I dont even know where to start criticizing this card’s swatch placement or die-cut design. Its almost like they put the card up on a dartboard, and threw two darts to determine where to put the windows. Well, at least they hit the center?
I didn’t actually realize that Leaf Rookies and Stars comes out as well as UD Philadelphia, but to tell you the truth, I am glad that was the case. This is due to the fact that even though Rookies and Stars looks nothing like last year’s product, which is a feat for Panini, it could be the worst design choice of the year. In fact, im not even going to waste the hour writing the product review, only to give it less of a score than Score Inscriptions got.
R&S takes the same idea as Inscriptions of going “urban” with the design, incorporating graffiti like bordering, as well as a weird obsession with paint spills. The text and font choice is just as bad, as the way it is featured could not look more stupid. Imagine the way a neon sign looks when it is turned off, and you have the font for some of the subsets of R&S. Otherwise its just weird looking stencils.
This product is also FILLED with floating plain swatch cards with hundreds of parallels, just the way Panini loves to do it. Honestly, why are these cards even necessary? Oh, right, because they are too lazy to fill out a whole set.
Lastly, we have the worst of the worst. As if you thought the Panini style Manu-patch autos werent enough in Prestige, THEY’RE BAAAACKK! Only this time, the players are stuffed onto a smaller border and covered in a paint spill. Cmon, enough with this poop of a product.
Ill be honest, of all the products that have been released since 2007, Leaf Rookies and Stars is the one product that I have never bought a single, pack, or box of, mainly because the cards have always been so stupid looking. The main rookie part of this set has helmet off pics, so it makes it even less attractive to me, and the design has NEVER been good.
Add this set to the list of products that needs to get the axe.
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.
Rating = 
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.
Rating =
Overall Impressions
Its Score Inscriptions. I don’t need to say anything else.
Average Rating =
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)
In 2007, Gridiron Gear was one of my favorite sets of the year, but in 2008, it dropped well below acceptable standards to me. The continued use of event used footballs, as well as a RC Patch auto design that didnt lend well to parallels sold the product down the river to me.
I see a lot of 2008’s product in 2009’s preview, which concerns me, in addition to ANOTHER Donini set with sticker autos, despite a focus on hard signed products elsewhere. Gridiron Gear is like SPA and Limited is like Ultimate in terms of the release calendar, and both are at a disadvantage to UDs sets before a preview is even released. See, I love UD products because they are the best, its not even a contest, especially when Donini continually falls short of product expectations.
Ill give you an example.
Instead of retiring lame gimmicks like signed plastic NFL fields, and cards with rubber helmets embedded in them, they are issued as a staple in the product. I cant tell you how bored I am with these cards, even when they were created in 2007, and it makes me really frustated to think how lazy the Donini designers are. Why not focus on the design of the Gridiron Gems to ASSURE that every parallel fits into the design. It didnt last year, and from the preview of the sanchez here, this year’s is the same. Look at the tapering of the window in relation to the design. It looks off, because the card was actually designed for the other parallels. This fact, in turn, makes the window look like it is breaking through the borders of the card.
Here is the reality I see in Donini cards for 2009. Who ever is designing them was just given the old set and adobe photoshop and told to reinvent. Rather than starting from scratch as UD and Topps usually do, they just tweak little parts of the old cards. Im guessing its because of a lack of talent/lack of knowhow in the designers’ repetoir, but it could just be that they have no resources – hence all the stickers.
As I said in my UD bias post, I give them more positive press because they are just better at making cards. Donini and Topps are second tier when you hold up the calendar against each other. Sadly, the second tier is second class in this case. Ill take SPA and Ultimate over Limited and Gridiron Gear every day of the week.
First off, let me say how surprised I am by how good some of these cards look. Have things started to turn around for the bastard child of bad ideas and poor design? Possibly.
The best part about these cards is that they seem to be the first design update for any release that Donini has had for the entire year. They acutally look somewhat different from 2008. As for the Leaf Limited slideshow autos, the design looks pretty cool for me, the best of the previews. When it comes to all the RC Phenoms Patch Autos, the one they showed looks much better than last year, though I am VERY scared for the parallels that are not out of 5. Usually with these cards, there are a million parallels, and many of them just say “RC” in die cut windows, or have the number of the player. These particular ones will be the most short printed of the non-logos, and I cant fathom where they are going to put the patch for the normal card out of 99. The Cut autos look very good as well, but I never really saw the appeal in cuts to begin with. At least if you pull one, it wont be a crappy looking card.
The Letters are always a favorite of the fans, as they are really the only game used autographed letter cards out there. Factoring in that these will also be pro bowl ones, will make people very happy. Personally, I know they wont be the ACTUAL Pro Bowl jerseys, but rather a practice one or something similar, as the actual ones are coveted possessions of the players. Plus, im not a fan of the pro-bowl to begin with, so its not a big deal to me. Hopefully there will game used ones as well.
Lastly, there are a few AWFUL parts to this product. Of course, the main one is that the base cards look ridiculous, especially when they have a swatch involved. Although the swatch is in the right place, I cant get passed the hypnotizing design. What an awful choice for a theme for the set. Secondly, for what you get, the price point is going to be beyond stupid. They are going back to the one pack box, which I wholly support, but they are giving you 1 auto and 1 jersey for 100 fucking dollars. Sorry, but Limited is always a good affordable option for higher class cards, and they are now taking that away. Very problematic to me, as they just priced me out of a few boxes, especially with dealer markup. Then, when you add in the diluted RC premiere class from 2009, and you just priced a lot of the rest of the collectors out of this product. This will be a big problem, and I dont think Donini knows any better.
You can color me exicited for the possibility of buying some cool singles, but I will not even consider buying a box of Limited this year thanks to the configuration. Too bad really.
