I don't make it a habit to chase base Panini parallels. While I'm somewhat of a Panini apologist I agree than many of the base cards are sub par. Obviously, the lack of licensing takes away a great deal from the overall look of the card. For me Panini often makes up for this by having unique auto checklists, using college uniforms, better price points, and inclusion of pre war players. The latter being the subject of my latest purchase.
2016 Immaculate Collection Honus Wagner /25
At least to me this card still looks cool. Obviously during this time period the uniforms were about as basic as can be so the impact of licensing is minimal. I think this is why I liked the Panini Classics set so much. A good chuck of the checklist was made up of pre war players. Of course it was cancelled after a year.
While I like the Wagner, for every one of those you will find 50 of these...
The most frustrating aspect about Panini is that they still haven't attempted to make some of their core products more visually appealing. Have you seen some the NFL versions of Donruss and Prizm? They are nice looking. It just seems like they could come up with some better photo options for current players to skirt the licensing instead of just brushing out logos. Maybe some shots of guys in street clothes. Topps had a cool shot of Cutch accepting an award in shirt and tie. How about some shots from the neck up? At this point I would be ok with them just trying something. As far as I know they haven't made an attempt in any of their reoccurring sets.
Does the good outweigh the bad for Panini? I guess it depends on how you collect. For me I still like them because of the reasons I listed in the first paragraph. It just feels like they could really improve the one glaring negative....
Thanks for reading!
That Wagner looks great!
ReplyDeleteI thought so too.
DeleteI liked their Panini Prizm Drafts and Elite Extra Edition products but mainly for prospects who either never end up getting Bowman cards or just haven't received Bowman cards up until that point. That makes them semi-interesting to me.
ReplyDeleteBut you're right. I wouldn't touch most of these normal MLB base cards with a 10 ft pole.
The prospect sets are much more affordable. I've gotten great deals on autos from guys like Taillon and Glasnow. If they were Bowman products they would have been twice as much.
DeleteFor someone who collects in the traditional sense, base-set collecting, Panini's baseball sets are brutal. Any good one they make (Hometown Heroes), they scrap.
ReplyDeleteThat is the frustrating part. They've made some fun sets, but for whatever reason they just can't keep the momentum. One of these years I hope they get it right. As for now they are leaving the set collectors out in the rain.
DeleteOn a totally unrelated topic, did you know WVU sponsors a car in the ARCA racing series? There are no cards of the team or driver but I think the driver is a student there.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah! I work for WVU so we get a university wide email that works as kind of a whats going on today thing. This story was linked a while back.
Deletehttp://www.arcaracing.com/articles/1999934-catching-up-with-wvu-student-travis-braden-announces-late-model-arca-plans-for-16
When it comes to baseball... I really liked their 2013 Hometown Heroes base set and their 2012 Golden Age set was okay. I'll buy their products every now and then, because my wholesaler has their stuff on clearance and I can't pass up cheap wax. However... I typically don't pick up singles unless it's super cheap.
ReplyDeleteI liked the Diamond Kings set the most recently. As for singles, I still buy a decent amount. Most of it has to do with the checklists as Panini tends to produce more variety where Topps sticks to the top organizational players.
DeleteAlso, as Zippy stated above Panini is much more affordable in the prospect cards. The Bowman products are just so expensive.