A number of years ago, Panini made a decision. They determined it was better to model their calendar after Topps’ major success in football, then to reinvent the wheel. To do so, they mapped out all of the chrome based products Topps had brought to the market, and created brands that would be the Panini equivalent. For Chrome, Prizm became their brand, and for many years was unable to measure up to the juggernaut that ran the football hobby attention span. For Bowman Sterling, Panini built Spectra, which was identical in configuration, but offered on card autos (at least before the bastardized version we get today). Lastly was Topps Finest, upon which they created Select, a set that has actually been pretty nice since its inception.

Here are some of the bigger hits up so far:

2017 Select Deshaun Watson Tag Patch Auto 1/1

2017 Select Mitchell Trubisky Jumbo Patch Auto Tie Dye /10

2017 Select Carson Wentz Patch Auto Emerald /5

2017 Select Dalvin Cook Jumbo Prime Patch Auto Logo /5

2017 Select Jerome Bettis Emerald Die Cut Auto /5

To this day, all three products have found it very difficult to reclaim the collector loyalty that was rock solid with the Topps versions of these products. Although all three have really taken on a brand of their own, somewhat thanks to Basketball, the original concept remains – replacements for fan favorite Topps products. Select is really the one I appreciate the most, even though Prizm has been very good as well. It removes a lot of the weird elements of Finest, and replaces it with some very good looking cards. Adding in the XRC concept has breathed new life into the brand, and now makes it one of my favorite boxes to open.

The only problem with Select is the same problem that finest faced before its last year in 2015. Boxes are supremely unpredictable. This year’s product seems to have an even larger problem with this, as collation seems to have been done so that a few boxes per case have all the nicer hits. Finest struggled because 7 boxes out of 10 had nothing in them, and though this is MUCH better with veteran and rookie content combined, the collation presents huge problems for people busting a box here and there.

Either way, Chrome based products still have the advantage of value present in non “box hit” content, and Select takes that to a level that even Prizm cant touch. Additionally with more added numbered content, the serially stamped parallels for rookies are worth diving into any of the boxes in the case, not just the 5 with all the major hits.

Moving onto the XRCs, Panini made the great decision to add rare autographed parallels of the players in the set. People are speculating that the number of the XRC autograph is the draft pick number, but I can almost guarantee that wont be the case. Regardless of who is on the card, these XRCs make the product that much better and I wish that this concept was used more frequently. Obviously the cost of issuing THOUSANDS of redemptions on purpose is likely too high to make it a widespread program, but I would love to see it more.

Lastly, this Topps-less atmosphere is still without oxygen, especially as we become further removed from Chrome and the like. Select helps a little bit, but not enough for me to forgive the bitterness still left behind by the removal of the most popular products in football.