Upper Deck has a very unique situation on their hands with each Exquisite release, and they are using it very much to their advantage. Because the product hits shelves so late, and because they dont need to wait for the draft to see team affiliation, they can print the NEXT year’s rookie class in the product. This has been a welcome addition to the product for 3 years, giving collectors a high end card for the upcoming class prior to it being avialable anywhere else.
Here are some of the cards from this year:
2012 Exquisite Geno Smith XRC /175
2012 Exquisite Matt Barkley XRC /175
2012 Exquisite EJ Manuel XRC /175
Although I dont think the design is the strongest for 2013, as it was in previous years, I still like these cards. I am a high end collector, and we all know there is nothing more high end than Exquisite was prior to 2010
. Although the players arent in pro uniforms, the examples are not far below where they were previously.
In my opinion, the 2011 rookie cards for the 2012 class were the best of the best, but 2010 was pretty good as well. For this year, Upper Deck opted for a more complicated and more busy design, which I dont think worked as well
. Previously, Exquisite was about simplicity and understated beauty, and while these cards are NOT ugly, they dont really fit the previous mold.
Im interested to see how this class progresses, but its always fun to see the rookies that command a high end price from a high end set, prior to the season’s beginning. Hopefully we will continue to see this type of work in the future.
Love Exquisite. 2010 Exquisite, as stated, was pretty good. I really liked the class that Upper Deck chose in the 2010 Collection but the Bookmark autographs were a bit odd in 2010. Some autographs were on jersey, which fade beyond recognition, while some autographs would be placed over a players name or image. It just seemed like Upper Deck made these without planning for the autograph. 2010 in my book had the best looking U.D. black I’ve yet to see.
However in my opinion, 2011 Exquisite has the overall best looking design. Love the bookmarks except for the standard one color jerseys. They’re still great to display & are very short printed. Shadowboxes are a design I still think is one of the best new ideas for a card. The U.D Black/Lustrous lack the “WOW” factor & are quite boring. The Draft Pick class may be great but it’s (thus far) lacking Andrew Luck. The Draft Pick base cards spew class & are my favorite 2012 base set.
I’m not really liking the 2012 Exquisite as 2011. The 2012 Bookmarks look a full class below the Exquisite’s norm. Too much white & grey. The Shadowboxes have lost some of the 3-D/stacked/layered effect found in the 2011’s. Now you have to look in 3 different spots to see the autograph, the player & the school logo.
Bottom line: After a very successful 2011 Collection, I expected for Upper Deck to improve on the success. 2012 Exquisite shows not only has it not improved but Upper Deck decided to flush the format. I’ll continue to pickup the gold rookie JSY/AU as always but as for the rest…I’m not impressed. After seeing 2012 Five-Star, I think Exquisite may have a challenger.
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College rookie cards …… -_-