When Prime Cuts was released in 2008, there were a lot of people that jumped all over it because of the plethora of nice hits that came out of each case. In fact, we did a group break here on SCU and pulled a Ripken Auto patch AND a Gherig/Thorpe dual swatch card. I still think 2008 Prime cuts was one of the better Panini products released in their history, and I had high expectations for 2011 (not 2012 for some stupid reason) now that it has hit shelves.
From the breaks I have seen on youtube and in person, I wouldnt buy boxes of this stuff with someone else’s money. Its that bad, and most of it centers around the over bloated prospect checklist in a set that should have been dominated by veterans and HOFers. On top of that, the prospect cards may be the worst looking baseball cards in a long time, so that doesnt help things. When you put “PROSPECT – PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL PLAYER” on each of the cards, I start to question intelligence. At least there wont be any confusion as to what these guys do for a living. I mean, since everyone thought they were buying boxes of cards for accountants instead of baseball players.
Of course, there are big hits that do have some redeeming value, especially in the nickname on card autographs, but other than that, Prime Cuts looks to be rushed, and it also looks to be very poorly designed in many parts of the set
. This is right on par with a lot of the sets Panini has consistently rolled out for their football and basketball brands, but I was actually looking forward to baseball having a better team behind it. Obviously, some of the cards got the top of the line treatment, while others barely got any treatment at all.
For a company that is going to be creating cards without player pictures on them in Hockey, I guess I should just stop expecting anything good ever to come out of their shop. You would think that with all of the corners they cut in design and production to save money, they would have a lot to invest in their products. We are not seeing that happen, outside of a few choice cards per set made from material that was purchased before Panini took the reigns of DLP.
Collector feedback on card forums has been horrid, and there are a lot of case breakers who wonder if they will even make back a small portion of their investment. Although breaking cases is always a risk, there has to be some reason why they do it. If the boxes dont deliver anything, there will be a lot of pissed off people.
Prime Cuts is not living up to standards set by its predecessor, and at 200 dollars a pack, Panini is not doing what they need to be doing. Because of the price tag, it will compete directly with the vastly superior Museum Collection, which so far, has been buzzing since release. I say this almost weekly, but I really hope Panini gets what is coming to them.
So far, we have had 10 boxes of 2011 Prime Cuts open in my store. It seems that half of the autos are prospects. I am not a fan of prospect autos in a product like this. Like Bowman products, you have to hold on to most prospect autos for a while before you know if you have a winner. However, I disagree with your statement that 2011 Prime Cuts Baseball is bad.
Besides the prospect autos, the hits I remember from our 10 boxes opened so far include: Lou Gehrig Icons Prime Jersey Bat Combo Relic #d/4, Cal Ripken Nicknames “Iron Man” Auto #d/25, Reggie Jackson Auto Patch Bat Combo #d/5, Nolan Ryan Auto #d/25, Duke Snider Icons Auto Jersey #d/25, Paul Molitor Auto Jersey #d/25, Phil Niekro Icons Auto Jersey, Clayton Kershaw Auto, Josh Hamilton Auto Jersey #d/5, Harmon Killebrew Colossal Jersey, Ichiro Jersey. One prospect auto was Babba Starling.
Although I don’t know the value of many of the prospect autos, all our Prime Cuts boxes delivered at least $100 eBay value. About half the boxes delivered at least $250 eBay value and we had a few big winners (see list above). I saw about 40 boxes of Museum Collection opened in my store. Based on the ten boxes of Prime Cuts opened in my store, value wise, I rate Prime Cuts above Museum Collection. Future eBay sales will be interesting.
Those are some of the worst looking cards I’ve ever seen. Period
I was so upset by the way they fooled us around with those ugly prospect autos that I downgraded Prime cuts from Product of the year to (Most disappointing) product of the year.
I was so fool to preorder one box of this stuff and when it reaches my home I already know it will be a bad day. But you know, “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me..”
So, this is the last Panini product I will buy.