set is pure gold, other parts of it are black fucking garbage.

The cards really dont do very well on the secondary market, mainly because its such a crap shoot, and with a horrible NCAA version diluting the market, its not much better:

2015 Black Gold Marcus Mariota Laundry Tag Auto /5

2015 Black Gold Tom Brady Auto Relic /10 

2014 Black Gold Derek Carr Sizeable Signatures Auto Patch

2015 Black Gold Andrew Luck Auto /25

2014 Black Gold Odell Beckham Jr Sticker Auto Relic – What a terrible design, good god.

As we have seen with previous editions, Black Gold focuses on delivering a combination of on card autographs with a lot of acetate type stock, and in many cases it works. In other cases, the cards are so fucking horrendous, that you just have to laugh. I mean, Dance Battle Joey Bosa gets two cards! How about that, cant even find a new stupid picture to use on either one of the new stupid designs.

That being said, the Sizeable series for RCs and Vets are amazing looking as are most of the auto relics that are part of this product. Much like 2014 and 2015, if its hard signed in this set, its going to look good, where most of the other stuff might as well be laughed out of the building. That includes the hilariously designed Metallic Marks, which are identical copies of 2016 Infinity, currently sitting below dealer cost on Blowout.

Only Panini would try to pull something like that in a Super Premium Set like this, and at this point its so much fun to make fun of them, I almost dont want it to stop. So far, in the three years of this product, plus the inexplicable releases of a college version, I have yet to see anything about this product that shows me its worth opening. I can buy 2014 and 2015 well below cost, and college Black Gold at lower than that. I literally have no idea how Panini could spend so much money building out this product year after year and still want to continue after it has tanked so heavily each time.

I knew they had no clue about what makes a card look good, but this just isnt good business sense to boot. Even if it sells out at the factory, its only because some dealer bought out a huge amount at a greatly reduced cost, and I would be SHOCKED if that continues with a rookie class next year that wont have Dak and Zeke. If Im a shop, im scared about what is going to happen, because this product looks to be one of the most over-produced super premium sets of the year. When you see the track record Panini has, that’s saying something.

Do some of the cards look good? Yeah, they do. Is this product even close to the potential it would have if they didnt shit out visual diarrhea for most of the designs? Nope, and that’s Panini in a nutshell.