Every year, cards are created and released that I question as to why the thought even was approached. There are so many, in fact that I have almost become desensitized to it. Then, every so often, I come across one or two that just baffle me. They challenge my ideas of how bad things could get, and for the most part it still isnt that shocking.

Now that the Father’s day promotion is pretty much in full swing from Panini, we are getting a good idea of what is in the packs. Two subsets in particular are really testing my power of sight.

2013 Panini Father’s Day Ryan Nassib Rookie Debut

2013 Panini Father’s Day Ohrian Johnson Rookie Debut

2013 Panini Father’s Day Duron Carter Rookie Debut Auto Relic

2013 Panini Father’s Day Gordie Howe Event Used Relic

I understand that Panini is basically giving these cards away, but that still doesnt excuse them or give them a pass for this crap. Even in free giveaways, you still have a responsibility to provide some level of quality. Obviously, with these cards, there is none. Panini basically took some VERY candid photos at the Rookie Debut, which happens at draft time, and used these photos to create a set. Im not sure why. Not only do the pictures look like someone snapped them while walking the red carpet alongside them, but the addition of swatches really makes no sense. For reference, Duron Carter is the son of HOF receiver Cris Carter, and was invited for a WORKOUT with the Vikings in May. It is about as unlikely as it can be that he will make the team or even get invited to training camp. Didnt stop Panini from making this card. Value by pedigree, yay!

Similarly, Panini has really taken to creating cards with no picture on the front. They feel as though the swatch is more important than anything, basically producing a card sized swatch with a border and back on it. I find this to be A) lazy, B) Ugly, and C) stupid. Over time, collectors have gravitated to ridiculous patch cards, I get that, but is that really what this hobby has become? Horrible.

The terms “value added” and “help to move product” are assigned to this giveaway, but if it is stuffed full of cards like this, Im going to pass and advise you to do the same.

Since 2010, Upper Deck has done everything in their power to carve out a new niche for themselves as the premiere provider of licensed college cards. Over the last couple of years, they have slowly ramped up products into a full blown calendar that includes many of their former products in new configurations.

Back in 2011, SPX was one of the first historical products to get axed from a standalone iteration of the collector favorite, but collectors wanted it back so much that UD was happy to oblige with a new version in 2012. In 2011, the SPX box topper packs were added to boxes of SP Authentic, which confused me signficantly. However after a stronger showing in 2012, it made the cut again for 2013, and is the first real higher end product from them so far in 2013. The set has some intriguing retro elements to it, but it also has some extremely disappointing parts of the set as well. So disappointing that it might sway me away from buying a box.

Here are some of the big ones already up:

2013 SPX Dan Marino Shadow Box Auto SSP

2013 SPX Tyler Bray Auto Logo Patch 1/1 – pretty cool card.

2013 SPX Geno Smith Auto Jersey Patch Parallel /30

2013 SPX Eddy Lacy UD Premier Auto Patch

The first and arguably biggest blow to the product is the design of the shadow box cards. Even though they added dual player shadowboxes, the design is less than adequate. Not only is it extremely boring, but it doesnt have the same pizzazz it usually does for a product like this. On the dual shadowboxes, the top layer player is much smaller than the secondary layer player, which only further highlights how little is actually going into the overall composition of the card. The metal style borders and plain backgrounds dont do much for the cards.

The second let down is in the non-autographed relic cards, which have some major design issues. Borrowing a page from 2008 Panini products, Upper Deck chose to only use one set of printing plates for the autos and non autos in their relic cards, which make for examples that look like someone forgot to affix the stickers on the autographs. Its extremely detrimental to the overall design.

The main box hits did turn out pretty nice, as did the throwback cards to the original holoview cards used in the beginnings of the brand. The UD Premier box toppers add a level of added value to the boxes, and look nice for the first time in a long time. If there are on card signed versions of the holoview cards, count me in. I have always said that this was a piece of nostalgia we definitely need to bring back around.

SPX has shown that it IS deserving of its own set, but the execution definitely needs to improve. If Upper Deck wants to compete among the big dogs, perfection in the little things can mean the difference between a loyal customer and someone who moves on. Its that simple.

I like my cards and design simple. I want a big player photo, a simple, yet understated design and an on card auto. With the recent trends in the industry, we might be moving more in the complete opposite direction. No sir, I dont like it.

The biggest offender recently has been both Topps and Panini’s use of parallel patterns that seem to obscure the card surface in the presentation of the design. Its done in the name of parallels, but more often than not, the cards look about as terrible as they can be.

The scary thing is, both Panini and Topps are instituting NEW ones with each product release, to the point where its not just hideous looking rainbow foil board, its rainbow foil with a pattern overlaid on top! Here are the worst of the worst:

PANINI’S NEW LAVA FLOW PARALLEL

PANINI’S CRACKED ICE / TOPPS ATOMIC

TOPPS’ BOWMAN ICE

TOPPS’ GOLD SPARKLE

PANINI FINITE – Whatever the hell that means?

TOPPS PRISM REFRACTOR

Topps has at least taken it in a bit different and better direction. Every time they use a new pattern or an existing one, they cut the player picture and signature area out of the pattern. That way, there is no obscuring the main content on the card. Panini is mostly a complete train wreck, but I wouldnt expect anything different from them. For most of their stuff, they overlay the pattern on the WHOLE card, and it makes it much more difficult to actually see anything you are actually hoping to see. Explain how that is a good idea, again?

Im not sure why collectors are enamored with gaudy patterns and ridiculously busy designs, but that is my normal reaction to these matters. I dont like the superfractor pattern that Topps uses ad nauseum because it is so hard on the eyes to me. Sure its shiny and gold, but its ugly.

I wonder if my eye is completely different than the rest of the population, or if people just dont care. Either way, Im not going to be saying any good stuff about this new trend.

I feel that every time a company does a giveaway, I have to support it. I feel like its an obligation, because I want it to continue. This weekend, the Panini Father’s Day promo goes live, and for the most part that is a very good thing. Some of the cards in the set are about as complete a disaster as they can be, but its free cards for buying some exceptionally bad product. Softens the blow, so to speak.

Somehow, a lot of cards have already ended up on eBay:

2013 Panini Fathers Day Clay Mathews Super Bowl Pylon Auto – These will be the best of the best this year.

2013 Panini Fathers Day Tavon Austin Hot Rookies Auto /35 – Let Panini’s obsession with these begin.

2013 Panini Fathers Day Cam Newton Pro Bowl Pylon Card

2013 Panini Fathers Day Andrew Luck Pinnacle Lava Flow Parallel – Not a fan of this.

2013 Panini Fathers Day Tim Tebow Collection Jumbo Swatch

I think Panini has the right idea in getting these cards into the forefront of our minds as we move into the months leading up to their biggest spectacle of the year in Chicago. They want as much buzz overtaking the convention, and loading up these initial promos is going to help them do it. The issue is that the products they are pushing behind the giveaway are all Basketball and Baseball, instead of the more usual suspects in Football.

What is even worse, is that I have heard they are making the shops take on MORE of these products than they already have, rather than compensating for existing boxes on the shelf. Sure, its a great way to clean out the distributor’s enormous backlogs, but why the adding of that burden on the shops? They already have a ton of the boxes in their inventory to begin with. Its not even the good stuff like Select or Preferred, because those products are already selling well. Its the junk that no one wants, but Panini keeps putting out, one after the other to make up for last year.

Here is the thing. Collectors love free cards, and that’s what this should be all about. Buy a Panini product, get a pack as a bonus. Oh mister shop owner, you bought a million of our boxes last year? Here is a reward for your customers, have these highly coveted packs. That would be the true way to make this beneficial for everyone, but making them take on extra product that they may not be able to sell isnt fair for the shops that DO want to participate, but DONT want to overstock their shelves with boxes.

Maybe this is an overreaction, and that this isnt as bad as it seems, but I think its worth mentioning here. I have gotten emails from a few different shops of varying size, as well as feedback from my own shop that they dont feel this is necessarily the ideal way to help them out. Im sure there is a counterpoint here, and I would love to invite them to comment.

As for the cards themselves, I think some of them are laughably terrible, but others are definitely awesome. Looks like we are going to get a bunch of stuff from all the different sports, but I am curious to find out what happens when they need to backfill a similarly large giveaway at the NSCC, as much of the content will likely be repeated.

Overall, this WILL be a successful giveaway, and I WILL be participating thanks to Panini taking orders for Prime Sigs (a good looking and cheap football product) on their website. Without that option, I would likely have to sit this one out and buy singles off eBay.

I am NOT a fan of Tim Tebow. In fact, after we discovered just how bad he really is, I dont see why people are still so obsessed with him. Never in the history of the league has a third string QB gotten the attention he has. Luckily for all of us, he signed with New England, which means that we wont have to hear much over the course of the season.

Check out the recent auctions, things are getting out of hand:

2010 Exquisite Tim Tebow Rookie Auto Patch /99

2010 Contenders Tim Tebow Auto Ticket BGS 9.5

2010 Topps Platinum Tim Tebow Red Refractor Patch Auto

2010 Topps Five Star Tim Tebow Auto RC /100

For a long time, even after he was traded to the Jets, collectors were still buying up his cards and assigning value to his autographs. I will not deny that he will always have SOME value because of his college career, but I am standing by the fact that his off the field persona is a large part of why he has MORE value than the typical player in his standing.

I have said numerous times that Tebow will never be an NFL QB, which hasnt changed. To think how many teams have switched to a spread or read option style, and still no one has come calling at all? That says something about what the NFL thinks about his potential vs risk. Belichick is going to be a dampener, which should be exactly what he needs, as non-starters should rarely ever be the story unless someone gets hurt or they do something stupid.

That wont stop Patriots collectors from going crazy trying to buy up his cards, and to be honest, we might have a very unusual situation in the hobby coming up. Although backup rookies frequently get cards, they RARELY if ever get real cards past their first year. Its likely that for the first time in history, we get non-rookie cards of a THIRD string player. That is just plain ludicrous.

Here is the other unusual part of this whole situation. It seems as though Ryan Mallet has gotten a bump in his value, it seems just because so many of the news organizations are talking about his potential as a future NFL starter. You gotta love the way this hobby works.

2011 Topps Five Star Ryan Mallett Auto Booklet /15

2011 Exquisite Ryan Mallett Rookie Auto Patch Logo

Here is the long and short of it. Tim Tebow will not make the hall of fame. Tim Tebow will likely not start a game for the rest of his career based on merit over injury. If you buy his cards, its for his college career, not his pro career. That’s about it.

EDIT: Here is the first Tebow card courtesy of my favorite card company! YAY COLLECTORS.