Personally, I have not been very impressed with Panini’s transition of Gold Standard to Football from its Basketball sister. The cards are pretty much a Panini designed spin on 2010 Topps Supreme’s look, and should carry a pretty substantial price tag for what you actually get. Parts of it look cool, but not cool enough for a set that will cost as much as gold standard will cost to buy. There is little doubt that some of the cards will be successful, but I fail to see how they will be THAT different from ones that appear in the 15 other products that have the same content design.

First, the rookie patch cards are boring. We saw how awesome silver pen on a black background can look with 2011 Topps Inception, and in comparison, these look bush league. The silver pen isn’t as sharp, and the overall design is nothing special. Companies have been trying to replicate the dominance SPA used to have with it’s patch auto cards, and these are not even close to that level. They are not special, and because of that, they will not be worth any more than any other patch auto that Panini has produced. Although the auto is on card, I think the silver actually takes away from the design rather than adds to it.

Moving on to the Super Bowl champion cards that were previewed today, I very much think they are the best looking cards of this set. I think companies have underestimated how much a super bowl theme can add to a product, mainly due to cost of obtaining signatures, but these are great. They also contain pieces of real diamonds from my understanding, which add to the overall effect. They are still stickers, which is completely dumb for a high end product like this, and that is a drawback that a set like Five Star wont have on display.

When I was in Chicago, there were two things that a few distributors and shop owners were talking about in regards to Panini. First were the redemption packs, and second was the lack of differentiation in their products. The second one is such a huge gargantuan problem that I can actually see the dissention growing among the Panini faithful. Regardless of external factors, they desperately need to separate themselves in a way that doesn’t involve free packs for a giveaway. If you need to bribe people to buy your products, something is wrong. The bribe may have been brilliantly conceived, but the overall effect is concerning.

Here are the pictures: