Taking the lead from Topps, Panini has tried to institute a good portion of on card autos for the rookies in sets that normally featured stickers. I applaud them in this effort, as it displays that they are not going to rest on their non-existant laurels, at least in this department. Design is still a major shortfall in many aspects of their sets, and in the recent preview, they continue to showcase good reasons why collectors are going nuts for Topps and bashing their offereings.

Starting with Absolute, I don’t really get why the jumbo relic auto cards look the way they do. The cards had potential if the windows were diecut more like the shields are. At the very least, fit the swatches in with the design, so that it doesn’t look like someone just took an exacto knife and made their own windows. A great example of this is the way Topps did their patch autos for 2011 Platinum, as they made each card look great. All the relic windows were sized and bordered appropriately, and as a result, each card looked like it was complete. These just look odd.

The same thing seems to be true with Certified, as I cannot understand why they have that half inch name plate that is running up the right side of the card. Instead of making a border that highlights the design of the card, this just makes it look disturbingly off-balanced. Again, this design would be a winner if the nameplate was done correctly, but alas, we have another example of why collectors are bored with the constant mistakes.

As for Gold Standard, this is the first example we have seen of Autographed rookie cards. When you compare the way these look, to the way inception’s silver autos look, the differences in quality are beyond profound. Inception delivered some of the best looking cards of the year, and these just look like a fan ran up to Newton and had him sign their custom card in person. The signature is just as much Newton’s fault as it is Panini’s, but the design doesn’t help, and Panini should be choosing the pens they sign with. Reminds me of these paint pen train wrecks from 2009 Classics.

Lastly, we have the diamond in the rough. Hell, deep rough. The Crown Royale die cut autos are absolutely amazing this year with hard signed autographs. I am wondering if some other company was brought in to design these for Panini, because their design team has not shown chops like this, well, EVER. These cards will be the belle of the ball for a set that will be otherwise forgotten, and I hope that more like this will show up. No frills, no foil, great looking card.

Here is the damage: