Category Archives: awful products

Product Review: 2009 Score Inscriptions Football

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I know this is a little late, but Score Inscriptions has released and I feel obligated to review it, despite the fact that many of you would never even think of buying a pack of it. Basically, this set has replaced the Score Select junk that seems to make its way onto the market each year, even though they really did nothing to make this set worth anyone’s time.

Design/Creativity

As if Select wasn’t bad enough last year, this year had no where to go but up. It didn’t really offer much improvement in the base set or in the “hot rookies,” but it is a better look. Don’t get me wrong, I would never think of this product as even in the same zip code as the top of the pack in terms of design, but it is a little better than the year before. I really dislike that Score has become of a place where graffiti artists go for their card design, as it makes everything look really weird and busy. For the last few years, its almost like they want the cards to look like they were spraypainted on the inside of an overpass tunnel, but they never really hit the mark. This set pretty much looks like an afterthought.

The Hot Rookies look as ridiculous as they did in 2008 and 2007, and you can see that this whole concept needs to be scrapped faster than any future Family Guy spinoffs. Score was better when it was just a low end solution to one’s hankering for set collecting, and adding in all these weirdly named parallels and awful insert sets hasn’t done much to bolster value.

The one seemingly redeemable factor about this entire product is the 1989 Score remake SPs. Each of the premiere rookies has their own addition to the iconic set of Sanders and Aikman, though the cards don’t feature much of what made the old cards great except for the border design. I could see these cards as a great addition to a set that actually matters, but I just don’t think there is much you can do for any Score branded set anymore. Im not a fan of these cards myself, only because of the helmet off pics, but I can see the appeal for people who don’t really care. I may pick up a Harvin just for kicks because these cards will be so cheap.

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Autograph Cards

The autograph cards in this set are pretty standard for any low end product. Slap a few stickers on the base cards and parallels, and you have yourself a set that many unsuspecting collectors will buy. The problem is, with so many oddly numbered parallels of every card, I would say you could have some scrubs with close to 1500 autographs in this set. Really, there just isnt much to say other than “This set contains autos. Yay.”

The 1989 Score reprint autos should be pretty valuable to start, only because they are exceedingly rare in a low end set. It would have been cool to see some on card autos here, but we all know that Donini thinks of hard signed as an exception rather than the rule. I may buy the Harvin auto later this year when the price of the set drops 80%.

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Relic Cards

There are no relic cards in this product.

Value To The Collector

Right now, it will cost you close to 100 dollars at some stores to buy a box of this junk. I am completely serious, and I saw it a few places at more than 100 bucks a box this weekend. I can tell you right now that any packs or boxes of Inscriptions bought at that price is money you are throwing in to a fire. You may end up with three autos, but the value will drop faster than Mike Singletary’s pants at halftime of a 49ers game.

For the last 2 years, Score Select has dropped more than 60% in terms of box price over the year, and even at 29.99 for a box, its still too expensive. Most people are just starved for good products, so they will open anything they can find just to test it out, and really, I cant tell you how stupid it is to even consider buying any of this product at the price its at right now.

When it comes to the value of the actual cards, the 1989 Score autos may hold SOME of their value, but the rest of the set will not. Don’t waste your time.

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Overall Impressions

Its Score Inscriptions. I don’t need to say anything else.

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2009 Product Leaderboard (SO FAR)

1(t). UD Icons Football (3/5 GELLMANS)
1(t). UD Heroes Football (3/5 GELLMANS)
1(t). UD Draft Edition (3/5 GELLMANS)
3(t). Donruss Classics (2/5 GELLMANS)
3(t). Donruss Elite (2/5 GELLMANS)
3(t). Playoff Prestige (2/5 GELLMANS)
3(t). Bowman Draft Picks (2/5 GELLMANS)
8. Score Inscriptions Football (1/5 GELLMANS)

Product Review: 2009 Donruss Elite Football

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We are four products into 2009, and Elite is the first product that actually holds some value for the collector in the long run. However, while looking at the final product, there were a few major questions looming that I may not have been able to get past. I was able to view a whole case broken by my friend, with disasterous results, but I am not going to focus on the pulls. Just the cards.

Design / Creativity

This year’s Elite is basically Prestige Chrome, and from my review of Prestige, you can pretty much get the feelings I have about this product. First, the set looks eerily familiar, or rather very close to last year. There is also an ugly addition to the base cards with the electrical storm that seemed to be present at the printing of these cards. In the words of my friend “What the fuck is this? Are they on the set of Crank?” Ha.

The subsets have also dropped considerably in terms of looks from last year. The throwback threads is a perfect example of how bad this has gotten. Last year, the cards were so good looking, I actually went out and bought my first non-auto jersey card in a year. This year, they look stupid to me, mainly because the jersey looks like an add on piece rather than part of the design like last year.

The staple of this set, Passing the Torch, has been updated – I guess for the better. It is no longer a front and back card, making it much easier to display. I don’t think the design is awful, but I don’t think it lives up to being THE cards from this product. Plus, when you look at every other company, not many have their crown jewel cards available in millions of parallels, unless you look at Topps High End. But that doesn’t count.

Also, im not sold on this mirrorfoil they have coating each card. In previous years it has become extremely succeptible to pack fresh damage, and my friend’s case definitely felt the brunt of it. Many of his cards were damaged, and though they werent too important, its frustrating. I think they need to get rid of this practice of using condition senstive materials to produce their cards. That is the one thing Topps has down with chrome and finest.

Lastly is the diecuts, something I used to like a lot. However, as a result of the coating on the cards, I saw a lot of damaged diecuts in my friend’s case. Some people love these cards, but I am indifferent, something you could attibute to my lack of love for the base cards. I don’t think it’s a win on these, but its not a fail either.

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Relic Cards

The floating swatches are back, and Donini fails to incorporate the windows into the product with any sort of good ideas. Most of the time the windows look like add ons, as said before, Im guessing because of how many parallels they have of each card. See, with UD, most jersey cards are designed to avoid the floating windows, most likely because the jersey window is incorporated into the design, and the sticker is added later. With Donini, it seems like they just try to fit everything onto a pre designed card. This leads to cards that have floating and out of place jersey windows that don’t fit into the overall feel of the design.

I am continually disappointed with Donini relic cards, they never do favors for my eyes. After the Prestige debacle where cards were designed that covered up the players with swatch windows, I thought things would get better. They didn’t.

I mentioned above that I didn’t like this year’s throwback threads set. Chain reaction and Prime Targets are worse than those, and you have to look hard to find a good looking relic card in this product.

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Autograph Cards

I am a big fan of paralleling the base cards with auto’ed versions, but its tough to find the autos in this set with the time travel residue, the dark cards, and the black marker that was used. I think when it comes to designing auto cards, you have to figure that a special light space needs to be present. On Bowman chrome last year, Topps did a higher half circle. On many other cards from last year, a light picture with a background included is used so that the stickers don’t blend in. None of this consideration was used for Elite.

As for the College ties autos, the cards look completely unbalanced. The autos weigh down the cards completely on the bottom and things look out of place when you throw a sticker on card designed as a base insert. Same thing tends to happen with many of the other subsets with auto parallels, and I think its scary that people think this shit is “cool.” Have we gotten that complacent?

As said above, I liked the PTT autos not being front and back this year, but I still hate all the parallels. I didn’t like that they switched to two tiny pics on the side, however, when you get into duals on one card, its tough to avoid. The PTTs are still the best cards of the product, but for this set, its not saying much. I sincerely hope Classics is much better. Yet, with that school colors preview we got, I am very, very scared.

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Value to the Collector

This is the first set of the year that minimally holds its value, especially in the low numbered diecuts and autos. I think its possible to make some money on a break of this stuff if you get lucky, but if you are looking to keep what you pull – wait for later sets. The PTT autos are some of the more valuable Donini duals, and have been the focus of many collectors who have liked the set.

The rookies arent going to hold too much value unless they are low numbered, but the diecuts and status cards should hold well over the months. I call this set Prestige Chrome, and its funny that the parallels of the RCs really fit this mold.

Lastly, I think its within your best interest to buy the singles as the price of the box is most likely not going to be eclipsed by what you pull. Still not an awful product to buy if you are looking for cards that wont be hurt by the release of the post premiere sets.

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Overall Impressions

I am very disappointed by Elite, I think this could have been done a lot better, especially if they had thrown in a few new concepts. See, with many other products, creativity factors into new subsets and better designs on the existing cards they are remaking. When you don’t change a thing and you throw it out there just to throw it out there, I am going chide you for your laziness. SP Authentic is the set to buy each year because they do a great job of combining the old with the amazing ideas they have for the new. This does absolutely nothing of the sort, and to me that is very frustrating. At that rate, you should just update your set each year with new cards, a “living set” as I saw someone suggest on one of the boards, mainly because I am so bored with stale concepts.

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2009 Product Leaderboard (SO FAR)

1. 2009 UD Draft Edition (3/5 GELLMANS)
2(t) 2009 Donruss Elite (2/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). 2009 Playoff Prestige (2/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). 2009 Bowman Draft Picks (2/5 GELLMANS)

Where Do We Stand For 2009?

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After this weekend, all I have heard is that this year, the card companies are going to be coming at us with all they have. On card autos, player inscriptions, new and wonderous patch ideas, everything. Since the rookies are always the focus of each card year, and secondary values holding at more than expectations on early products, are we seeing a bounce back that no one had predicted would come this early? I mean, Percy Harvin’s prestige auto sold for 62 dollars! 62! That is crazy talk for a late first round WR, even though he was touted as one of the most talented in the draft. Either way, some of the new trends seem to be helping us rather than hurting us, as maybe this will give the companies some steam to move through the year.

So far, all we have right now is Prestige, with UD Draft and Bowman DP nipping at its heels on the calendar. Donini’s offering was quite less than stellar in my opinion as the value for the collector just didn’t seem to have lasting power. Although it has its plusses, it was mostly a disappointing start to the 09 season. Bowman DP has a nice design, but in all honesty, I don’t see it ever being worth more than the Topps Draft Picks and Prospects sets of years past. UD draft looks ten times better than last year’s, but doesn’t have the bang I am looking for. However, with 5 autos per box, Im hoping it will be great, but as with all early products, I am not holding my breath. This begs the question in my mind of how they could just throw these products to the wolves and wait for the dog fight? In an economy that is depleating the necessary disposable income at record rates, why even waste your time with a sub par product? Prestige was definitely that, a throw away to cash in on early hype. It may have gotten some money in the door, but it did nothing but water down the strength of my desire to stick around for the blockbusters like SPA at the end of the year. At least, that’s the way I feel, maybe its different for others who are out there.

From the “coverage” of the premiere, it seems like player inscriptions are the new go to schtick for the companies to draw you in. Ill agree that cool extras like Sanchez writing “El Matador” on a card or “go Jets” has its appeal, but after awhile, that will go away. Im not going to argue and say its not worth it now, because it is. I love the idea of the casual inscription, but as with every good thing, it will become the standard rather than the exception that made it special. Eventually we will long for a regular auto because “See you next year Tebow!” will have been on every card. You know it will happen.

In my interview with two different shop owners that I will post later this week, both said that the market is spread too thin for anyone to have any semblance of a way to collect what they need, let alone what they want. I stand by the fact that I do not agree that there should be 4 products a year, but I will say that maybe its time to rethink the strategy for the year at a time. Both owners said that the kids have been lost and that there is no way to get them back, which makes me think that there could be a large, large problem coming down the road. Matt from the Beverly Hills Card Shop mentioned that in today’s hobby, most of the kids that come in only want the 20 dollar packs, or if they don’t, they are left with VERY few choices that still provide them a chance at the stuff they came for. Where does that leave us?

Elaborate patches and unique player signatures only go so far, but you also have to consider that there isnt much money in the industry to take things to a different level either. This is where the stale ideas come in, and I am one of the people they are losing, for sure. Im not saying that I am going to stop collecting right this second, but I am bored beyond belief, despite my enthusiasm in the last post. I am more excited now after hearing reports from the weekend, but I am far from my excitement in 06 and 07. I hope that the companies do not think of autos inscriptions as the out pitch, it needs to be the setup outside. We need something better, and I hope they can find a way to do it. I want them to find a way to do it. Its been 13 years since the hobby has been reinvented, I don’t think I want to go through the innovations that have hit other industries in that time.

Product Review: 2009 Donini Playoff Prestige Football

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Here it is, your first product review of 2009, but I will warn you it wont be as eventful as you are probably hoping. Basically, the sets that are going to grace this page for the next two months are just going to be fillers in the calendar until the premiere cards are released in july with Classics. At least you can be rest assured that I am not going to hold back just because these sets swim in the shallow end of the pool.

Starting this year, I am going to be doing the reviews differently. Last year I reviewed things in Good, Bad, and Ugly, but I feel it didn’t do a lot of the reviews justice in the format I had created. This year, ill address four important parts of each set, design/creativity, autos, relics, and finally value to the collectors. It will be a five point rating scale of one Gellman to five Gellmans.

= Don’t even think of wasting money on this
= A poor attempt, but it could have been worse
= Meh. Average.
= Exceeds Expectations
= The Best of the Best.

Hopefully with this, I will be able to set your expectations for any particular set, and still have room for the rants that make these reviews so cathartic for me. With that, here is the first review of 2009, Donini Playoff Prestige.

Design/Creativity

The normal cards in this set don’t look THAT bad for this early in the season. The white background on the base cards looks like it does this set a lot of favors. However, that is really the only plus in design this set has. Pretty much all of the other subsets look like they had some trouble being created as you can tell that Donini cant get past designing their cards backwards. Donini designs cards with the auto jersey subset as the main design, other companies seem like they do it differently. What I mean is this, instead of starting with a base card, adding a relic window and then adding a place for the auto sticker, Donini starts with the Auto Jersey card and subtracts without repositioning. This leads to floating jersey windows and off balanced base cards. Please, go look through your donruss cards, the only difference between your auto jerseys and your jerseys are the presence of a sticker. There is nothing else different on those cards. I guarantee it. Really, it makes me angry because you will always pay for 4 jerseys a box, but really they are just an afterthought.

A redeeming part of this set is the auto RC base cards, which look pretty good. I always love when companies use autos as base parallels, and in the early releases, this is a major staple of each set. However, with the other subsets being pretty awful, its tough to justify an entire product based on the base cards and the one auto set.

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Autograph Cards

As I said above, you buy Prestige because it’s the first. Its become so expensive though, I may have to sway you away from buying it because you DO NOT get what you pay for. The RC base autos in this are quite good as I have mentioned, but the other autos leave a lot to be desired, especially the signature manupatch cards. I don’t understand why these are making a comback, but alas here they are. I think that because all the subsets are obviously designed backwards, your auto cards, other than the base parallel sigs, will look very goofy. Prestigious Picks takes that to a whole new level. If you are lucky enough to pull the auto jersey parallel of those subsets, they look fine, but they are also quite rare (numbered to 10 or 5). Basically the autos here fall below my expectations, mainly because they havent fixed the design abortions from last year.

However, they have included base auto parallels of the vets too, which save them from a total waste in this department.

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Relic Cards

The relics in this set are either going to
be college jerseys or vet jerseys, and they will not look pretty when you pull them unless you get very lucky. Based on this, you are going to get windows for the relics that are more than halfway up the card, or over so far to the side that it interferes with the general design of the subset. This set would be so much better if they did it more like UD draft with a focus on the autos (5 per box!) instead of throwing in more jersey cards that wont get you 5 bucks on eBay. If you are lucky enough to pull a patch, which is VERY rare, they will be 2 color at best, as I don’t see Donini using their ‘A’ material this early.

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Value To The Collector

This set never holds its value because its purpose is to be the first on the market. You will pay 80-100 dollars for the top autos now, but half that as the year moves on. Even if you are a college collector, you should wait for Elite as it is a much better product that holds value more. Add in the fact that you could be paying up to 100 dollars for a box, and you are going to shoot yourself in the face when you get 2 dollars of a return on your cards. Without a doubt, you need to wait to buy some of the better stuff, and luckily its only a few months.

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Overall Impressions

That’s about it for prestige, but the flow has started so start beating your wallet into shape if you can. UD draft is coming on the 26th and Bowman DP is coming around that time as well. Its exciting to have cards coming again, but hopefully we see better stuff with improvements over the last year. This product did not deliver on that one bit.

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