National Treasures is live as we speak, and as I expected, there are a lot of reasons why this product is not going to live up to the billing as the most expensive product of the year. We are seeing a ton of worthless jersey cards, a ton of sticker autographs, and a handful of cool looking cards that will carry this product’s reputation above where it should be.
Collectors obviously love jumbo sized swatches about all else, and I am continually shocked how much this matters. What we are seeing in the first auctions, is that when the patch is that big, and the border around the patch is even bigger, there is ZERO room for the player to sign. Its laughable! One of the reasons I loved Five Star as much as I did is because the place to sign was so amazingly huge. The autographs turned auto big and beautiful, which was much more important to me than the size of a swatch on the card.
Secondarily, the colossal cards this year are beyond hideous. They were some of the ONLY good looking cards last year, and this year they could be the worst of the worst. The vertical orientation looks so weird I cannot even put it into words.
Lastly, I really hate the fact that the highest end product of the year has a continued presence of scraps from previous products. Its crazy to think that Panini thought this would be a cool addition to the set. Just what I want! A piece of signed white pleather from a guy that is still alive and had no reason NOT to sign the card itself.
There are some cool looking cards like the NFL gear cards, but I honestly believe this is one of the worst showings for National Treasures in the entire run of the brand.
Troy Polamalu Colossal Reebok Brand Logo – Ugly, ugly card.
Dick Butkus Manupatch Auto w/ Inscription
Christian Ponder Rookie Auto Patch Gold /49
Jake Locker Rookie Auto Patch 3 color /99
Brett Favre Jersey Auto /25 – There are also a ton of these cards without autos, and as expected they look incomplete.
SMH, The enclosed player-worn material is certified authentic by Panini. What does that even mean. So for the most expensive product of the year they won’t say it’s from that player or even worn in an actual game or event. What makes it worse is that a guy is trying to sell that for $1,000. A person can buy a 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth with $300 left over for that kind of money… Morons
Panini insists with those manupatches, cards look terrible ugly, autos look even worse, I don’t know why they keep going and going and going with that kind of stuff.
Gellman I don’t know how you can even compare Five Star to NT when NT has ALYSSA MILANO!!!!!
Seriously though of the breaks I’ve seen they don’t seem to justify spending $400/box on it. I’d rather just go after singles than get stuck with a bunch of sticker autos and scrub players I’m not interested in.
I will just buy the few cards I like from the set, and thats it.
The poor quality of this set isn’t the main thing that irks me. What irritates me most is that this product is out 3 months after the 2011 season ended. It would be smarter to release this product in Dec.-Jan., but that makes to much sense for Panini.
IMO that Polamalu Reebok card would go from ugly duckling to a swan with an on card autograph above the logo patch…