Its gotten to the point now that each time Panini releases the content for one of their new products, I automatically ask myself, I wonder how much worse this can get. Last year, Elite surprised all of us with NFL Uniform pictures of the rookies, good looking on card autos as a new addition to the product, and though it was all gross foil, many cool rookie autos. This year, all the elements that made elite fun last year, are completely disgusting looking this year. I don’t know what happened, but its worse than usual.
First, the on card auto set that I thought was AWESOME last year, has been completely trashed, and I have a good idea as to why that may be happening. The main issue will be that last year, Panini did a GREAT job of getting NFL OTA pictures of the rookies with their teams, something that most likely wont be happening by the time these cards gets signed. That will leave them with all sorts of lame pictures of the rookies without their helmets on, wearing generic non-college jerseys. Might as well buy Press Pass at that point, even with the team logo on the card. On top of all that, they changed the orientation of the card to vertical, mostly so they wont have to include a full shot of a player in a generic uniform full figure. Problem is, instead of putting together a good looking card, they made some abominible photoshop disaster that you see below. UGH, give me a fucking break.
Then you see rookie auto they are showcasing, which again shows a switched orientation to horizontal from the normal vertical. Because there is no swatch on this card, IT SHOULD BE VERTICAL TO SHOWCASE A FULL PLAYER FIGURE. Instead they are going zoomed in, but this could change if they get post-premiere NFL uniform cards. If it stays horizontal, I still have no fucking clue why they think sideways text crawling up the side looks anything but disgusting. I know why it is designed that way too. Because the entire set is designed the vertical way, the person didn’t change it for the horizontally oriented cards. Instead, because they are too lazy to redesign, they just left it the way it was and hoped that no one would notice. Same thing happened in 2010 Certifed and I wanted to scream. Nothing but complete lack of effort. Then, to top it all off, there is that big giant white square for the autograph. What an eye sore. Even if its on card, that white square looks really weird and out of place, but I guess we shouldn’t expect anything more from the worst design team in the country.
We also see that the thousands of terribly composed jersey cards will be back from elite, because Panini refuses to adjust any card’s design as the elements change on the card. This leads to MORE jersey cards that look top heavy and inclomplete, as if someone forgot to apply the sticker. Because each box has at least 2 of these cards, its like guaranteeing that 50 percent of the hits will be shitty looking overfoiled jersey cards. I mean, Down and Distance? Could there be a more lame aspect of the game to focus a subset on? Shoot me in the face.
Panini continues to be the only company that consistently makes the same mistakes,something that I find unforgivable. Add in that this product wont even be available below MSRP and you might as well write this whole year off for them.
The one bright spot to this whole preview isnt even that bright, and that is the throwback threads jersey card auto booklets. Im saying auto booklets, because Im sure there will be jersey booklets that will look just like the auto ones without the sticker. You know how those will look.
Its sad that this product is going to be a complete downgrade for Panini, because I really liked a good portion of it last year, despite all the retina burning foil they ALWAYS use.
Here are the crime scene photos from Panini’s blog:
Hah, that’s funny! Why, I was just making fun of the 3rd grade art class design failure every Panini set is on another site this morning! Good to see those useless, solid color blocks continue to make an appearance on every subset!
I just bought a 2001 Johnny Unitas UD Legends autograph. Know why? Because it doesn’t look like complete shit! Get a clue, fools…
Did the sell-sheet for the 15 remaining “hobby direct” dealers start off with something like “Step right up, step right up! Send us your money and get these sublime super spiffy spectacular sports collectibles! (No returns accepted. No sales below $80/box or you forfeit account status. Buyer accepts all liability that product isn’t worth half what we just sold it to you for. Buyer agrees to hold Panini and any and all related parties not liable in any way for the immediate failure of your business.)
Every product they put out is like a continuation of their last product. I can’t even tell the difference with some of their products with the same old design and foil board. They must have a reuse policy that they adhere to.
Serious question: what way is Panini suggesting we display that Newton card? Horizontally or vertically, both ways look horrible. It will be interesting to see the first eBay auctions and how the sellers attempt to deal with that conundrum. The apocalyptic rhetoric that accompanied Panini’s purchase of DLP nearly two years ago is becoming more and more warranted with each passing product. Last year I saved my annual $2,500 that used to be allotted to DLP products. I can’t be the only one.
Wasn’t the turn of the century, like, a decade ago?
*** NEWS FLASH *** This just in, Panini does not give a flaming shit about us consumers!!!!
There will be a million idiots lined up out the doors of every LCS throw there money away on this crap. And then the message boards will be filled with pissing & moaning about how this year’s product is junk… blah blah blah. And it will be the same people complaining that just spent an hour in the store busting it screaming MOJO every time they hit a Pierre Garcon jersey /500.
Panini box busters are some of the most hypocritical people in the industry. When new stuff first hits, they would refinance the house or sell their first born child to bust box after box, case after case, calling out MOJO every time they pull a “hit”. Then once the dust settles, and they’re left with a pile of foil board toilet paper, a ton of crap-tastic one color jersey cards and a bunch of sticker auto’s #’d /999 they fill up the boards complaining about it.
And the Newton will still sell for $300+ when it hits.
And mark my words, he’ll be Reggie Bush 2.0 when we find out his dad actually got $250,000 from Auburn.
You can thank the non-generic college shots on your daddy, Upper Deck.
@Ryan,
You can actually thank the college shots on the NFL lockout. As of last year this product went this NFL uniforms with pictures from the Rookie Premiere.
Literally every Panini product is now running together.
The Tomlinson could also be in Absolute.
The Ingram looks like Prestige
The Brady looks like the last couple years Certified base
The Gonzalez is straight out of Threads
The Booklet is well, a booklet
The Cam, with that big ‘ROOKIE’ font actually looks like Contenders crapped on Certified’s Rookie autos from last year and then wiped it up with last years Elite.
Man, is it just the same jackasses that jump on the SCU train and slam Panini and at every turn???? I understand criticism and recognize some issues that Panini could improve on but the same old shit on this biased site day after day after day after day…………..after day. Give me some real, industry educated, realistic collector opinions for once on this friggin site. You may not like Panini but their shit looks different. Maybe its lazy or cheap or 3rd grade art class (direct critism from 1 of your followers) but hell, whatta you want?? Yeah your site and followers are “growing” but is it the same kiss asses to whoever runs this site that agree with whatever scu posts??? SCU – you wanna grow your site??? Post some replys that aren’t a lick fest to whatever article or opinion you post on a given subject and not cater to UD and their “greatness” for once. Example – Lets see what SCU thinks about a new Panini product???? Oh, they hate it, what a f’in surprise. Sure glad I checked in with SCU………..Not for long. If SCU has all the answers to Paninis problems why doesn;t whoever runs this site attempt to communicate to them what the consumer wants instead of just hammering everything they do? Maybe they’ll listen, maybe they won;t but whats the point of the 7 posts above mine and even more whats the point of posting the same shit from the same people who have the same agenda?? Any of the regulars here want to chime in please feel free.