For the last 4 years, Panini has ran some sort of Super Bowl promotion to clean out the rotting product that they cant sell. One of the main reasons they cant sell the product is because its fucking horrible, but the other reason is because their prices reflect MSRP and not the severe dropoff that almost every Panini product experiences. If you want to pay double the cost of a box, and spend 150 bucks this year, you can get a free promo signature.
These “Private Signings” have been going for a while, and rarely do they sell well. They fall somewhere below the National Convention stuff, as many collectors really dont care about promo cards. Here are what they look like in previous years:
2014 Panini Private Signings John Elway Auto
2014 Panini Private Signings Peyton Manning Auto /5
2014 Panini Private Signings Steve Young Auto
2013 Panini Private Signings Emmitt Smith Auto
Regardless of prior performance, Panini’s design this year is about as bad as it can get. Not only does every card carry a sticker auto (common for promos), they are affixed with a GIANT FUCKING WHITE BOX behind them, just in case the seizure inducing hyper plaid wasnt enough to burn your retinas beyond recognition.
Each card is uglier than the next, and considering how far some of the prices on the boxes have dropped, you are literally paying double for a box of hot garbage, and getting a dry handed reach around with delivery. These cards dont look good, they dont sell well, and the product you are busting is overpriced. Explained to me again how this isnt a horrible promo?
I have often said that Panini’s license next year will be bad because it puts a company that designs horrible products in power. This promotion is just the icing on the cake. Shitty Panini products are built frequently KNOWING that they will be at half dealer cost and required for closeout. Now we are seeing that Panini cant even sell the boxes at full price on their own website. Just a fucking failure on so many levels. BUT PLEASE! Give them 10 years longer to figure it all out.
I agree with what you said about this year being a ripoff. However, in my experience this has been one of the best “values” out there the past few years. Last year, unopened SB promo boxes sold really well for about 3 weeks after the SB and greatly offset the cost of the boxes that had to be purchased to get them. I was looking forward to this promo because it usually delivers more value than the standard box I pick up from Blowout or the LCS.
Don’t use a name like “Private Signings” then have the signature be on a sticker on a big white box. Just like design, card names should serve a purpose. There was nothing exclusive about this. Just a bunch of rookies sitting at a table at the Rookie Premier signing dozens of sheets of stickers.
These designs look pretty good to me, but the white box wrecks it. I wonder how many graphic designers at Panini have been demotivated when they present a nice design and the feedback they get is to insert a big white box smack dab in the middle. Maybe it’s a directive from the Panini head honchos in Italy: “We make the best stickers in the world, and we want to see our stickers really stand out on every product we produce. We really want those stickers to pop on our designs.”
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This is the best rationale I’ve heard in a long time…
“Maybe it’s a directive from the Panini head honchos in Italy: “We make the best stickers in the world, and we want to see our stickers really stand out on every product we produce. We really want those stickers to pop on our designs.””
Bravo sir.