One of my main complaints about Panini is that they are beyond fucking terrible at creating parallels in their cards. I cant even count the number of times they have put out a card that looks like it was created backwards. Basically, they start with the Jersey Auto parallel and just start removing elements until they get to the base card, without actually updating the design as they go. What results are cards that look like someone forgot to affix a sticker, or forgot to put the jersey swatch in, and that practice makes cards look horrendous in every sense of the word.

Panini recently posted some pics form Crown Royale on their blog, and unlike the die cut rookie autos that they teased earlier this week, these cards are straight out of Panini’s bag. To me, its nothing but a pleathora of horrid looking cards with no hint of any chops when it comes to concept or design, all while giving us a great representation of what is coming in this obviously shitty product.

I mean, take a look at the preview below. I seriously don’t know how a professional graphic artist could be happy with the way these turned out. Yes, the auto jerseys look complete, but they will account for so little of the product’s makeup that the rest of these awkward and stupid looking jersey cards will overrun them. Just like every 4/1/$90 product that Panini puts out, they have filled out Crown Royale with thousands of worthless single color jersey cards that look incomplete. Even if they arent single color, they still look like they do, and that alone makes me cringe with horror. It would be one thing if Panini made their wares look worthy of distribution, but almost every card OTHER than the die cuts from Crown Royale looks worse than Rookies and Stars. Basically, Panini has no fucking clue how to put together a product, and that is why people are beginning to tire of their bullshit.

If we learn anything from this preview, it is not that the cards “drool-worthy” as Panini wants you to think, its actually photographic evidence of what is referred to as “mailing it in.” If you need proof, look no further than the signed crown rookie autographs. That is a prime contender for worst looking card of the year. It is ghastly, revolting, repulsive, any other adjective I can think of, to say the least. Yeah, the die cut rookie autographs look good, but when the rest of the product looks like this, who gives a shit?