Certified Football has been delayed for weeks, but is finally going live from what we are seeing on eBay over the last few days. I have had low expectations from the previews that Panini has pimped on their site, and so far, its going to be right on par with my harsh criticisms.
Despite that almost the entire set is printed on rainbow foil that detracts from the overall appeal of the design, its obvious that foil is the least of the problems. Collectors have absolutely gone nuts for Certified over the last few years, and I really fail to see why this is such a favorite. The designs that have been used for 2006-2010 have been responsible for some of the ugliest cards in the history of the hobby, and yet, people still buy it.
This year will be no different on the box level, but after Absolute’s poor performance on the secondary market, this could be the worst of the worst for Certified – despite its on card autos. I have to believe that everyone is getting tired of the worthless jersey cards that are spread over this product like a thick layer of expired cream cheese on a bagel, and that will force a lot of people to wait for better products that are still due out this year.
One day soon, Panini will realize that their designs and their content will need to improve to stay in this market. Although the football license is not a focus of their product line due to how much they overpaid for the NBA and MLBPA licenses, with no NBA season and no NBA cards this year, they better nut up or shut up.
The NFL license is up after this year, and they will need step up their game. This is getting hard to stomach:
Torrey Smith Freshman Fabric Hard Signed Gold Auto /25
Blaine Gabbert Fabric of the Game Auto Jersey
Shane Vereen Fabric of the Game Auto Jersey
Randall Cobb Freshman Fabric Auto Redemption – Redemptions were a HUGE issue last year, it might be worse with all the Freshman Fabrics being hard signed
I am one of those collectors that loves Certified for some reason. I have been putting together the rookie auto sets (New Generation and Freshman Fabric) for the past four years. I think collectors are driven to this product because of the range of hits (from the gu to the autos from rookies to hall of famers). The design may be predictable but opening this product is more fun then getting the same cards with different colored borders as my hits (Chrome).
See, I understand where you are coming from, but I think that colored borders on very well designed cards out do poorly designed cards that are from a variety of subsets.
But what I’m saying is content outweighs design with certified. Now for the rest of panini’s line, I think it is crap too.