2011 Crown Royale Football Preview: Die Cuts Dress to Impress

Last year, if you asked me what my favorite Panini cards of the year were, it would probably be a close battle between the Plates and Patches veteran auto jerseys and the awesome and creative Crown Royale Rookie Die Cut signatures. Each of the cards were possibly the only two complete looking cards in an entire Panini product release calendar. Although we arent sure if Plates and Patches will be back, we just got word via Panini’s blog that Crown Royale will be. Thankfully, so will the Rookie Die Cuts, but unlike many of the other things we are starting to see from Panini, these have been stepped up to meet Topps’ epic challenge.

When you look back at 2010 Crown Royale, it was basically a train wreck dressed up to look like an auto accident with fatalities. Most of the product was so disgusting, that many collectors were angry at Panini tarnishing a fan favorite set from the past successes of Pacific during the 1990s. You can see exactly what I am talking about with cards like this one, as there is no reason for the sticker to be covering up the player with a big white box. Other than that, it was a product stuffed full of worthless jersey cards that had no place in a hit per pack product.

This year, it looks like we are going to get a lot of the same with different names. When looking at the cards OTHER than the Rookie Die Cuts, you know your design is too busy when you need a white strip across the card to highlight the signature. Seriously, Panini needs to understand that white strips and white boxes unnecessarily break up the card’s look irreparably. Whomever designed these cards needs a serious education in what not to do, and that doesnt even touch on copyright infringement of the “calling all captains” set that looks to be named after an ad campaign for a hard liquor company.

As for the rookie die cuts themselves, I could not be happier with the direction they are going. Not only do the cards look amazing with the player ON TOP OF the swatch, but to add hard signed signatures to it makes these cards borderline ridiculous (in a good way). Of course, these cards will most likely be so rare, that it wont dig out the rest of the product from the gutter, but who knows. It may just be enough to get people to buy into this worthless set.

5 thoughts on “2011 Crown Royale Football Preview: Die Cuts Dress to Impress

  1. Just guessing…

    Reasons they can’t figure out why a big ass white block line across the front of the card shouldn’t happen:

    1. They have Windows ’95 edition Paint editor and that bitch can’t ‘fade to white’, creating a classy look to a photo leaving space for a signature.

    2. They lost out on the bidding for that UD design team member that must’ve landed at Topps.

    3. But… aren’t big ugly-ass white boxes the only way to present autographs..?

    4. Realized design work costs money and just used scraps of paper out of the trash can to make newest ‘design’.

  2. Well, well, its the same old garbage from Panini. The calling all captains set could’ve been epic, maybe even one the must have cards of the year/lifetime if they did them right. Instead of using some crappy swatches they should’ve used the actual captains patch. If they had I would’ve been willing to pay nicely to get one of the Payton Mannings. Instead they just used some cheap pieces of the jersey and made them yet another worthless, crappy, unwanted “hit”, way to go Panini.

  3. As primarily a hockey collector, the die-cut rookies in the hockey release are one of the only things Panini got right all year in my eyes.

    I agree with James, the captains set could have been awesome if they used the actual captain’s patch from the jersey. First, make them landscape to better fit the patch, get on-card autos, and number them /4 since the actual patch has four stars on it.

    And Upper Deck has already done something sinilar with the Letters of Distinction set in SP Game Used Hockey so it can be done. They used the actual captain patch from the biggest names in the game and they were all 1 of 1.

    Another lazy effort by Panini but all the sheep are going to eat it up like normally do.

  4. I agree. I still think they look decent. The only thing is not all teams use the captains patches. I know the Steelers do not so dependng on who is in the set it might have been difficult logistic wise. Peyton obviosly has been a captain awhile but maybe some of the others were not at the time of the purchased jersey.. Regardless I would anticipate guys will take your unwanted hit off you hands for a good premium

  5. Amen. I’m waiting for someone to do an epic subset with Captain patches. I would pay good money for a few of those cards.

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