When Plates and Patches was first announced, my first reaction was “oh great, a complete set based on an insert set out of a terrible product.” After that, I prepared myself for another Limited style packout with similarly incomplete single jersey cards that take away from the overall quality of the product. After seeing the preview posted today on Panini’s blog, Im actually kind of surprised as to how much it looks good, at least from the best of the best they always post. Actually, Panini has done something that impresses me outside of the design itself, something Ill get to in a minute.

First, the design and composition of the cards themselves. Other than the fact that this is ANOTHER sticker product from Panini, the cards displayed dont look all that horrible. Even the vertical patch auto cards that we see here look okay considering what they are, and the rookies that we get look to be the best we have seen all year from Panini. I think these cards greatly benefit from two things – no foil, and a great layout with great use of white space for the signature. These are some of the first cards from Panini this year that look like they were were considering sticker placement on a space that will make things pop out, though I can see that these are just one of the many parallels of these cards. If you can imagine the absence of the stickers, the other parallels without will look incomplete as they usually do. As for the cuts, this Unitas looks bad ass. The pictures on the cards seem to be back in full force, and I could not be happier to say good bye to unidentifiable ones from past products.

Secondly, I see that there are going to be a bunch of problems with price point, as the one good hit is going to have problems holding the box value if so many of them are of the likes of Mardy Gilyard, Armanti Edwards, and Marcus Easley. I think there is definitely some great singles potential for this product, but there is NOT A CHANCE IN HELL that I would ever buy a box of this straight up for myself.

Lastly, I want to talk about two measures that Panini took on Plates and Patches that may actually make up for the stupid ass name for the product. First, this looks to be structured like Prime Cuts and Century Collection where the main box hit is encased. Encasement is a great tool to combat fakes, which will no doubt would be a huge problem on some of these jumbo patch cards without security precautions. If you also notice the top corner of the cards, they explain the part of the jersey the patch comes from. That means, as far as we can tell, many of the big hits will have text on the card labelling them as such. THIS IS AN EPIC WIN ALL AROUND. Finally someone is getting the fucking point, and I am ecstatic about this being the case.

Here is the first part of the Plates and Patches preview, the second will likely come tomorrow: