Product Review: 2010 Panini Prestige

The first official NFL set of 2010 is here! After months of only having draft-themed and prospect sets, football collectors can finally get their hands on new cards of their favorite veterans, as well as the first official rookie cards for the 2010 draft class. Upper Deck’s new NCAA exclusive is still causing ripples as you will note none of the rookie cards feature college logos. As the first official NFL product however, at least these cards have the rookies paired with their new professional teams, simply sans jersey (we will have to wait for 2010 Panini Classics for our first taste of that).

The Box – Click for Detail

Hobby boxes come with 24 8-card packs for a total of 192 cards. I purchased this box from Dave and Adam’s Card World for $94.49 shipped, which translates into a $0.49/card ratio. This certainly is not basement level bottom shelf, but it is expected for pre-season sets, especially without many “hits” per box.

At least 1 RC in each of these

The Breakdown:
Veteran Base Cards (#1-200): 146 – 73.0%
   Duplicates: 0
Rookie Base Cards (#201-300): 24 – 24.0%
Xtra Points Parallels: 8
   Black: 1
   Gold (#/250): 2
   Red (#/100): 1
   Purple (#/50): 1
   Draft Picks Light Blue (#/999): 3
Inserts: 12 (2 League Leaders; 1 Inside the Numbers; 1 Connections; 1 Stars of the NFL; 1 Rookie Review; 3 Prestigious Pros (1 Blue; 1 Green #/250; 1 Black #/25); 2 NFL Shield Logo; 1 Touchdown Sensations)
Jersey Cards: 2 (1 Touchdown Sensations Material #/250; 1 Touchdown Sensations Material Prime #/50)
Autographs: 2 (2 Draft Picks Rights Autos – 1 #/799; 1 #/399)

Click images for full-sized scans

FIRST AND GOAL’S FOUR DOWNS:
1st Down, Design: For a Panini set, this base design actually isn’t too bad. It has a fairly clean feel with an obvious player focus. I really like how the player is “on top” of the design elements while the rest of the photograph appears to be behind it–a nice subtle graphic tactic. I’m not sure I see the point of fading the picture, though. I’m also not a huge fan of the fact that the team box is so large. Having the all the fonts run nearly vertical were annoying enough, but it really doesn’t help that it consumes ¹/₃ of the card front. I’m actually not going to touch the rookie cards. It’s nice to see rookies paired with NFL logos, but these cards are not good. It’s obvious there are autographed versions and I definitely do not like that all 100 rookies are horizontal while all 200 veterans are vertical. This is the same set, right?

2nd Down, Inserts: Too many! As a mid-to-late 90s guy, I generally love inserts, but these do nothing for me. No only are there a bunch of insert sets (and you get a total of one of each in the box, on average), they also have parallels. I’m also not a fan of the meaningless parallels. Topps is the only one who really seems to be able to pull of the parallel concept with their Chrome lines. Panini is terrible at parallels. As others have said, it is obvious their design team(s) design cards backwards, starting with the jersey/auto cards and then just start removing elements to get to the basic card, which just wind up looking awkward. The “chase” cards (if you can call them that from a pre-season set) do look pretty good though. At least they got that part right. Lastly, I do not get the point of the NFL Draft Shield logo inserts at all. The player is barely visible and they all wind up looking identical. Why are these necessary?

3rd Down, Collation: This is by far the best feature of this box. I did not pull a single double out of 192 cards and although I don’t like there being so many inserts and parallels, I generally got an example of each which is good. I may not appreciate the Stars of the NFL insert set, but I would rather get one of them than another prestigious pro (unless prestigious pro was the only insert set, which I wouldn’t complain about). Hopefully the entire print run was collated as well as this box.

4th Down, Overall Value: I suppose it depends what you collect and who you pull. The average jersey and autographed cards from this set won’t rake in tons of money, but the first official rookie cards and NFL autographs of guys like Tebow and Bradford will obviously make up for the others. If you are a set collector, there are 300 cards to find and the collation appears to be good, but there might be too many insert and parallel cards for you to get too excited about buying several boxes of this stuff. Overall though, the average card price is just $0.49, so there is certainly no large investment involved and I do admit the cards look decent.

RED ZONE RESULTS: MISSED FIELD GOAL While I like the general concepts in this product, and I think the base cards look pretty good, there were just a few graphical elements that threw me off, coupled with rather excessive insert/parallel inclusion. This is definitely an improvement over some of the releases from Panini in 2009, but quite honestly, it still does not compare to a lot of the sets produced by Topps and Upper Deck in recent years. Maybe that is comparing apples to oranges, but if I really like apples, why would I need to bother with oranges? In the end, this set wasn’t able to get on the scoreboard, but turning the ball over so deep in the enemy’s terroritory could lead to a great defensive play. It’s not a definite, but the possibility is there.

NEXT UP (tentatively): 2010 Donruss Elite

Heisman Highlight: Alan Ameche

Name: Alan Ameche
Position: Back
College: Wisconsin Badgers
Class: Senior
Winning Year: 1954 – 20th Award
Official Heisman Profile: Click Here
 
 
 

Interesting Notes: Ameche was nicknamed “The Iron Horse” due to his ability to play 55 or more minutes each game…led the Badgers to 26 victories in his four collegiate seasons…still holds all rushing records at Wisconsin…scored more points and touchdowns than any other player in Wisconsin school history…played for the Baltimore Colts for six seasons…was involved in many philanthropic activities after his football career ended…was elected to the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame in 1975.

Featured Card: 1955 Bowman #8. Alan Ameche was an obvious inclusion in the 1955 Bowman set, his first year as a professional. Despite being the greatest rusher in Wisconsin history and having a solid, albeit short, professional career, Ameche’s Bowman rookie card is a relative bargain. Current eBay prices are in the $15 – $75 range with a vast majority of those falling below $30. Perhaps the set is just not popular with vintage collectors, but it looks like you can’t go wrong with a Heisman rookie card for those prices.

NOTE: You can find all of my Heisman Highlight Features by clicking the post banner above.

Custom Card Feedback Request

For a while now, I have seen other bloggers bust out their creative genius and create great looking custom cards. I have often found myself envious of their skills and raw talent and wonder why these people are not employed by the companies who constantly release crap-tastic sets (it’s sad if the professionals are often being bested by the amatuers). Two sites I particularly like perusing are Big D’s Custom Cards and The Custom Card Blog.

As I alluded to in an earlier post, I am a cycling fan, particularly during le Tour de France. Last year during le Tour, I had an itch to create a custom card set for the grand event, but never scratched it (something about buying a house getting in the way). This year, that itch has returned in a big way. I have a pretty solid concept for the 250-card checklist, although I have a feeling I will need to wait at least until le Tour stars on July 3 to really get rolling with creating the actual cards. But I figured I could at least come up with some protypes until then, and hopefully make this set a reality this time around.

What you see below is my first base card sample. I’m not 100% sold on every aspect of it, but it is pretty much what I had imagined, which is a rare feat for me (I often have grandiose visions that quite simply exceed my desktop publishing skills). What are your thoughts? I am almost at a loss for what to do with the card back at this point, but I have a few vague concepts with which I can mess around. One note before the criticism starts, this is a rough photo I grabbed for the sample card. I realize it is a little grainy and shows Lance in the wrong jersey (he last rode with Discovery in 2005). That’s why this is a sample and not the final product.

So, what do you think? Any and all comments are welcome. Feel free to be as encouraging or critical as you deem appropriate.

Shameless Plug

This is completely un-card-related, but is something I wanted to share with you:

My sister-in-law’s boyfriend is currently in a contest to win an Olympus PEN camera and $5,000. All you need to do to help him win is view his YouTube video entry and click the “Like” button. Please note, you will need to be signed into YouTube for the vote to register. I know a lot of you already have YouTube accounts to watch box breaks, but even if you don’t, it only takes about 2.7 minutes to create an account (even my wife did it).

Here is the link (I’m not embedding it because I want you to go there and click “Like”):

LOG IN AND CLICK “LIKE”!

Yes, that is my sister-in-law in the video (the first still photograph and several others).

Also, if you enjoy sarcastic humor, here is another video Taylor did a little while back about the new iPad.

And if you’re really interested in this fella, here is his official design website. He is a freelance graphic designer and artist, so if you have a need for that type of services, you should check him out. Also, as a freelancer, he could really use that camera and $5,000. Just sayin’.

Product Review: 2010 Press Pass Portrait Edition

As the final pre-draft product of the year, 2010 Press Pass Portrait Edition gives player collectors and prospectors one last chance to collect their favorite young players before NFL team collectors enter the game. This mid-level product will feel different for Press Pass fans of the past as the new NCAA exclusive partnership with Upper Deck has once again prevented a solid product from featuring college team logos.

The Box – Click for Detail

Hobby boxes come with 20 5-card packs for a total of 100 cards. I purchased this box from Dave and Adam’s Card World for $122.54 shipped, which translates into a $1.23/card ratio. That means this certainly isn’t your bottom-end set, but I wouldn’t classify it as “high-end” either. The box promises (on average) 7 on-card autographs per box and 3 memorabilia cards.

Featuring a two-design pack format

The Breakdown:
Base Cards (#1-50): 58 – 100.0%
   1x: 42
   2x: 8
Inserts: 35 (10 Face to Face; 20 Headliners; 5 Class of 2010)
Jersey Cards: 3 (2 Game Day Gear; 1 Game Day Gear Parallel #/99)
Autographs: 7 (4 Sideline Signatures; 2 Sideline Signatures Ruby #/150; 1 Sideline Signatures Ruby Red Ink Variant)

Click images for full-sized scans

FIRST AND GOAL’S FOUR DOWNS:
1st Down, Design: I really like this base set. The cards have a classy and timeless design. I also particularly appreciate the feel of the cards. They are printed on a heavier card stock and have a semi-gloss finish to them. It’s not the slippery high-gloss finish of many modern sets and it’s not a very matte and bland finish from sets that are trying too hard to seem retro. The overall design could be enhanced with the use of logos, but that is not the design team’s fault.

2nd Down, Inserts: The Class of 2010 inserts are very well designed and are attractive, but I do question whether it’s necessary as all of the subjects are in the 2010 rookie class. I didn’t look closely at the insert checklist; perhaps all of the guys in this insert set were seniors? I am not a big fan of the Headliners insert. It is a good idea, but it would have been much better if they had used images of actual headlines, especially of the corresponding school’s student paper. The Face 2 Face inserts outright confused me. They look good, but how did they decide who to include and pair up? I didn’t realize the Illinois/Minnesota game was a “matchup of the year”. I’m not incredibly infatuated with jersey cards, but these Game Day Gear cards are designed well, and having a numbered parallel is nice. By far the best (and most important to many collectors) inserts were the autographed cards. Rather than just throw stickers on base cards, these are all on-card and the design incorporates the auto very well. Simply put, they are just very good looking cards. The different parallels and red ink/nickname variants add another level of collectibility for fans.

3rd Down, Collation: I have no complaints here. The base set is only 50 cards, but I was pleased that I pulled all 50. I did have 8 duplicates, but that is hard to avoid when the entire base set is in the box you bust. I also pulled a nice spread of the various insert cards and pulled the stated averages for the jersey and autographed cards. Obviously pulling extra “hits” would be nice, but again, I can’t complain about collation for this box. Hopefully the entire run was packaged this well.

4th Down, Overall Value: This is so tricky for these pre-draft products. You will have collectors who loathe non-licensed products. You will have collectors who lose all interest once the first post-draft cards are produced. And then you’ll have the collectors who are just looking to get their hands on great looking cards of their favorite players and teams (college or pro). At $1.23 per card, it’s really hard to say you could get a return on your “investment” (if you view your boxes as investments…which they are NOT). If you collect for the sake of collecting, this is a great product for the price. If you are super concerned about your bottom line and resale or book value, this probably isn’t the product for you.

RED ZONE RESULTS: TOUCHDOWN (MISSED PAT) If you haven’t noticed, I liked this set. There were very few things that bothered me with this box break. Each of the categories above is important to me, and really only the “overall value” was a hit or miss prospect. The base design and feel, the insert design (if not necessarily the concept), and the collation were pretty much spot on in my opinion. The reason 2010 Press Pass Portrait Edition wasn’t able to tack on the PAT? No logos. I know it isn’t their fault the NCAA decided to award UD an exclusive contract, but it is what it is. Even if they were able to rock the collegiate logos of the past, I would celebrate this as a retro-spective product rather than complain about a lack of NFL logos. But alas, neither was meant to be. Overall though, this is a good product.

NEXT UP: 2010 Panini Prestige

Football HOF Autograph Session

Here is a little press release for all of you autograph hounds and baseball fans. As always, I could add some extra sugar and spice, but I will be lazy and just post a carbon copy of the release. Enjoy.

Hall of Fame & Cleveland Indians celebrate Showdown of Ohio

The Pro Football Hall of Fame and Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians are teaming up for a great day of fun to celebrate the Showdown of Ohio on Sunday, May 23.

The Hall of Fame will be on hand as the Cleveland Indians host the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday at Progressive Field in Cleveland. Among the day’s activities is a free pre-game autograph session featuring two members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Leroy Kelly and Anthony Muñoz.

Muñoz played 13 seasons in Cincinnati with the Bengals, while Kelly starred at running back for 10 seasons with the Cleveland Browns.

Find out more information about the celebration. Showdown of Ohio>>>

Should be a good event if you will be in the Cleveland area on Sunday and you don’t mind mixing your sports.