There seems to be an internal debate among Baseball collectors, especially in terms of whether or not unlicensed products are a viable collecting option. Although many times the players are easy to identify, the lack of logos can be a complete turn off to some people. Personally, Im all about the way a card looks, logo or no logo, so I was excited to see what NT Baseball was all about.

Here are some of the bigger hits up so far:

2014 National Treasures Jacob DeGrom Logo Patch Auto 1/1

2014 National Treasures Jose Abreu Nicknames Inscription Auto

2014 National Treasures Byron Buxton Silhouette Jumbo Patch Auto

2014 National Treasures Frank Thomas Sweet Spot Auto Booklet

2014 National Treasures Jose Abreu / George Springer Dual Book Relic Auto

Here is where I dont get Panini, as some of the cards look really freaking boss. They are high quality, high end type releases, which would normally suggest the rest of the set is the same. It is far from it. Many of the cards are cheap gimmicks that look horrible, and others are just poorly designed. At 450 dollars a box, you could find 100 products that look better and can deliver similarly cool cards for the money. Hell, I would rather join Dynasty group breaks than take my chances with this stuff.

Panini seems to have a new obsession, one that plays off of their current ungodly fixation with separated areas for signatures. Acetate cuts, which are everywhere in this product, seem more like a cop out for lack of hard signed cards. Panini likely wanted us to think they were some cool new autograph type, but that is far from the truth. They are literally glorified stickers, and unlike said stickers, break the entire design of a card.

Going back to the first part of my dislike, we have a shit ton of cards where the signature area is either too small or completely cordoned off. Panini’s design team fails to see why cards that have fluid designs are much more visually appealing, and I cannot stand it for a minute.

That being said – the jumbo patch autographs that serve as the main hits are great. They are not just great, but easily one of the best Panini baseball designs I have seen in a long time. A wise person once said that there is nothing better than doing something simple in the best possible way, and that's exactly what they did with these.

Overall, this product is not my favorite or even close to acceptable in terms of design. Panini can continue to build fans of people who enjoy patch content over design appeal, but I will never be among that group. Cards need to look better and Panini generally sucks at that. Its really unfortunate, considering the potential this product had.