Let me start by saying that 2014 Spectra was easily one of the ugliest sets I have ever seen. The cards were fucking disgusting, and made for some vomit inducing moments for the product. My opinion must have been the common feeling, as Panini literally couldnt give the shit away. Distributors had so much trouble moving their stock that they made people order cases of Spectra FB if anyone wanted to order Immaculate basketball. Want the good stuff
? Buy this trash first. Leave it to Panini to bring it back again.
Here is how bad Spectra was in 2014:
2014 Spectra Russell Wilson Leading Men Auto Relic
2014 Spectra Sammy Watkins Rookie Auto Relic Blue
2014 Spectra Teddy Bridgewater Auto Relic
Here is how they made Spectra “fresh” for 2015: They took out all the rookie on card autos and replaced them with stickers. Not just any stickers though! Stickers signed in neon colors that correspond to the “seizure friendly” stock patterns. When you see these cards, its tough to believe that there was a person who thought this looked good. Not only did that person believe it looked good, but that it was worth trying in a set with terrible performance. Then its also tough to believe that there was another person who felt the same way, maybe more. Yes, there were multiple sign offs that green lighted this shit show. Sorry, NEON green lighted this shit show!
Either way, the main designs with the GIANT boxes behind the stickers was bad to begin with. Then to add in everything on top of that makes this a legendary fuck up. Panini even had the balls to rip off Topps’ Superfractors, and then cheapen them by putting them in a set with no backbone. After reading the message board threads, its clear that using the pattern has blinded people from how shitty the cards look, but I have lost faith in the collector base long before this happened. I mean, people bought Clear Vision with a straight face, right?
I have honestly given up on Panini’s potential to ever turn their ship around. They do nothing but churn out visual diarrhea like its not a big deal, and that scares the diarrhea out of me. Football cards are doomed if they think this is a good way to go. I hope everyone loves Spectra 2015, because you will need to buy it to get next year’s top basketball product. Have fun with that.
Top Secret Panini Research Report: Topps Chrome – “Wow, people love these shiny superfractor cards. Hey, we can do that type of stuff. We can can make every card look like a superfractor. And we can cut the cost of doing any on card autographs. Nobody will notice the stickers cause we’ll do neon autographs. Plus, we’ll make sure Topps Chrome doesn’t exist anymore. People will have to buy Spectra. It’ll be the only show in town with superfractor type patterns. Panini FTW!”