I really liked the look of the Elite base set and base autos last year, despite the terrible foil that Panini thought was a good idea to use. It just seemed to me that a simple design and great format was exactly what needed to be done. I also liked the hard signed rookie cards that were included as an added value, something that had not been done in previous years. Outside of those elements, the rest of the product looked like the same tired crap that Panini always seems to churn out for 99% of their product calendar. It was disgusting.

This year, from the previews we have seen, looks to have all the gross fat still attached to the set, but the main autograph content also looks terrible with the horizontally oriented rookie autographs. Im sure the mockups will be adjusted for post rookie premiere content, but if they look anything like the mockups, its going to be awful. Because of this situation, a part of the set that a lot of people viewed as top notch will not be at that level again. This is only made worse due to the big white block of crap in the corner where the auto will go, and the ridiculous 100 point text exclaiming “ROOKIE!!!!11!” in the corner.

Then, when you also see that the base card design has basically not changed at all from 2010, the effort in production of this product is called into question, just like it is with a good portion of what Panini puts out.

Panini is expecting to make up for this lack of interesting improvements with the now ridiculously overused booklet card. Late to the party as usual, Panini thought that the throwback threads set was a perfect way to start a trend with an innovation that is already 4-5 years old. I actually don’t think they are poorly designed, and the placement of the swatches in the previews arent terrible like they usually are, but I don’t understand why this is such big fanfare. In fact, booklet cards are so overused, that the value of them in higher end products is not affected any more by the extra card attachment.

See, this is just a perfect example of how things work in the industry. Even though the Triple Threads XXIV booklet cards were some of the ugliest cards in existence, they were popular enough for EVERY GODDAMNED COMPANY to want to use the concept. Like jersey cards and every other new creative innovation, it became comical to see how booklet cards would be factored into a set that never had that element before. Hell, booklet cards werent even the end of it, as both Triple Threads and Exquisite felt a THIRD card was needed for some parts of their products.

Here are the images from Panini’s preview, I just get that they are going to be just like every other card Panini puts out, just with a second arm attatched to it. Maybe if they were hard signed we’d have something to “oooh” and “aaah” over.