Most of the time, whenever Panini previews cards from a new set, I automatically prepare myself to wretch a few times before writing my post. Today was a little bit better, but still far from the reaction that anyone should be having when seeing new cards from a product for the first time.

Panini released routing table mock ups of a few cards from Prestige, Score and Elite today, some of which I kind of like, and others that should have been thrown on the collective kindling pile that should inevitably burn one of these days with all Panini crap. Starting with Prestige, which will be Panini’s first post-draft product of 2011, we got a good idea of what to expect with the most important part of the set. When you consider just how terrible the design was last year, these are a definite upgrade. I think that UD’s exclusive on the CLC license prevented a lot of what these cards COULD have been, but I am so glad they decided against the goofy ass head shots from last year. I think the overall design of the 2011 card is nice, minus one specific thing that makes absolutely no sense to me. WHO PUTS PINK ON AN NFL FOOTBALL CARD? I get that I am being sexist and all sorts of masogynistic, but I don’t care. Pink has no place on any male dominated sports card, unless breast cancer awareness is in play. I have literally no clue why black wasn’t used there, or even some other color, but PINK? Cmon. Its nitpicky, I know, but my eye was drawn to it immediately. Other than that one thing, it’s a good try.

Regardless of rookie design successes, when you consider that the rest of Prestige will be stuffed to the brim with 2 dollar jersey cards and crap ass subsets like every other year, the realization of why they need to be amazing becomes clear. Basically, if the rookie cards arent good enough, how else can they justify the ridiculous price tag that always graces the product before it drops like a rock once the premiere happens? Oh, wait…right. Sorry, this year that 90 bucks online and 120 bucks at your LCS isnt going down. Good thing for us, right?

On a similarly interesting note, I kind of like the Passing the Torch autos they previewed from this year’s elite. Despite the fact that these will be printed on the same disgusting foilboard stock that Panini ALWAYS uses, the design is kind of cool. When you see the way the rest of Elite looks this year, I don’t think its going to make a whole lot of difference, though. They do have some interesting pairings, and I sincerely hope that the preview mockups for the rest of the set arent as much of an EPIC downgrade as they seem to be, but these look good.

Then, when I saw this “Craftsman” bullshit, I knew that it was going to be more of the same. I seriously do not understand how people cannot be bored/angry/nauseous with the same old crap that comes out of the Panini camp with every freaking product. It’s the same cards, same type of lame ass names, and same old tired format from the beginning of the calendar to the end. I actually wonder if they sit around a conference table and think to themselves, “What name can we think of for these cards?” Ill tell you, its gotta be something like that, because they obviously cant let the design speak for itself.

As for Score, its not my thing, so I don’t even really care. It’s a dollar a pack product and the game shots on the base cards look much better than in previous years with the border around it. I still think the set is played out and should be re-branded, but as I said before, people love busting low end like its their dream situation. That’s fine for them, and expectations are never going to be that high for this stuff, so there really isnt any comment needed as long as it isnt spray paint splatter on a road like previous years.

I have been told that awesome things are coming from Topps, and from what we have seen so far, that looks to be the case, which means that there is SOME hope from this year’s product line. Maybe, just maybe, Panini’s design team will pull their heads from their collective asses, and put together a good looking set, but Im not holding my breath. At least ill have Topps possibly moving more towards complete on card signatures with better designs for some of their sets to keep me happy. Well, that’s what I tell myself anyways. Topps Chrome is only 4-5 months away, its not that long of a wait, right?

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