For the premiere this year, the class was in a crazy situation, something that has never happened in the history of the event. Outside of a brand new class of players that is coming through the turnstile on their way to the gridiron, I couldnt help but feel like there was a cloud of questioned results hanging over the event due to the lockout, regardless of the goal of what was supposed to be happening during the whole weekend. It was great that you couldnt see it in the actions of the players, as all of them seemed genuinely happy to be a part this annual practice run through the NFL season.
One unusual instance that had not happened in many years was the absence of Upper Deck, a presence that is usually one that many collectors like myself look forward to. It is yet to be seen how they will make up for the lack of time at the company’s station, although we have gotten some pictures from intial one-off events organized outside of the NFL rookie premiere. I doubt that Upper Deck will be without the relics that usually come from this event, and im sure there will be no lack of product from them in 2011.
So, that leaves us to Topps and Panini, both at the event and providing coverage. Here are my winners and losers from the event, both of which I would love your opinions on as well. I know all of you probably expect me to go off on how the event used jerseys were made a mockery this year, but in reality, I dont really care about them anymore. Although I am not someone who likes their use in products, I dont really mind that they are done the way they are done right now. I just cant see an alternative when you consider the expectations for the rookie relics by collectors, and though I would say just get rid of them, many people disagree. I will buy autographed event used jersey cards, but not the regular rookie jersey cards, and I think that I have done pretty well. I think others will end up doing the same.
Rookie Premiere WINNERS
COVERAGE OF THE EVENT – Man, I pretty much had it coming to my computer all weekend. It was absolutely amazing to see all the coverage given by Topps, Panini, and the players, and I think it was a complete victory. Last year, many of the players seemed kind of blase about the non-field events, but this year, they were tweeting up a storm. I think the lockout has a little to do with it, as this was the first experience representing their teams, but it was nice to see. I also found that both companies gave collectors EXACTLY what they were looking for in terms of coverage, as we got the card previews and all sorts of stuff that werent expecting too. Both companies deserve props for their people, I know it was not something that needed to happen, but was done perfectly.
THE TOPPS DESIGN TEAM – If there was one thing that got people buzzing, it was the cards previewed by Topps this weekend. Of all the reactions I read, I didnt see many if any negative reactions to what Topps was posting. I said before that it was remarkable to see the 180 degree turn they have done in the last few years, and this event was a good example. Each of their previews were better than the next, and I credit the coverage for getting us amped up for things that are to come. Although Rising Rookies is not a set that I am going to jump into head first, I will be all over Topps flagship and other sets, just because of the previews we got from this event.
TOPPS INCEPTION ROOKIE AUTOS – Inception was definitely the set to talk about this weekend, as the way it was done was nothing short of brilliant. Using the painted look on adjusted college photos is absolutely awesome, and I think that this set will be hot just because of it. Inception probably reminds people of the movie from last year, but this is a different kind of inception. The noir look of the set is perfect, and unlike a lot of Panini sets out there, doesnt need cooky subset names to get the point across for its rookie content. I am already a big fan of this product, and the previews from the weekend did not hinder that at all.
THE ENTIRE 2011 TOPPS FOOTBALL PRODUCT – We got previews of the rookie premiere autos and the rookie red zone autos, which were both a ton better than expected. Because these two sets are so vital to the success of the autograph content of the product, its safe to say that 2011 Topps will have no issues on that side of things. When you also consider that the base design for the set is completely awesome, I am one who is going to put in a pre-order for some of this set. Starting with the Rookie Premiere Autos, I didnt like the design when they were first previewed. Unlike previous years, it was a departure from the base design, and that was something that didnt sit right. After seeing the way they turned out, the look has grown on me considerably. Moving on to the Rookie Red Zone autos that were new last year, I think the design this year is a HUMONGOUS improvement over last year’s card. Its so cool that I may want to collect the set. These cards will probably be inserted across all the products again this year, and maybe collectors wont be bummed anymore when they pull one.
FANS OF NFL ROOKIES WHOSE PRO NUMBERS WILL MATCH THEIR COLLEGE NUMBERS – I am one of those guys who always buys Madden for updated stats and uniforms, so its only natural that correct jersey numbers make a difference to me. For the guys who managed to figure out their numbers, or have college numbers that will be available on the team, this weekend will be successful. Their rookie cards will hold true to their image years down the road, and we wont look back and think “WTF was he wearing?!?”
HOBBY SOCIAL MEDIA – Its crazy to think that less than two years ago, none of the companies had a presence in online social media. Everything was done through Beckett or through their official sites, and collectors were left on the outside looking in. That has all changed drastically, and I could not be more happy. This weekend was a great example of how social media can benefit everyone, and I think that both Topps and Panini’s social media status was improved by Saturday night. I think Topps still has some work to do to reach Panini’s level, but I know they are determined to work on it. This was a great start.
FAN INVOLVEMENT/THE COMMMUNITY AROUND LOS ANGELES – I think the NFLPA always does a good job of making the players accessible to the fans and the community, and this year was no different. First, we saw all kinds of photos of the rookies making appearances in local veteran hospitals, and visiting area schools to promote activity. I like that a lot, as it shows more than the excess that usually abounds at these types of events. We also saw the rookies participate at an event at a Best Buy where the fans could get free autographs. These types of things add another level of greatness to the weekend, especially when you get to see a different side of the rookie class.
Rookie Premiere LOSERS
THE PANINI DESIGN TEAM – Normally, having Panini listed in this fashion is nothing new for this site, but they pretty much got their asses kicked by Topps this weekend. It wasnt even a contest. Where Topps had great looking cards and new amazing products that looked bad ass, Panini was same shit, different day. Whereas each new card Topps previewed was better than the last, the opposite was true for Panini. More manu-patches and manu-letters were absolutely everywhere, and many collectors spent their time avoiding Panini’s coverage for Topps as a result. Bottom line, based on the info from this weekend and from previews, it looks like this is going to be a VERY tough year for fans of Panini.
PANINI ELITE ON CARD AUTOGRAPHS – Last year, Panini wowed everyone when Elite had an on card rookie autograph subset. The cards looked great, were simply stated and had a previously unheard of design to them. It was fresh and new, and I bought a lot of them. This year, they look so freaking awful that I laughed. Yes, I actually laughed. Not only did they switch the orientation to vertical, but they used a combination of draft day pics and combine pics to complete the cards. There is also a big huge box in the middle of the card that looks disgusting, some with an NFL logo and some with a team logo. Yes, rather than a bigger picture or a bigger place for the rookie to sign, they did a big huge box. Typical. When you tie this bad design work to the rookies looking idiotic in their combine pictures, its even worse. The most confusing parts of these cards was that Topps had obviously figured out how to print thousands of cards overnight, as did Upper Deck in 2009, im not sure why Panini couldnt do so after spending all the time shooting the rookies on Thursday night to be signed on Saturday.
PANINI PEN PALS AUTOGRAPH CARDS – I never really liked these cards because of how often the duals and quads include one good player with one bad one. Last year, they used pics from the player’s OTAs for the cards, and they looked pretty good. This year, it was a completely different story. The cards again feature combine and draft day pics, with tiny photos and a bright red border. Not only do I HATE the name of this subset, I hate the look of the cards. As said before, Im not sure why they cant wait to get these cards signed. National Treasures doesnt come out until the end of the year, and has other hard signed cards for the rookies that get signed in the mean time. Just add these in, and get real pictures instead of cop outs. Regardless of the photos, the design is terrible anyways.
POSSIBLE PLAYER ARTWORK CARDS – Panini previewed some pictures of the rookies doing artwork, which could mean more sketch cards from the players. I guess they didnt learn from Topps and the epic fails from last year.
MANUFACTURED PATCHES AND LETTERS – Over the course of the draft and the premiere, we saw Panini preview a good five million of these cards. Again, these cards look awful in their concept and design, and add nothing to the products they are in. The worst part is that Panini puts them into like 8 sets, and they just get more and more boring year after year. Plus, how do you justify something that looks as bad as the Patriots one below? These cards need to go, and they need to go NOW.
GLAMOR SHOTS OF THE ROOKIES – I dont get it. Companies love taking pictures and producing cards of the rookies in non-game situations. Jersey on, helmet off, whatever. I can see how this is acceptable in baseball, because of the player’s brand image being as much about their face as their uniform. Well, football IS NOT baseball, and it looks out of place when you have these studio style shots of the rookies on cards, especially in full uniform. Panini spent a lot of time shooting the rookies against some big gray wall in the LA Colosseum, and I am cringing to think of what the shots may be used for. In fact, Panini used helmet off shots for a bunch of products last year, including Certified, and it didnt work at all. This year looks to be no different, sadly. I hope Topps doesnt follow suit, because I would freak. Really, do these shots look like they are going to be anything but creepy?
PLAYERS AND THEIR JERSEY NUMBERS – When I saw all the players running around in those “00” jerseys, I couldnt believe it. The sad thing is, some of the rookies wore them during the premiere, which must be horrifying to fans of those players. Ryan Williams, Alex Green and a few others all wore the “00” jerseys, and as a result, I dont think I can buy those cards because of how weird it looks. Wearing them for cards like the Rookie Premiere autos are one thing, but when you are in full gear and taking on field shots, its WAAAAAAY different.
Thats about it for now, Ill have more coverage as it becomes available. Hopefully you guys are as excited for some of these cards as I am.
I am beginning to think you don’t like Panini.
Just admit no matter what Panini does you will hate it.
Do you at all disagree with what I was posting? Its not hard to see why I dont like what Panini posted. I mean, if you like the Elite cards with the big giant color boxes in the middle, by all means go nuts and buy the set. Im just voicing my opinion.
I don’t like Panini products, either. I might, if they hire some former UD design team like Topps appears to have done. Get rid of stickers so we don’t have upside down and incorrect autographs on cards. Do something original, other than recycling designs and pack outs like the last 4 years…
Long time reader first time post lol, always wanted to say that, anyway.
I have been a regular reader of Gellman’s comments on Sports Cards Uncensored for about 2 years now. I have to say that Gellman is not an avid fan of Panini, formally known as Donruss. Panini has kept a lot of the same brands that Donruss put out as a NFL licensed company before being bought out. Since the time Panini has taken over Donruss, I have to 90% agree with a lot of what Gellman has to say about the products Panini has put out on the market. One aspect I like about Panini’s football products are the 4 Memorabilla and or the one autograph per hobby box. More often than not it is more of those 2-3 Rookie Event-Used Cards and if you are lucky enough you can get two Auto’s. This is really contingent on the product. 2010 was the first time I bought more Panini products than in years past. I was impressed with 2010 Elite, Certified, and Playoff Contenders. Threads, Classic, and Prestige I wasted money. Prestige comes out early and in May of 2010 I pulled a Sticker Auto of then Super Bowl MVP Drew Bress. The auto was 5/5 and really didn’t hold much value, only sold for $45.00. For one, Panini’s Inserts are rediculous, each product has 5-7 Insert’s and two the Base Card and Insert Card designs are just rehashed designs from the year beofre. 2010 Panini came out with a product called EPIX, I enjoyed the on-card auto’s I pulled, Dez Bryant and Golden Tate. Their on-card signatures are featured on a football field design with the player looking like he is peaking his big ol head just above the card. However, the room they gave for players to sign left some really great auto’s. The EPIX base cards and inserts were cheap looking and ugly, however I didn’t mind the “new” look of the Base Parallel’s but IMHO the new technology, I forgot what they called it, should be what the base cards look like. If you’re lucky enough, a good pull from a Panini product, that is a low serial numbered card can be very nice looking, even Prestige, in some cases. The Drew Brees I pulled was from the Prefered Signatures Insert set, however, a few days after my 5/5 Sticker Auto sold, a 1/5 of the exact same card showed up on E-Bay, this one was a Prime Materials Prefered Signatures of Drew Brees. Though the auto was a sticker the Game-Used Prime Material was a 3-color patch. Then a few days later I saw what Elite had to offer, this time one of thier Insert Sets highlighted the Saints Super Bowl victory. The design of 2010 Elite was great, and the Drew Brees Super Bowl Sticker Auto Card was 100 times better looking than both the previous Drew Brees Prefered Signatures Auto and Prime Material Card from the Prestige product. Why? because it had a solid shot of Brees in action with the Super Bowl Logo in the brackground and in addition, the overall look of 2010 Elite was very well done, for the most part.
A few months back, I was in D.C. and found a local Hobby Shop. I bought a hobby box of the 2009 Elite product. I noticed a lot of similarities, design wise, between the 2009 and 2010 product. The only difference was that, in 2010, the players were featured in their Pro Uniforms, 2009 Elite players were featured in their College Uni’s. Still I was able to pull a Mathew Stafford Turn of the Century Auto /200, also, from Elite’s “famous” Die-Cut’s, I pulled a Brandon Marshall /85. Being a Broncos fan I was happy with the pull, but the remaining “hits” were just sloppy and ugly. The Rookie Event-Worn cards are just plain and worthless, the same can be said of the Vets Game-Used cards. This is just my preference, but if I pull a Game-Used card, that was used during an actual game, then I want to see some action on those Game-Used cards. The majority of the G/U’d material, specifically the white material are just that, WHITE! If they are G/U’d the white material most likely comes from the Pants or certain parts of the Jersey. If you know your football one can easily ID what part of the player’s G/U’d material featured in the card came from. What I don’t understand is this, and not just from Panini, where are the grass stains, the mud, dirt, or even blood??? I understand that they have to wash all the G/U’d material they obtain for health purposes, but still, grass and blood stains do not comeout of the wash that easily. Plus it is not a health hazzard if the material is washed and blood, grass, mud, dirt, sweat and tears, lol, remain on the material. It is BS, game-used cards should show some sort of sign of wear and tear. I have one Game-Used Card that features Mike Willams of the Bucs. The G/U’d card came from the 2010 Press Pass SE release, just before Upper Deck’s exclusive College License took effect. The Game Day Gear Gold Parallel /149 featured Williams in his Orangeman Uniform and the material was cut from the Jersey. This was easy to ID, it was cut somewhere between the numbers and the stripes on the side, front or back, anyhow, the G/U’d material had a grass stain. I was stoked, never ever had I pulled anything like this. The Topps motto is “Brings you closer to the game”! The stain brought new meaning to the verbiage companies use to explain your great pull, by congradulating you on pulling a Card featuring a piece of material used by Mike Williams authenticated to have been used in an actual game and obtained by Blah Blah Inc. When you read that then see the actual stain brings one closer to the game. One of the companies should devote an insert set to using actual Game-Worn material with real wear and tear, I think it would add to the overall value of any card. Even the very low numbered Prime Material, especially vets, to use, say part of the players number, where the outline of the number is say black, red, orange, blue or whatever, because inside that colored boarder is part of the number and it is always white. Imagine that White is tatted with a blood or grass stain. A White/Purple Vikings Away jersey or pants, with part of the 2 or 8 is cut, inserted with a heavy grass stain, nicely placed on the card, leaving enough room for a shot of the player in action and then Autographed on-card and numbered 1/3. The 2/3, and 3/3 have the same attributes, Game-Used, On-Card Auto, but does not feature any visable stain on the piece cut from the uniform. Which would you rather have? Being a Vikings fan?
To sum it up Panini’s products are, for the most part stale, lack any effort of true design, overpriced, too many sticker auto’s and Insert Set’s that are just rediculous. Look at any 2010 Panini Product Checklist and compare that with a Topps Chrome or Upper Deck’s annual Flagship product. It’s crazy, I miss Upper Deck’s NFL Licensed Products. In 2010 I ventured out of my comfort zone and tested some Panini products. Overall I came out with less money and very little to show. I will always stick with Topps Chrome, Platinum, Prime or Stadium Club and Upper Deck Flagship. They always have nice designs, great look and feel. You can get great pulls from most of the retail products, I live too far away from any Hobby Shop.
Upper Deck does a much better job creating a variety of products and differentiating them. Elite, Certified, Threads, Classic, and Prestige are all essentially the same product in my mind.
And really, Gridiron Gear, Rookies and Stars, Epix, Limited, Plates and Patches, and National Treasures weren’t too drastically different from those, either. Honestly, their only sets that really stand on their own lately are Playoff Contenders, Rated Rookies, (if you can count that one) and Score. It’s amazing how many insert sets they can make whose only real theme is “hey, here are the guys from the Rookie Premiere,” or “hey, here are some mostly random and unrelated guys we have jerseys and/or autograph stickers of… plus the guys from the Rookie Premiere.”
I have the Android Phone from Verizon and if you are a Verizon subscriber and have the NFL App downloaded to your phone, the NFL, via Verizon just released 3to 4 Five minute videos covering the 2011 Rookie Premiere Shoot. Both Topps and Panini Execs and Design Teams talk about what the shoot is all about. Also Jay Glazer interviews a lot of the players, it is pretty cool. I did notice this, all the rookies who attended wore the following; Mark Ingram had a #32 Saints jersey, a few other players had an actual number. For the most part, Cam Newton was seen wearing a Panthers #1 Jersey. Ryan Mallet had a #15 Pats Jersey, the remaining players, which was the vast majority either wore #11, (2011) or #00. I am Broncos fan and our #2 overall pick, Von Miller was wearing a #00. This will be just rediculous, come July when Topps Flagship is released most of the top players will be in #11 or #00. They should go 1990 Score Football Bo Jackson style, take the shirt off and just brandish the shoulder pads, minus the bat of course. I have noticed that all of my Eddie Royal Rookies have him wearing a #2 Jersey and not his assigned #19.