Unparalleled was unparalleled iin its horrible approach. It might be worse than both 2014 and 2015 Spectra, which are on my list of the worst products in the last 10 years. Spectra was so bad those two years that I could not fathom a product that had taken such a low dive on the shit scale. Seeing the terrible design, the stock patterns as crazy as they look, and the goofy ass posed photos make Unparalled a turd sandwich that is the leader in the clubhouse as the worst product of the year.

Check out this train wreck of a product:

2016 Panini Unparalleled Carson Wentz Auto Patch /99

2016 Panini Unparalleled Dak Prescott Auto Relic /199

2016 Panini Unparalleled Antonio Brown Auto /5

Enter Gala, which somehow, might actually be worse than Unparalleled. After being a complete flop in Basketball, Panini brought it to football solely because they need all the help they can get. They need 31 products this year, and they are obviously prepared to scrape the bottom of the barrel to avoid forcing their terrible product team to come up with a new idea.

Think Unparalleled is bad? Start running for the Panini provided barf bags:

2016 Panini Gala Paxton Lynch Auto 12/25

2016 Panini Gala Richard Sherman Starring Role Signatures

2016 Panini Gala DeAndre Hopkins Action Autograph

Aside from a horrible price point, Gala’s concept is about as bad as it can get. Panini wanted to use a hollywood type motif for the set, but failed to execute a clever way to make it work. We are left with sets like “Action Autographs” and “Starring Role Signatures” – names that make you wonder if someone just googled what to do for these titles.

The card design doesnt feature those god awful posed photos, but there are so many Panini pet peeves that are present in the product it doesnt matter. Giant white boxes have been replaced with giant foil boxes for the signatures, somehow succeeding in making a terrible Panini approach even more fucking terrible.

Releasing a few dogs happens to every company. Its just part of the game. However, these dogs are so bad that it makes me legitimately worried for the direction football cards are going. I have gotten numerous reports that sales are slumping across the board, and that shouldnt be surprising at all. Panini not only cant build new products, they are riding the struggle bus in trying to make their existing garbage attractive even in the slightest.

Even looking on many group break sites, sales are slowing to a snail’s pace, with many being forced to drop prices to the point of dealer cost just to get the wax off the shelf. Luckily I write this site for fun, because if I was actually doing this for a living, I would be beyond concerned with the future.

Gala and Unparalleled showcase an extreme lack of knowledge and effort surrounding any aspect of building a good set, and I wonder why they are so bad at making things better. They have had every opportunity to build their brand, failing every step of the way. Its sad, because Topps definitely closed 2015 so strongly that it became even more clear how big of a mistake the NFL made in choosing Panini.

Sad. So fucking sad.