Category Archives: Product Review

Product Review: 2009 Donruss Certified Football

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After seeing the preview for Donruss Certified, I could not believe how much of a cop out Panini had gone with in terms of the design. They had basically taken the 2008 design (which wasn’t good to begin with) and updated it with minor tweaks. Now that I am seeing the finished product, it has improved over the sell sheet, but still has the look and feel of an inferior 2008 product.

Design/Creativity

There are parts of this set that are vastly improved over the previous years, and others that are lower or exacly the same. For that reason, I cant give Panini that much credit. There are so many similar cards between 2008 and 2009, that it takes away from the general feel of the set. If you look back at the 2008 set, it was full of junk, floating swatch windows, stupid looking subsets, millions of parallels. This year, many of the floating windows are gone, but the Parallels are still there, and the subsets still look pretty bad. Panini, as if anyone expected anything less, chose foilboard again for their production, which led to a number of warped, chipped and damaged cards in the boxes I got to see.

The highlight of this set is the Fabric of the Game single cards, which are definitely cool looking. They feature team color elements, and the diecuts arent bad. One of the diecuts, the team name logos, looks ridiculously cool mainly because they went with the spelled out name rather than the helmet decal cutout. It looks much better that way, and really completes the design. The others, especially the autos look MUCH better than last year, and you can see why this is the most collected part of the product each year.

The other focus of many collectors are the Freshman Fabric cards, which pretty much look like carbon copies of 2008, unfortunately. On the triples and quads, I am still confused as to why they put the windows where they did, as it looks like there is an Asteroids type swatch window squadron that is attacking the player at the top. The biggest improvements are the dual swatch autos, which went from horrible looking jersey/football cards, to cool looking dual jerseys. Im completely serious when I say that last year’s Mirror Reds may have been the worst looking cards of the year behind Topps Lettermen. This year, they don’t break any part of the borders with the swatch windows, and they actually look like they were designed correctly. They are still sticker autos, but for the first time in a long time, they look better than SPX.

As for the rest of the set, there is a lot of crap to accompany the good parts. The souveneir stamps are back, and continue to be one of the dumbest ideas in any card product for the year. It would be one thing if the stamps were actually collectible, and were put in HOFer cards to match the years, but when you do stamps from fucking stamps.com, there is a big fucking problem. On top of all of that, the autos NEVER fit very well onto the cards, and yet, year after year, the cards are back. The design is not updated, ever, and the cards are just boring motherfucking poop.

Another huge problem is the base set, and those subsets that are derived from it. I have no idea why, but every single player’s head is chopped off. I guess it was to make the players look larger than the cards themselves, but instead it looks like 40% of the whole product was cut wrong. You have a whole fucking base card, get the whole goddamn head in there.

The other subsets arent much better, as every card has about 20 parallels, jersey, auto and other, and really it just gets overwhelming and useless. Panini is continuing to think that subsets with parallels are the answer to everything, when really they just add fluff to a set that could use some actual meat.

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Autograph Cards

The autograph cards in this set range from great to shitty and lots in between. There is no consistency, and when one card looks amazing, there are others that look like a five year old put them together.

I really like the autographed Fabric of the Game cards, as even with a sticker, they look cool. The cards don’t look horribly unbalanced, and the layout is pretty much correct. The team color design and the layout of all the different swatches works really well, and its not on FOIL! YES!


As said above, the base freshman fabric dual jersey autos are great, but they are the only good version of the cards, as well as being the only updated version of the cards. The others, as shown a few weeks ago, look exactly the same. If you are going to copy an old card, you have to make sure it was good to begin with. The 2008 versions were awful, and yet we get no new version. Too bad.

When you get to the Immortal Signature cards, you have some of the most packed designs I have seen in a long time. They make the jumbo swatch auto RPM cards from absolute look empty. Not only do they have a swatch, a sticker and a giant player with half a head, but they also have IMMORTALS scrawled across the whole thing. It just looks disgusting.

Overall, it’s the first Panini set that looks like it is improving in terms of creating auto cards, but they are a LOOOONNNNGGG way from producing on the level of Topps and Upper Deck.

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Relic Cards

There are a few good relic cards and a few bad relic cards in this set, but considering that every single card in the set has a jersey parallel, it gets to be too much.

First are the Freshman Fabric cards that are only jerseys. One is a high numbered swatch or patch, the other is the 1/1 mirror black logo. Both look good for a no-auto swatch card, and I am liking the logo cards in the context of the Frosh Fab design. The big jersey cards look SO much better than the 2008 version, and I credit it solely to the way the window is cut. At least for this design, the player doesn’t have to be huge to look good, and they don’t look covered up like they did in absolute’s crapfest.

The single fabric of the game jersey cards are great, and live up to the general feel of the previous years of the product. As I said before the team name logo cards are beyond cool, and even the single swatches don’t look awful.

Moving on to the dual and up v
ersions of the fabric of the game cards, they look as awful as the other Panini cards this year. They are busy, loud, and just look like total crap. They tried to go in the completely wrong direction, and the cards look like modernized Zubaz pants as a result. In all truthfulness, the plain swatch card has become completely obsolete, and when you see a card like these, it just screams that Panini has no fucking clue what is going on.

As for the subset jersey cards like the base parallel, Immortals, and Certified potential, they are all amost stereotypical. You could put these cards in front of me with a mock up line up with UD and Topps cards and I wouldn’t even have to breathe before telling you they were Panini’s. They are a complete snooze, and the new way Panini is cutting their plain swatches is getting fucking annoying. Enough with this shit already.

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Value To The Collector

Im not really sure what direction to go with this product. The product features some cards that will be extremely valuable and highly collected, but also a good portion of stuff that will just blur together with the rest of their releases from 2008 and 2009.

I think that anything that has a logo on it will sell, as evidenced by the Mirror Blacks of previous years, but outside of the low numbered parallels, it’s a complete crap shoot. The good thing is that a box will probably not run you more than 75 bucks after the first few weeks, and from what it looks like, they have pretty good value in them with more than 1 auto in most cases.

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The problem with everything Panini, including Certified, is that the formula is stale and over done. Boxes filled with worthless and poorly designed swatches among sticker autos that have no place. For that reason, this product will fall, and that could affect value in the long run.

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Overall Impressions

Certified is, in my opinion, the best Panini release so far, but that isnt saying much. Panini is obviously focusing on basketball, and from that, the football side of things is continuing to suffer. There was no heart in this product, instead being a rehash of a sub-par release from 2008. There are slight improvements, but overall, like most Panini products in 2009, it falls continually short on fronts that they always have problems with.

As of now, it’s pretty sad to see that so many of my favorite products have tanked in terms of design and feel, thus solidifying that I am going to save my money for perennial good buys like Chrome, SPA, and others.

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2009 Product Leaderboard (SO FAR)

1. Topps Chrome (4/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). Donruss Certified (3/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). Upper Deck Football (3/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). UD Philadelphia (3/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). Topps Football (3/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). UD Icons (3/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). UD Heroes (3/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). UD Draft Edition (3/5 GELLMANS)
9(t). Upper Deck SPX (2/5 GELLMANS)
9(t). Playoff Absolute Memorabilia (2/5 GELLMANS)
9(t). Bowman Sterling Football (2/5 GELLMANS)
9(t). Donruss Threads (2/5 GELLMANS)
9(t). Donruss Classics (2/5 GELLMANS)
9(t). Donruss Elite (2/5 GELLMANS)
9(t). Playoff Prestige (2/5 GELLMANS)
9(t). Bowman Draft Picks (2/5 GELLMANS)
17. Score Inscriptions (1/5 GELLMANS)
18. Leaf Rookies and Stars (0/5 GELLMANS – NR)

Product Review: 2009 SPX Football

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Yesterday I had the chance to spend a few hours with my friends as they broke a case of SPX and a few other things. I was very eager to see the SPX because of the bad taste I had in my mouth after the initial eBay auctions, and im not sure it got all that much better. Sadly, SPX has been a dissappointing experience to me ever since they went to the new format in 2007, and this year I was hoping for more than just a bunch of needless relics.

Design/Creativity

There are two parts of this set I love, one part im good with, and a bunch that I hate. The first of the parts that I love is the Shadow Box cards. They are fucking sweet, and you really have to see one in a non scan format to appreciate it. The cards almost look 3D, and the way they are put together highlights a few different full sized player pictures. My buddy pulled the Peyton Manning, and it was the best looking card he pulled. Its one of those parts that a lot of people will be after, so be ready.

The second part of the set that I love is the autographed version of the Rookie Materials subset. The pics arent my favorite, but the design may have been a better choice for the base rookie autos. They are a balanced card with some cool elements, opting more for simple lines and features rather than filling it with needless paint spills and the like. I would definitely go after a few of them, but helmet off pictures are not my thing.

I also gained a little bit more appreciation for the base rookie autos after seeing them, as the design isnt all THAT bad when you see it in person. The problem is that its still a gaudy example of gold foil, but at least its dulled so that it doesn’t distract from things like the normal Panini fare. I would love to see on card autos on these, but with the time between the premiere and the release, that is just impossible. At least these cards look better than last year, which is a plus, but still not at the standards I expect from Upper Deck.

Outside of those three elements, SPX is just plain boring and poorly designed. If they went back to the format from 2006, it would prevent a lot of mediocrity that has seeped into this set. The jersey cards are horrible looking, like they forgot the autos, and the non-base rookie autos are a snoozefest. I almost tuned out after the main hit was pulled from each box, because of how bad some of the cards are.

I would say that SPX looks rushed at the very best. You can easily tell where the focus is, and the rest is a graveyard of floating swatch windows and Panini-style design elements.

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Autograph Cards

I don’t have many complaints about the autograph cards, because they arent the downfall of this product. They don’t bring this product to another level either, so its pretty much indifference here. The stickers do detract from things, but at least they arent covered up by dark colors either.

The rookie auto jerseys arent as horrible as I thought, but they arent that great either, a running theme for this year. Thank god the windows look like footballs instead of spelling out SPX like they have for the last 2 years, one of the main welcome changes for the set.

The base scrub autos arent horrible either, they just look like the filler they are. They fit in with everything in the product, and they really arent something you are going to have as that one memorable card from your box. Most of them suffer from the Brady effect, or getting every rookie to sign some cards just so you can have a card of the one guy like Brady or Romo who breaks out from the later rounds.

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Relic Cards

Man, Im wondering if someone from Panini designed the relic cards from this set. They are the worst I have seen out of a UD product in a LONG time. Floating swatches, backwardly designed cards, and boring concepts litter the product to the point of nauseum. At least they are better than the weird die cut numbers and shapes of the last few years, but not on the level they should be at all.

When many of the relic only cards look like you forgot to add the autos, there are major problems. Panini does this on a regular basis, but we have yet to see UD break the golden rule of designing the relics as stand alones and finding a place for autos later. Otherwise they end up like crap when you have 10 parallels to fill the set.

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Value to the Collector

SPX as singles will actually hold value pretty well, especially the rookie autos and the shadow boxes. These are the first cards that really will hold through the year, even with other releases, and its not a bad idea to buy now on the cards you like. The parallels that are created on the rookie autos are always collected by a lot of people, so if you pull one, consider yourself VERY lucky.

The Shadow Boxes, especially the auto’ed versions will sell well because of the way they look and because of the rarity. I would think this type of idea will be repeated in other ways, and that its pretty cool to think how it can be used. Black already somewhat uses it with the Lustrous cards, but now it may be taken in another direction. I really like that, and so will the people who will chase these cards.

Outside of the rookie autos and the rare case hits, there isnt much value. The jersey cards are throwaways and the other stuff is junk. It’s the reason you should stick to singles over buying a box. The fact that this product is carrying a 150 dollar price tag is borderline Triple Threads territory.

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Overall impressi
ons

This set was held back by the non auto jersey cards, plain and simple. Without the relics and with a cheaper price tag, this could have been a great product a la 2006. I think things are definitely better than 2008, but not to the point where it deserves any praise. SPX needs a major redesign, as it does in baseball, hopefully with figuring out ways to get rid of the swatch cards that are completely worthless.

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2009 Product Leaderboard (SO FAR)

1. Topps Chrome (4/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). Upper Deck Football (3/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). UD Philadelphia (3/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). Topps Football (3/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). UD Icons (3/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). UD Heroes (3/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). UD Draft Edition (3/5 GELLMANS)
8(t). Upper Deck SPX (2/5 GELLMANS)
8(t). Playoff Absolute Memorabilia (2/5 GELLMANS)
8(t). Bowman Sterling Football (2/5 GELLMANS)
8(t). Donruss Threads (2/5 GELLMANS)
8(t). Donruss Classics (2/5 GELLMANS)
8(t). Donruss Elite (2/5 GELLMANS)
8(t). Playoff Prestige (2/5 GELLMANS)
8(t). Bowman Draft Picks (2/5 GELLMANS)
16. Score Inscriptions (1/5 GELLMANS)
17. Leaf Rookies and Stars (0/5 GELLMANS – NR)

Product Review: 2009 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia Football

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Ok, I have waited to post this review to see if there was anything that could really redeem this set in my eyes, and so far there has been very little to do so. I saw a few boxes broken with pretty horrible results (unlike Beckett who had some great results, as usual) and I just cant find a reason why this set was done the way it was.

Design/Creativity

Aside from the rehashed RPM design and stale concept of the entire set, the actual design of the rest of the product’s ridiculous number of subsets is horrible. Starting with the Tools of the Trade all the way through the War Room stuff, it all just screams typical Panini crap design. In addition to an awful look, each card features weirdly cut swatch windows and the ugliest of gaudy raibow fucking foilboard.

Since the RPMs are the focus of this set, Ill start there. The design is pretty much the same it has been since 2003 or whenever. It hasn’t really changed other than the fact that they now have as many parallels as Beckett has conflicts of interest in their magazine. Yeah, that many. You have the regular “NFL”, a diecut of the NFC or AFC, their number, a jumbo jersey, a jumbo patch, a brand logo, a nfl shield, a jumbo jersey auto, a jumbo patch auto, a brand logo auto, and a shield auto, among others. The stupid thing is that so many of these parallels feature swatches that intrude into the player’s photo, thus making the card pretty pointless and fugly. In addition, they used stickers for everything, so the black autos (some of which still feature college number inscriptions) don’t really work well on reflective board and dark colors. Also, the fact that almost EVERY parallel features those stupid and needless football swatches, makes me want to scream. I don’t care about some football that a player played catch with for two throws. It has less connection than including a napkin they wiped their hands on during lunch. DITCH IT.

Moving into the subsets, Panini has pretty much outlawed square swatches in their design, as if that would solve the problem of them placing them in horrible places on the cards. Unlike the other companies, however, instead of making symmetrical borders to the windows, they pretty much just cut them out like a five year old with their first pair of scissors. Then, when you think about the crazy lines on the card that Panini has been known for, and you can see where asymmetrical swatch windows would look ridiculous. Those swatch windows are often placed where they break the line borders on the cards, making it seem like they were not factored in when the card was designed. This is pretty common with Panini products, because they parallel every one of their cards to fucking hell. First they create the base card, parallel that 10 times, then add in a swatch, then add in an auto. Its all very backwards, and leads to an awkwardly balanced card.

The only redeeming part of the entire thing may have been the Absolute patches. These cards look good because they arent paralleled (big shock). They feature jumbo patches, placed correctly, and usually with multiple breaks in a huge window. It fits well, and makes me wonder why the set wasn’t done more like these cards. These cards will be prime for the patch fakers to exploit, but they look like they may be the only part of this set that actually had some thought put into it.

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Autograph Cards

The autograph cards in this set pretty much fit in with the rest of the crap that is featured ad nauseum in Absolute. They are rarely well done, and not one of them is on card. The stickers arent focused on like Topps’ bordered boxes, but they are hard to miss on the rainbow foil board.

I would say that the Canton absolutes (a horrible conceived concept of a subset) is the best looking of all of them, but im not sure why they didn’t focus more on getting design filled with cards that could actually go well with the stickers.

The RPM autos are numbered to 299 and have five billion parallels, so the effect of pulling one is getting to be a lot less than it used to be. Then when you see some of the players STILL having stickers with their college number on it and you start to get even more frustrated. When you look at the jumbo swatch autos, its clear that there is just too much on the card to begin with, especially with the inclusion of the stupid football swatch in the corner.

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Relic Cards

Holy fuck, I don’t even know where to start.

The thing that most pissed me off were these pro-bowl tools of the trade cards, and it bothers me what people are saying in response to their addition to the product. First, none, yes none, of the pro bowl swatches are game used. They are all from an event that was held at the event. The same will be true for triple threads and everything else. These swatches will be a focus of a few more sets this year, which makes me throw up in my mouth when I think about it. Panini has singlehandedly taken a nice pull out of the set and turned it into a joke. The cards look stupid, and I cant even think as to why people are so excited over them. At least with the rookies, there is no choice, but with the vets, there is a choice. Event used crap should only be used when there isnt anything else, and to try to slip one through the five hole and make people believe these are real is junk.

Then, I saw the rest of the cards. I tried to find a relic card that wasn’t bad, and aside from the absolute patch set mentioned above, there is absolutely nothing. Most of the time, 3 out of 4 hits in your box will be a relic card, and you should see what some of them look like. None of them look like they were designed with a swatch in mind.

Lastly, enough with die cutting weird crap into the cards. Jersey numbers are one thing, but when you start diecutting the name of the fucking conference they play in, you are walking a thin line between shit like Sterling and Triple Threads and normal junk. Maybe this is just a signal to stop with the plain swatch cards.

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Value To The Collector

People freaking love this set because they are blinded by the swatches and autos they can pull. In reality, there arent many strong points in terms of memorabl
e parts of the set, so everything kind of blends together. That means that there are no cards that really are worth buying these boxes for, and the value of the whole comes down considerably. The Auto’ed RPMs will hold value until Limited and the like, but once those come out, it will be tough to get much for any of them.

The boxes will cost more than average products, and its rare that you will make your money back. Because the set is so over dilluted with poorly designed jerseys and stuff, it will be tough to find boxes that will make you feel good about the purchase you just made. As with any product like this, its always better to buy the singles than to spend 120 dollars and buy this.

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Overall Impressions

To me, its pretty sad what Absolute has become. It used to be something that was a fresh start to the products with rookie material in it, now its just ugly, boring, and poorly conceived. Even the Tools of the Trade cards have sunk to a below bottom standard, and that makes me angry. Im hoping that eventually Panini gets the point and realizes what they are doing has put them at the bottom of the barrel for design in football.

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2009 Product Leaderboard (SO FAR)

1. Topps Chrome (4/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). Upper Deck Football (3/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). UD Philadelphia (3/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). Topps Football (3/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). UD Icons (3/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). UD Heroes (3/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). UD Draft Edition (3/5 GELLMANS)
8(t). Playoff Absolute Memorabilia (2/5 GELLMANS)
8(t). Bowman Sterling Football (2/5 GELLMANS)
8(t). Donruss Threads (2/5 GELLMANS)
8(t). Donruss Classics (2/5 GELLMANS)
8(t). Donruss Elite (2/5 GELLMANS)
8(t). Playoff Prestige (2/5 GELLMANS)
8(t). Bowman Draft Picks (2/5 GELLMANS)
15. Score Inscriptions (1/5 GELLMANS)
16. Leaf Rookies and Stars (0/5 GELLMANS – NR)

Product Review: 2009 Topps Chrome Football

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Instead of doing a normal review as I usually do, Im going to discuss Chrome in relation to the box break I was able to do today. Three more breaks will be coming on Monday, but due to a lack of time today due to meetings, I didnt have a lot of freedom to hang at the shop. I did my break as I planned, and I am actually pretty happy with the result.

Design/Creativity
I love the look of these Chrome cards, especially the different refractors that are available this year. There are a few drawbacks this year, which I will get to, but overall the set looks amazing. Topps’ design for their flagship was spot on, which means that the design for Chrome was also pretty awesome.

For the cards I pulled, most of the photos were great as well, something that was a drawback for last year’s product. They experimented a little too, as some of the Rookies were photographed with their helmet off, or in weird poses. It actually works pretty well, as the monotony of the same pose wears on the overall presentation of a set. My favorite of my pulls was probably the Hey Bey, as he looked pretty acrobatically posed on the shot.
However, not everything was great. First were the Cheerleader cards, which Beckett has hailed as the best football insert card ever made. That is like saying David Eckstein is the tallest player ever to play baseball. The Cheerleaders take up spaces that could be reserved for actual players, and I cringed each time I pulled one. When there is 40 cards in a pack like in the flagship jumbos, its one thing, but with 4 cards per pack, its ridiculous.
Secondly were the Chicle cards, which transferred about as well as expected to Chrome. They looked out of place, and should have just been axed with the Cheerios. A lot of wasted space.
On a good note, many of the colored refractors looked like they fit great. The color highlights the design, which means the retail blues should look perfect. I pulled Marques Colston, Brandon Pettigrew, and a few scrubs including Mr. 1:7000 Demetrius Byrd. Im hoping that in my other boxes ill hit a biggie like I did with McFadden last year.
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Autograph Cards

I think the Chrome autos are some of the best rookie autos of the year, despite the stickers they use. They hold value pretty well too, thus making the 50 dollar box a winner. I saw a Maclin pulled while I was at the shop, and was literally shocked at how cool it looked. Topps added in printed wording on the cards as well, which will completely deter people from slapping fake stickers on the non-auto RCs like in previous years.
The coolest looking pull of the day was definitely the Brandon Pettigrew black refractor auto that the owner pulled out of some loose packs he had, as the sleek black border made the card look great on the refractor board. They were numbered as low as the Rookie Patch autos, which should have been the plan from the beginning. No patches needed. Everyone at the shop agreed.
Lastly are the down point of the autos, something I discussed a few days ago with the Stafford. As if on cue, I pulled a Stephen McGee patch auto out of my box, which was better than a scrub, obviously, but wont be added to my collection either. The patches look ridiculous on the cards, most of them looking like one color boxes that obscure the picture. Im hoping I can maybe trade it for a Harvin that someone doesnt want.
Overall, the autos looked pretty nice, no matter the crap patches that Topps is trying to force into a classic set.
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Relic Cards
There are no relic cards in Chrome.
Value To the Collector
As with any Chrome product, there will be lots of value to be had. The base rookies are even valuable, despite the lack of any numbering. I think for the price of a box, the amount you get back can usually be pretty close to what you put in, something that rarely happens with any product thats produced these days.

I think the combined value to set collectors and hit collectors is comparable, a feature that makes Chrome so good. Most hit collectors will not hesitate to pay for a box even though there is one hit for the price, and most set collectors love chrome for its yearly haul. The only drawback for both brands of collector is that the set is much smaller this year, though Topps unfortunately made up for it with gimmicky inserts like the Spirit Squad.
I think I got my money back on my box even without the McGee, mainly due to the other elements of the box. I got good rookies in Maclin, Freeman, Hey Bey, and Moreno, as well as a few good refractors. With the McGee added in, there is no doubt. Seemed like this was the case with everyone who busted Chrome today.
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Overall Impressions
Chrome is and always will be popular because its such a cool addition to the flagship product. This year is no dif
ferent, and I think it could easily be the most fun to bust until SPA comes out in december. For very little money you get a lot of packs to bust, some valuable rookies, and the possibility of a good refractor or auto. Odds are that one part of the sell sheet will come through for you, so it shouldnt be too big of decision to break this stuff. In my opinion, its the best product of the year so far.
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2009 Product Leaderboard (SO FAR)

1. Topps Chrome (4/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). Upper Deck Football (3/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). UD Philadelphia (3/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). Topps Football (3/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). UD Icons (3/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). UD Heroes (3/5 GELLMANS)
2(t). UD Draft Edition (3/5 GELLMANS)
8(t). Donruss Threads (2/5 GELLMANS)
8(t). Donruss Classics (2/5 GELLMANS)
8(t). Donruss Elite (2/5 GELLMANS)
8(t). Playoff Prestige (2/5 GELLMANS)
8(t). Bowman Draft Picks (2/5 GELLMANS)
13. Score Inscriptions (1/5 GELLMANS)
14. Leaf Rookies and Stars (0/5 GELLMANS – NR)

Product Review: 2009 Upper Deck Football

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In the battle for set collectors, Upper Deck is pretty late with their flagship product this year. The thought is maybe to go up against chrome, which could be possible with the type of product that this set is shaping up to be. For many, Chrome is king, including football, so UD has added a few elements to add some strength to their competition.

Design/Creativity

As with previous years, Upper Deck’s base design features full fledged game photos, something that makes this set pop. Instead of looking like fatheads pasted on a background, these players almost jump off the cards, which puts them miles ahead of sets like classics and prestige. Topps has also opted to use photos like this for their chrome and flagship sets, but the photography UD chooses for their cards tends to out do many of the best cards from their competition.

The base design is great regardless of the photography, and lends itself well to both horizontal and vertical orientations. It gives more opportunity for “HD picture box” like cards, and still focuses on simplicity rather than weirdly placed shapes and lines. I think if I was a set collector, I would love putting together this set just for the opportunity to flip through these cards.

They also included some throwback 3D cards like back in the day with Score and stuff, which as Kris described was “cool but cheesy.” I think its an interesting addition to the set, but not something I would go chase. Well, at least its not more of the same. Ill admit, I did have some fun taping about 8 of them to a piece of paper at the shop and tilting them back and forth to see the different pictures.

As for adding Premier into this set at one per case, it could not have been a better idea. The premier cards look great and should really be a chase for people like me who buy this product. I loved Premier as its own set, and now that it is being used to bolster the prowess of this low end set, I am pretty happy. Having them look like they are printed on footballs is a cool idea, and using gradients and foil in just the right way make these cards look ridiculously cool. I had some money set aside for a Harvin Chrome auto, but I may just go after a Premier instead.

When you think about the content of this product, its actually pretty nuts. Cuts, Premier cards, Rookies, Autos, and amazing looking base cards round this out pretty nicely.

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Autograph Cards

The autos in this product have major ups and major downs. First, the Premier cards, as I have said, are beyond cool. They feature rookies and vets, which bring everything together nicely, but they are only 1 per case which makes me kind of feel left without a line. The iconic cuts havent changed since last year, but do feature some pretty cool subjects. Again, 1 per case.

The cards that are 1 per box, usually, are pretty awful looking, thus bringing this awesome train to a screetching halt. The signature shots this year look like they are produced with the wrong orientation, and the wrong way facing autos add an awkward twist to some awesome cards from last year. I think that if these cards had a better checklist and a better design, like the Premier ones, this set would attract that many more collectors. Instead we are left with a lazily designed card that will most likely grace the box you buy.

I know that every box cannot be a winner, but at least give me a card that features some of the fantasitc designs and photography from the base set.

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Relic Cards

I really am not feeling the relic cards in this product, as the design looks very weird and forced. The rookies are in their NFL jerseys and we have swatches matching that, but the whole thing looks bad when put together. I would have liked a better attempt at these cards, but at least it isnt floating swatch city.

On the other hand, the UD Game jersey cards look pretty good, but again, just another plain swatch card in a sea of plain swatch cards. The design isnt bad, but its forgettable. At least with some of the other ones, there is a design you could pick out from miles away. If anything needs reinvention in this hobby, its swatch cards, and this is a perfect example.

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Value To The Collector

If you are a set collector, this set definitely provides you with a great task to complete. It will continue to have value to those people regardless of the value of the autographs or relics. For everyone else, there really isnt much value here, other than the SP rookies and the extremely rare case hits. I would say that it would be much, much better to just go buy the singles of your favorite players, but really, it may be worth your time to wait for products like black and ultimate, which will give you more of what you want.

As a low end product, there is a specific audience that will love this set, though I give UD credit for at least throwing more shit in there for the people who fall outside that audience. However, the one good thing is that much like Chrome, the base RCs will definitely hold their value if you do end up with a good one, so a box wont be a total waste.

I think if you appreciate good, cheap, well designed fun, go buy a few boxes. Otherwise, just wait for a product that caters more to your type of audience. This isnt for hit collectors, and you will find that out when you pull a junk auto and two junk jerseys out of your box.

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Overall Impressions

When you take in the product as a whole, its very well done with all its aspects. However, there are some glaring holes in my opinion, some holes that maybe a low end cannot fill. We will see with Chrome next week, but so far, it’s a pretty good showing.

If we take away nothing else from this set, its that a good design goes a long, long way. Pull up the checklist with pictures on the site and really see what I mean. It’s a very good education for companies that refuse to spend the time on putting a good offereing out there, and rather just stuff their cards full of needless relics.

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2009 Product Leaderboard (SO FAR)

1(t). Upper Deck Football (3/5 GELLMANS)
1(t). UD Philadelphia (3/5 GELLMANS)
1(t). Topps Football (3/5 GELLMANS)
1(t). UD Icons (3/5 GELLMANS)
1(t). UD Heroes (3/5 GELLMANS)
1(t). UD Draft Edition (3/5 GELLMANS)
7(t). Donruss Threads (2/5 GELLMANS)
7(t). Donruss Classics (2/5 GELLMANS)
7(t). Donruss Elite (2/5 GELLMANS)
7(t). Playoff Prestige (2/5 GELLMANS)
7(t). Bowman Draft Picks (2/5 GELLMANS)
12. Score Inscriptions (1/5 GELLMANS)
13. Leaf Rookies and Stars (0/5 GELLMANS – NR)