Category Archives: Donini

Schooled.

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These are School Colors autos to be inserted in 2009 Donruss Classics.

This example is why you do not use silver pens to do on card autos. These look like in person signatures done by a fan, rather than on card autos from a manufacturer. Listen, I love the fact that on card signatures are coming back, but holy fuck, who green-lighted the paint pens? Staedtler makes all sorts of great pens to use in this situation, there was no reason to use the big behemoths to get these signed like TTMs.

Bad form Donini, bad form.

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.

Rating =

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.

Rating =

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.

Rating =

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.

Rating =

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.

Average of the Above =

I Have High Expectations For 2009 Products

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Every year, readers send me boatloads of emails asking which products are the best. I usually have to give them a short answer in the interest of not writing a novel, but most of the time it boils down to 5 products that don’t usually disappoint. Last year I talked here about my favorite cards of the year for each rookie class, so I thought I would update things a little with performance updates based on the 2008 products.

Here is my list for 2009:

1. SP Authentic Rookie Patch Auto

I put this one at number one because the design is usually the best of the year, they are usually half the price of their exquisite counterparts, they are on card autos, and they have been around longer than most of the other ones that are making an appearance on this list. Collectors value these over many of the more high end products mainly for those reasons and I agree. SPA is my favorite of the year almost all the time.

2. Exquisite Rookie Patch Auto

These cards come from the Bentley of sports card sets, and usually the design and value reflect that. I loved the RPAs from this past year, which offset the suspect year before it. These are the most valuable cards of the year, but you will pay almost twice the price of a normal card to get one. If you had started a collection of your guy, this would be the centerpiece.

3. National Treasures Rookie Patch Auto

I am only referring to the on card version of this set, as the others can get nuts with the different diecuts. I especially liked this set last year, as the tapered windows were a major, MAJOR upgrade. These may come out of the second most expensive product of the year, but they don’t live up to the cards from SPA and Exquisite. The reason that they are so high on this list, is they are the first super high end card of the year, and most consider these to be Cadillacs to the Bentley mentioned above. I would be fine with a Cadillac.

4. Topps Chrome Rookie Auto

I love Topps chrome, it’s the one Topps product that usually doesn’t disappoint. Add in the fact that they dropped the price last year, and I must have busted 5 boxes. The Chrome autos are usually just the auto’ed version of the base, a tactic I wholeheartedly approve of, and the simplistic card usually scores well with everyone. Although the design isnt fireworks in my heart this year, Im hoping it will look better in person. It usually does. Now, the photography is a whole different story altogether.

5. Leaf Limited Patch Auto

Leaf Limited was a let down last year due to the format switch. The patch autos were still great, however, and that was enough to get me to buy into a few group breaks. I think these made the Contenders from last year look like crap, but that was just me. This year, I hope they are back, and I hope they continue to be one of the more aesthetically pleasing. The one thing I am dreading is more black sharpie over the player’s pic. That didn’t make sense with room below.

Honorable Mentions:

– Playoff Contenders Ticket Auto – no material, which I like, but last few years design has been ridiculously bad.
– Leaf Certified Material Mirror Blue Freshman Fabric – Loved 2007, HATED 2008, 2009 is a ?
– Ultimate Collection RC Autos – These were kind of botched in terms of the usual format, but I loved these last year.

Be sure to realize that new products come out every single year, and this year will be no exception as Donini tries to make a splash. So far, we havent gotten much in terms of plans, but you can bet that the other companies will have their guns cocked and ready to fire with their own sexy products. As long as you are good at spotting the ‘1 year duds’ as I call them, you will be fine.