For companies that make NFL licensed trading cards, offering examples from the current rookie class prior to the rookie premiere is a tenuous sort of adventure. Collectors frequently penalize cards of players not in their official NFL uniforms, or photoshopped new jerseys in a way that makes them look cartoonish.

Prior to 2010, College jerseys were usedCollege jerseys were used, thus giving a bit of an ‘out’ prior to the premiere with new uniforms being used. I was not really a fan of this situation, but considering the way things are now, I long for those days where there was no need for blank and generic jerseys.

Anything to avoid cards like this:

2012 Bowman Signature Robert Griffin III Auto

2012 Bowman Signature Andrew Luck RC

Since 2010, Upper Deck has held the exclusive for NCAA licensing, which has forced the card companies into unfamiliar (and usually very terrible looking) territory. In this same timeframe, companies like Leaf have come on board to embrace this new frontier, and have created some cool products in the mean time.

Now that 2013 has come along, we are seeing two very different approaches from Topps and Panini. Both have pros and cons, but I think Topps has really found a groove that makes their stuff look a bit superior. I really hate the way these cards look.

With 2013 Bowman, hitting store shelves this Wednesday, they opted to forgo the NFL element all together in favor of chrome technology and on card autographs. Although I think the generic jerseys we see on the cards arent ideal, its a lot better than poorly retouched NFL jerseys and sticker autos like we are seeing in 2013 Score.

If you really inspect the work done on the cards from Panini, its easy to see that the choice to go with an NFL brand may not have been the best idea. They were left to have borderline mug shots on the majority of the rookie cards, and double zero NFL jerseys on the other cards. In some cases, they photoshopped in jerseys that will never be worn by the subject on the card. Not a good situation.

I love the chrome technology in just about every instance it is used, and lets be honest, if the industry was a human being, 35% of the bloodstream at any point would be refractor based. We just love refractors. Although the autos arent perfect in the way they are presented, they are much more of a collection piece than the ugly examples from Panini’s product.

With the draft being moved back almost a month, its possible more of these types of sets will need to happen in 2014. That scares me a bit, but who knows what the card companies will come up with.