Panini has been very good about previewing their cards before the fact, which is bittersweet because of how terrible a lot of their stuff has been this year. In fact, I have felt so terrible about many of the ways that their sets look and are composed that I dont think I even spent more than a couple hundred bucks on boxes from them. When you consider that most of that money was spent on Elite at the beginning of the year, just to get NFL uniform rookie cards, there is a whole lot of crap I didnt touch. Basically, with few exceptions, Panini has screwed the pooch on a year that should have been a banner one for them, and I blame much more than just the foil.

National Treasures is their main set of the year, and it is due out in the next couple of months. Because Exquisite looks to be long gone, again Panini had a huge opportunity to make up ground. Instead of taking the route that Topps took, putting out a set that may end up being one of the best this side of 2006, they churned out more stickers and more cards that many have come to deem “Panini-nized” per the previews. The one bright spot is shaping up to be the Rookie Patch autos, cards that should be the most widely collected part of the set, and in many senses it looks like they did quite a good job with the cards. Considering they are one of only two on card elements so far that we know of, these box hits needed to be legit.

Luckily for Panini, they picked a guy to choose the cards’ rookie pictures who knew what the fuck he was doing. Per their previews, the pictures look to be exceptionally cool 2010 season game shots, which are absolutely cool as hell. Rookie premiere pics are one thing early in the year before things get going, but at this points, game shots make all the difference.

Check out what I mean, from the pictures below. Hopefully these arent the only cool parts of the set we are getting, because right now, Topps Five Star isnt even playing in the same league, let alone division, regardless of similar price tags.