Earlier, Panini posted the first break of 2010 Limited football. Outside of the fact that they are breaking the boxes more than a week early, and that it is done on a manufacturer site, it really didnt do them any favors. The cards looked so utterly horrendous that this will be the first year that I will not buy a single card out of this product. Limited has always been a favorite of mine, regardless of the fact that the product is riddled with foil cards, and this year it actually looks worse than Certified. After seeing this video, I cannot understand how someone can put their stamp on cards that look like they were made by someone who had no clue how to use the design programs.
At the very minimum, the cards that everyone chases, the rookie Phenoms patch autos look straight out of Triple Threads. They are that disgusting this year. The player pictures are the size of pennies, the card is divided up into picture, patch and autograph section just like they are in Triple Threads, and the rainbow foil serves the same purpose in both sets. Distractions all around.
When you also consider how distracting the swatches are in the other crap jersey cards they pulled, I start to wonder if they are even trying any more. “Yeah, just slap that on wherever you can fit it. They dont matter anymore.” Its true, they dont matter any more, and it shows in the amateur design that is utilized in many of the cards from the preview, and from this break. I also think its funny that they pulled as many worthless jersey cards as they did in the video, and its becoming more and more obvious what Panini thinks good content consists of. Give them one scrub auto, one better auto and a few crap jerseys, they will keep coming back. Umm, no. This is shit at BEST.
Now that we see what Limited is going to contain a little bit more clearly, its time that we start to question which direction these sets are actually going. In general, We have seen NOTHING in terms of brand progression, NOTHING in terms of design improvement, and NOTHING that would give us more reason to buy. 2010 Limited is shaping up to be a COMPLETE downgrade from 2009, and that is something that makes me VERY upset as a longtime collector of this product. If you look to many of the Panini sets that have come out this year it is a very similar situation, and I think that as long as we continue to have cards like these hideous “LEGEND” 72 point text cards, things arent going to get better any time soon.
How long until Topps Five Star Football again?
I fully agree with you Gellman. I too will not buy any singles this year. I bought some prime pairings dual autos last year. Panini needs to stop making junk like this and certified and make cards that look more like rated rookies.
Thanks to the design team idiots at this company I can say I’ll save thousands next year! Thanks, morons! I’ll just stick to picking up older, on-card Upper Deck HOFer autos while people continue to burn their money on this shit.
Who the hell actually prints paychecks for people who ‘design’ this crap??
I must ask, what qualifications do you have to designate what is or isn’t good design besides opinion?
And as we all know, opinions are like a certain part of anatomy, and those aren’t a good justification for much if anything.
I’m sure if any of you can do any better it will be extremely easy for you guys to replace the design team there in a heartbeat, so god speed and save the industry!
Well, this is all opinion, thats what blogging is. If you think I am presenting it as cold hard fact, you are not getting the concept of this site.
As for the second part, just like food critics critique food that they couldnt make themselves, and movie critics critique movies they couldnt direct, I critique cards despite the fact that I couldnt do it better. I am happy to consult on proposed designs and let them know what I think should be changed, but I cant create cards without proper training.
See, Im not the professional, though, but they ARE. Thats why I expect better out of them.
Good critiques give constructive critisizm and reasoning for their distaste of something though..
Maybe I haven’t dug into the depths of your posts enough and its just what I’ve read over the passed few and truth be told I probably won’t.
But personly Its kinda amusing what you find attractive on cards and what you hate. Its almost completly opposite from what I normally hear and personally see from who I’m enjoying collecting with at whatever moment in time (for what my opinions are, right).
To tell you the Truth Xion, I could design these way better. Look at the Kafka RPA, the brown color totaly doesn’t fit with the eagles jersey color and just darkens the card, for patches to enhance the color you need to have a white backround or lighter colors that don’t dull out the patch. Also the brown dulls out the autograph making it hard to see. Lastly the player picture is small. If I was on the desgin team this set would look a whole lot better.
Oof, last year’s Phenoms were a lot better. I’m not as turned off as you are, but I agree that they took a step backwards, design-wise. I won’t say I’m not adding anything from the release to my collection, but if I do, it won’t be quite as high on my “To get” list.
The base cards are actually pretty clean looking. It’s when you add a stupid sponge Bob shorts shaped swatch that it looks junior varsity.
The Phenoms design is too segmented. If it were on its side it would look like 3 different book binders. Too much wasted space. And that size photo should be reserved for the letterman autos in this set. I have a full Felix Jones ‘O’ and the picture is the same size.
But the 2 worst things I saw were A) those horrid Legend cards. What a cheap, Skybox looking design. And B) an auto subset entitled ‘Initial Steps’ in which the player is posing next to…..you guessed it……steps.
your joking right. is there any panini product that you do like? these limited cards are really nice. alot nicer then the spx that you said was nice. that stuff is garbage
Dude, have you not read anything I have posted? Every single thing is laid out piece by piece why I hate it. I break it down element by element. Everything is explained.
I completely disagree. Look at those jersey cards. You would never see that in a Topps set let alone an Upper Deck set. Like I have said a million times, its like the cards are designed to be incomplete. Like someone forgot to apply the sticker.
@-Xion-,
Couple questions.
1) What was the last product that you felt strongly about (either positive or negative)?
2) What gives you the authority to feel that way about it?
how many times can someone say shredded in one video? And they even boo themselves when they pull a redemption. This whole faked video box break stunt is really pissing me off.
It must too much trouble to teach they guys how to make things interesting too. It’s as if they hired an internet marketing advisor that just doesn’t give a crap.
I can’t get myself to buy an Panini cards this year. I did really like Limited last year, but this year everything looks about the same. Upper Deck is just terrible this year as well because of only being able to use college pictures. Sweet Spot was a huge flop. Topps has been up and done. I do have to say Finest was by far the best for Football this year. I mainly have just been buying baseball, not because the design is that great, but rather the price is 1/3 what it pre-sold for, so I have been able to buy cases, keep what I want and flip the rest for a profit. Anything can be considered a good product at the right price! Sometimes that price is $0!
Whether you think a card looks good or not is an opinion. A blog, for the most part, is about opinion and the blogs creator is entitled to his just as much as you are entitled to yours. If you don’t like his opinion than you can disagree, but complaining about it is pointless as it’s his blog. If reading this blog makes your eyes water and start burning than read another blog of a person who shares your opinion.
You guys are off here.. Limited looks great, I understand there are many of you that will hate anything that panini does. but these are clean cards with a nice design. I can’t wait to bust this. I quit reading SCU as often cause every post now is a panini bash and an upper deck praise
To each their own, but I wont buy a product with all these junk jersey cards that look the way they do. Did you even see the Legend cards? Those look fucking awful in my opinion, and thats only the tip of the iceberg.
Gellman, don’t worry about what the uninformed collectors named Shimey, xion and hype say. You are exactly right on your criticism of these ugly panini cards and the loyal readers of your support you.
Typo, the comment should read like this: Gellman, don’t worry about what the uninformed collectors named Shimey, xion and hype say. You are exactly right on your criticism of these ugly panini cards and the loyal readers of your site support you.
Just because a million people like tacky recycled cards, doesnt make them anymore better looking, These cards look like crap and so does triple threads, you dont need a phd to criticize .
Once again another crap product put out by Panini. GO FIGURE.
This years Limited looks worse than last years. Matter of fact, EVERY product Panini has put out looks like crap. Score might be the only thing they did a halfway decent job of designing, and that’s because of the lack of foil.
Panini is crap. All the rookie autos in Panini are crap. Pay $80 to $90 bucks a box to pull cheap jersey cards and no-name rookies is crap. Personally, Topps Platinum for me has given me the best bang for my buck. I may pull a crap patch rookie auto, but I may score with the actual Patch. I can’t say that with Panini. They push crap on the industry and collectors keep lapping it up. I can’t wait till Topps Five Star comes out.