For the longest time, Topps Chrome ruled football. In a lot of ways, it still does. When I was at the National Convention, Chrome autos of Derek Carr and Jameis Winston were about the hottest thing to wheel and deal at a table selling football. When Panini introduced Prizm in 2012, it was clear that they wanted a seat at the big boy table. Problem is, they didnt put together a good looking design until 2015, with the previous years delivering some of the worst looking cards I have ever seen
in my fucking life. Diet Chrome, as Prizm should be called, has delivered some great looking cards over the last 3 years, and this year looks to be no different. Hopefully Panini will wise the fuck up and get Optic on track, because that garbage is a god damned shit show.
Here is Prizm before Panini bought the upgraded suite of Adobe products:
2014 Prizm Derek Carr Auto Green /50
2013 Prizm Leveon Bell Auto RC BGS 10
Last few years have been really nice:
2016 Prizm Ezekiel Elliott Auto Blue Wave
2015 Prizm Jameis Winston Auto Purple BGS 9.5
Here is what makes a good Topps Chrome style card. Small border, full action style photo, on card auto, nice parallel structure. Prizm has delivered on most of that, save the stickers they cant get past for some dumb reason. This year looks to be pretty nice, with a few new types of cards baked in. That Randy Moss preview is a thing of beauty. Sadly, the stickers are back, despite the fact that Optic still gets on card autos. I mean, look at the bullshit that Optic is putting out there. Posed photos ruin that design, and yet that dumpster fire gets on card? Cmon.
I have ripped a lot of Prizm over the last few years, only because Topps hasnt been around to dominate the Chrome landscape anymore. If they somehow found their way back to make Chrome again, I would abandon ship faster than you can say Tracy Hackler. Prizm is and will always be sitting at the kids table when it comes to its place in the hobby, looking up at Contenders like “damn son, how did you get to sit with Chrome after all those horrible years.” Yet, because we are living in a Panini football world, we have no choice. Im sad and bitter that Panini gets the privilege to produce football cards, and cant seem to remove their head from squarely betwixt their ass cheeks 93% of the time.
Most importantly, Panini is likely experiencing some major PTSD about pushing out this sell sheet after last year’s Prizm debacle with Dak Prescott, and needs a big display to bounce back. So far, I havent gotten the feeling they have learned much from it, but at least its all getting figured out somehow. Considering all of Dak’s cards ended up hard signed, it gave quite the example of what could happen if these cards were treated the way they should be.
At least Prizm is on the up and up. It could be a lot worse, right 2014 Prizm Johnny Manziel – Red Carpet Pose Editon?
From the article: “Yet, because we are living in a Panini football world, we have no choice”…
But we do have a choice and for me the choice is I havent bought any post 2015 football cards since panini took over.
and based on the upward rocketing prices of prior years Topps football and current year Topps baseball products, Im not the only one… even the over run quality issued crap fest that was 2014 Topps Chrome football is a silly price by the case. I remember buying cases of 2014 Chrome FB for less than $300…
All the significant $$ amounts I used to spend on Topps FB have gone to prior years Topps FB and current year Topps baseball..
To take part in the frenzy that has been Chrome baseball this year reminded me how much time and money spent and how much fun I had chasing 2012 retail Chrome products all over the place.
and for all you who think youll be left out or missing something if you dont buy panini, Id urge you to do what I did and start culling the herd of all the 3200 count boxes of product accumulated over the years and see just how few of these rookies actually make any kind of mark, and also look at prior year releases of panini products just to see how much is still available and how far below initial release price they all are…
Jumped on the Prizm bandwagon last year as a replacement for Chrome. One of the few mid-level base sets still worth collecting, imo, as it has decent Rookie and Veteran depth in uniform and on the field and isn’t a total wallet buster. The parallels are fun and I agree that the autos could be better (fortunately, we still have Contenders). Would drop this in a New York second if Chrome returned, but given some of the Panini product that’s out there, this feels the least embarrassing.