I have messaged extreme criticism over the pending release of 2010 National Treasures football, and now that it is live on eBay, that criticism now has pictures to match the words on the page. The amount of care and effort that has gone into this set looks to be less than minimal, something I have come to expect from Panini over the last season’s worth of cards. Going up against juggernauts like Topps Five Star, you would think that they would take every measure to make this set everything that it could possibly be, rather than an overpriced continuation of the Playoff Prestige brand name. Yes, its gotten THAT bad.

Don’t get me wrong, the hard signed rookie patch autos look to be a great update from last year’s Donruss Threads reminiscent design. I don’t have any problem with these cards, and actually think they turned out well. The Reebok logo cards that Panini displayed on their site? Also, not terrible, but not great either. For these particular elements of the set, there is not much worthy of complaints. On the other hand, for the other 96% of the print run, I have MAJOR issues.

The NFL Gear Subset

If you havent seen these cards, consider yourself among the lucky. Not only do they feature fucking event used ball swatches, but they also look ridiculously terrible. These are the type of cards I expect in low end junk like Prestige and Threads, something that I can complain about, but not put much stock into. I mean, why else would you have such horrible cards in the culmination of your card season. If you are unfamiliar with my hatred of event used footballs, do a search at the top. You will see why these are the antichrist of non-game used materials in cards. Lastly, this is another instance of cards with a billion parallels, all with different configurations on the card, but with no adjustment of the design. Get used to that in 2010 NT, it happens a lot.

The Base Crap Jersey Subset

If you broke any of the 2010 National Treasures BASKETBALL products, these fuckers were everywhere. Its basically a shitty swatch slapped in the middle of the card, and Panini did nothing to change the design around it to make it look right. These types of cards are so prevalent in this set, that I literally want to torch any previous supplies of past year’s NT just so it wouldn’t birth this abomination. Seriously, in a super high end product, these cards SHOULD NEVER BE ACCEPTABLE. It’s a complete lack of effort on Panini’s part and a slap in the face to anyone who buys this set. Panini should be ashamed of themselves, if not only because they made this goddamn mistake 30,000 times this year with every set.

The HOF Crap Jersey Subset

When I heard that Panini was going to be tying things to the HOF, I was really excited. The HOF is the pinnacle of any sport. Then I saw these cards. Why the fuck is the swatch there? Why are there no autos on these cards when the whole bottom half of the card looks like that? Completely unbalanced bullshit and more evidence of the lack of effort put into this set. Just another “Panini-nized” card that will have twenty different parallels that all look incomplete.

The Rookie Scrub Auto Subset

I actually don’t mind these cards, I just wish the design was adopted into the base set. OH NOES! If that was the case for the base set, where would they stick the swatches for their 10 different jersey parallels? Probably over the player’s face.

The Base Auto Subset

Man, that little sticker is swimming in a sea of odd little squiggly lines. So, Panini shrunk the size of the player picture to a dime, but they don’t adjust the card when there is nothing below the top masthead? Sounds familiar!

The Colossal Jersey and Jersey Auto Subset

I like the look of these cards, but they look stupid when there is no sticker there, as evidenced in some of the other auctions. More of the Panini unbalancing act. Someone flunked composition in Art History in college.

The Rookie Auto Patch /99

A Tebow is already up, and has a crazy go-nuts price tag on it. Gotta love firsties! Again, not a bad looking card, but these cant carry a whole set on their back.

The Reebok Patch Subset (non-auto)

Again, everyone fucking fawned over the rookie versions of these cards that were all autographed. Guess what? There are non-autographed versions too, and they look like every other shitty jersey card that Panini has put out. Thanks for that one guys!

The Timeline Crap Jersey Subset

Two years ago, these cards were the best looking cards in the set. This year they are just updated with white backgrounds and more of an unbalanced look. Doesn’t Panini see that these cards look like absolute shit when the sticker isnt there? I say this over and over and over and over and over, but they never fucking get it.

The NFL Greatest Jersey and jersey auto subset

These just look odd with that swatch placement and shape. Without any elements on the card, it still looks like shit, and when you pile on all the elements for the jersey auto parallels, it actually looks worse. The swatch window cuts into the composition of the card, making it look like someone haphazardly hole punched the card and then put the jersey in. Its terrible looking.

The Notable Numbers Crap Jersey Subset

This product just goes on and on and on with all this crap. Its like they actually PAID someone to put these designs together. Oh wait. Another subset here, another horrid example of Panini-nization of a card. Plus, why would you put the swatch there? Even with the sticker it will look like poop. Thanks Panini.

The Checklist

People have been citing Five Star’s shallow checklist as a reason that it hasn’t lived up to their standards. Well, if you see the sheer number of unworthy vets and retireds on NT’s checklist, its completely the opposite end of the spectrum. Rather than shorting on some of the important autographs that needed to be used, NT went so deep that I acutally don’t recognize everyone. That spells bad things in my eyes.

Overall, this year’s National Treasures may be the worst in the history of the product, something I thought would be impossible after last year. Sure enough, Panini finds another way to fuck up one of the products that had the most potential to rule. Usually a market leader leaves the market, and the competitors all buck up to take over where the other left off to regain their share. Obviously we can see who took that seriously (Five Star) and who did not (National Treasures).