Awhile back I was pretty vocal about my feelings on stagnation in the trading card industry. There are insert sets, products and themes that are very similar, if not direct copies from all companies. It's a beg, borrow or steal world, I just live in it.
Today I had the pleasure of opening Panini Black Football. It is an amazingly good looking product. Sleek designs, dark, ominous, but it is also so close to the Upper Deck version with the same name, its appeal is lost on me.
However, I can appreciate a card product if it is a good one.
Try as I like, it is difficult not to interject some opinion into my work. I don't want to sound like a fool, nor do I want you to be uninformed.
If this product had any other name, I'd love it. I didn't get the greatest box in the world either. I am basing my level of like for Black to the artistic characteristics of the product, and the possibilities it has. Even the packaging is slick, and I wouldn't usually care if it was in a spiffy package, wrapped in a piece of salami, or was simply in a brown box with no info on it.
Black is not without flaws, it is sensitive to chipping, the quality control on the autographs should have been better. Some players used pens that were far to light on ink, or not shaken enough before being used, and the cards in the product suffer for it.
While it has issues, it also delivers some of the best looking cards bar none of 2012.
Have a look for yourself...
Today I had the pleasure of opening Panini Black Football. It is an amazingly good looking product. Sleek designs, dark, ominous, but it is also so close to the Upper Deck version with the same name, its appeal is lost on me.
However, I can appreciate a card product if it is a good one.
Try as I like, it is difficult not to interject some opinion into my work. I don't want to sound like a fool, nor do I want you to be uninformed.
If this product had any other name, I'd love it. I didn't get the greatest box in the world either. I am basing my level of like for Black to the artistic characteristics of the product, and the possibilities it has. Even the packaging is slick, and I wouldn't usually care if it was in a spiffy package, wrapped in a piece of salami, or was simply in a brown box with no info on it.
Black is not without flaws, it is sensitive to chipping, the quality control on the autographs should have been better. Some players used pens that were far to light on ink, or not shaken enough before being used, and the cards in the product suffer for it.
While it has issues, it also delivers some of the best looking cards bar none of 2012.
Have a look for yourself...
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