Panini Anthology: Worst Product Ever????

[chakhae1]

I used to be a big time hockey collector back in the day when I had the money to purchase a lot of way but since 2005-2006 there has been a major decrease in the quality of their products and I have stayed from collecting hockey cards since then. Say as you will but the majority of hockey products since then are terrible. SP Game Used has been a load of 1 color jersey cards, Trilogy is the same and the list goes on and on with terrible products. The only products worth getting for collectibility and value are UD1 and 2, SPA and of course Cup. I tried a box of spx this year just b/c of the connor hype and did pretty good and hit a connor quad jersey, but most people I have talked absolutely hate this product and for good reason.

Then there is Rookie Anthology. Is there really anything positive to say about this product? Usually I take the time to look at group breaks of all new products, but I couldn't even sit through a case of this stuff b/c it just looks so bad. No photos really? These are supposed to be hockey cards with photos of players and this product is just weird and pointless to me. I think there was a baseball product that was similar and that product was really odd to be as well. I know I am not the only person in the boat here that thinks this product is terrible so let's hear your opinions!

[adamslogik]

the product is just Panini trying to release the rest of their stock of game used and autos. Since they don't have an NHL license anymore, no pics is their only option.

That being said, I think they've done a very good job with many of the designs and that the value in the boxes seems to be not bad in some cases.

If we're talking worst product ever, take a look at contours. Ugly cards, a blatant ripoff of Crown Royale, just not as nice looking. Very lazy product and as far as value goes, you get pretty much 3 non numbered jersey cards and an auto (weak auto checklist too), and 4 high numbered parallels.

Actually, alot of Upper decks releases this year have been terrible value, no competition to drive them to do any better and they are leaning on McDavid way too hard for value. Basically, it feels like they don't think they have to try this year because since McDavid is in everything, it will all sell out regardless of what you put in it.

Worst part is, they are right.

[Gallinator]

Agreed. I think anyone who cared could figure out that this was going to be a dump of leftover stock with no pictures, so it wasn't really a surprise. That stated, I think it is still overpriced. At least they did put some design effort into it, unlike the stuff we are seeing from Upper Deck for the most part this year. I have bought very little 15/16 product.

[10-4 collector]

I agree too, the full coverage patches are very nice, a bit like prime colors. I also had planned to buy a lot of UD this year. Didn't buy that much, same reason as you guys, no value in boxes except if you hit Mcdavid.

[canucksfan007]

Rookie Anthology is kind of a stand alone product. Its the left over scraps of a company dumping their hockey memorabilia and sticker autos .... they cannot picture any players ( no PA license ) nor can they picture any team logos ( no NHL license ). In all fairness to your comments about Rookie Anthology this year ...... 99% of the people knew this would be a steaming pile before anyone had to watch any break. A simple product review and mock up pics and you would have all this information.

As for other UD products .... sure some is crap and some is decent. All depends what youre looking for. You list UD1 and 2, SPA and Cup as good collectability and value. Many would agree, S1 and S2 are always solid products year after year. Why is that? Young Guns have a strong following, its a staple set every year .... and basically everyone in the hobby can afford to put together the set. Does that appeal to everyone? Not even close, but it does appeal to most because of the price range of the set / box.

On the other hand, you throw in SPA and The Cup into the same mix as S1 and S2. Value? Collectability? The Cup is the EASIEST way to lose your money. Some case hits dont even pay for a single box. Sure, a Cup Rookie Auto Patch of player "X" is always a #1 on player collectors lists .... but besides rookies is The Cup really still that collectable? Do I really need this years version of my player from Limited Logos, Signature Patches, Honorable Numbers, Scripted Swatches, Scripted Sticks etc etc etc etc .... not to mention all those auto only sets where I cant even get a really nice unique memorabilia piece. Is making the same set year after year really adding any collectability to the product? Sure there are very FEW people that are completion-ists and make it their goal to get 100% of everything made of their player, but to the vast majority dont want 10+ Steve Yzerman Enshrinement's from 05 - 16. They pick the design they really like and might take a few in that 10 year span.

Dont get me started on SPA. Every year, people bust a TON of SPA. Is it really that good of a product? Sure the Future Watch Autos are most likely the most highly collected Auto Rookie every year, but is that because people like them the most or they are the most affordable of all the Auto Rookie products with a decent following. SP Authentic has not been good since 06/07 where the boxes were literally loaded ( and were they really loaded or was it just coming off one of the worst SPA sets ever in 05/06? ), and even then you needed to buy quite a bit to see the reward of the loaded release as of course there were complete dud boxes. With a checklist that usually contains 80% of the rookies being in the $5 - $10 range when the product is 1st released, and steadily going down in the weeks to come .... is a $120ish box really that great when you pull a decent $10 - $20 FW, some no name FW your wondering why even has an auto in this set and some some group D SOTT that hits 1 every 4 boxes. The chase cards in this product are so few and far between ( besides rookie content ), that getting something like a multi player auto or low numbered auto sub set is really just a nice surprise. You can quote me on this now ..... everyone is hyping SPA up waiting for their cases .....

"SP Authentic this year will be as watered down as 05/06, maybe even more so." I still see them advertising 3 autos per box, but im going to almost guarantee that most boxes will not contain 2 FW Auto Rookies, and instead some terrible SOTTs. For the last few years, the average was 2 FW Autos per box, and UD cannot change the print run /999 on FW Auto Rookies without major backlash. But to be able to cash in on the McDavid dollars being thrown around this year, they can greatly increase the amount of this product printed by simply limiting the FW Autos to 1 per box .... maybe 1 or 2 two FW boxes per case.

I can easily see collectability for products like Cup and SPA only because of their rookie content. Does UD really put anything new in these any year, expect a slight design change and new rookie crop? Not at all. The only thing that drives these 2 products are the heavily desired true rookies in the set. I even think UD acknowledges this by throwing in "hidden" chase cards from the past few years, the dreaded FW Auto Redemption. With people getting more and more picky with what they purchase ( wax and single wise ), doesnt anyone else see UD trying to artificially inflate the value of their boxes by somehow making their /999 rookie card actually out of /100 or whatever number it is. The Matt Nietos ( or most other SPA redemptions ) of the world ... how about making players like Matt Stajan or Alex Pietrangelo in the UD Jersey set a group A, and sell for hundreds ..... or this year Group A Jersey Doug Gilmour. Dont believe me, look here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DOUG-GILMOUR-15-16-UPPER-DECK-SERIES-2-GAME-USED-JERSEY-A-588-924-PACKS-SSSP-/172107085248?hash=item281261b5c0%3Ag%3A7h0AAOSwQYZ WxoZR&nma=true&si=mJeqtjKgJF3OZObx%252BX%252FFmrEb j2k%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l25 57

I remember when your group A player was a group A player - Gretzkys / Lemieuxs / Orrs / Crosbys / etc etc. I actually think this is a double edge sword when it comes to a products collectability. You make some of the less collectable players a group A, with astronomical odds .... to give some artificial value to the player and / or the set. When you have the Superstars in the lesser groupings ( because everyone knows Group B is really no different from Group E or F ), you know they are going to sell for X no matter what. If UD can get Bobby and Wayne to sign a couple hundred or so more autos for product X, and insert them as Group C players .... then really the consumer has more chances to win. You have better chances of pulling that Group C Gretzky auto that you know will sell each and every time for $100 - $150, and have the chance of pulling some no namer or lesser player in Group A, that would be a $1 - $5 card any other day of the week, but its a group A.

I dont want to get into all the other products right now, but yes .... there is a ton of crap out there right now. BD at $300 a box to include manufactured hits, with some boxes not including an auto, ouch. How about Trilogy, does anyone know what the true rookie is? 18 different parallels of guy X, some with autos and some without ..... gross. Nothing like pulling my players "auto rookie" /999, only to find out when you add up all the "auto rookies" in the product their is double the print run than the card i pulled, not to mention 10X the amount in a non autographed version.



Rant over.


I still bust wax ..... im an idiot =P

[chakhae1]

that is the problem with the hobby nowadays there are too many sticker dumps and even a lot of products have the same photo over and over again of players and that gets a little bit repetitive to say the least. i agree that some of the patches in Anthology are really nice, but with no photo anywhere on the card, like i said it just looks odd.

contours is another product that is up there in the "nice try" category. there is no value in their cards and even though the on card patch autos are nice, they are case hits and most of them are not worth much of anything. adding celebrities is a nice tough and a newer concept, but again they are case hits and not worth much of anything.

[chakhae1]

hahha i agree with your words about spa, but it is one of the staples of the hockey hobby and it has been for years. spa has a little something for everyone and unlike most products out there, there are a lot of cards that do hold their value and the auto patches are some of the nicest cards of the year. too many dud rookies though, but that holds true with every product.

that's what i noticed. products that have the same issues as every other product but have a couple of things that really stand out, tend to do well on the market whereas newer products that still have the same issues but bring up new ideas that make no sense tend to suffer.

[Cunnuc]

Rookie Anthology is a product from Panini that ran from 11-12 to 13-14 seasons while Panini had a license.

Anthology is Panini's only product since losing their license, so they have no pictures of players.

The problem isn't Panini, the problem is Upper Deck and the NHLPA. Upper Deck having the exclusive rights to NHLPA and hockey right now is what is destroying the hobby.

You could buy 2 boxes of Panini Athology and pull a sweet patch or you could buy half a case of any Upper Deck product and you might hit a sweet patch.

Black and white for me. Upper Deck is producing such products lately and it's destroying the hobby. It's driving other companies to think outside the box. Like Leaf signing Eichel. It's caused a bit of an uproar. It's only going to get worse before it gets better.

Before when you had even two companies allowed to show the logos you at least had two companies battling eachother by producing more or less the same product released at the same time. Artifacts/Certified. Dominion/The Cup etc. Now you have Leaf signings top prospects as more of a you' than an 'anything you can do we can do better'.

The battle has been escalated to slaps in the face rather than punches and the only ones really getting hurt are us, the collectors and hobbyists.

[Sharky94]

Upper Deck having the exclusive rights to NHLPA and hockey right now is what is destroying the hobby.

+1

[Sharky94]

Even as a Tomas Hertl PC collector, I find it hard to get excited about this:



If you think about it, Panini last had a license in 13-14, Hertl's rookie season. I seriously doubt Panini would have tried to collect GU jerseys of that year's rookies late in the season since they knew they wouldn't have a license the next year. So that means this is most probably an "Event-worn" piece. A large swatch of white non-game-used jersey with just a name is not something that excites me at all, and I doubt it would get many people excited. It is certainly not something I would pay more than a buck or two for, so there is no way I would waste money on packs/boxes of this garbage. These boxes should be closer to "MVP prices", rather than "SPA prices." And technically, since this is a non-licensed product, it is not much different from custom-made cards, so I don't think I would consider it in the overall production number of Hertl cards. I certainly am not going to pay $20 or $30 to chase a #/25 patch because it means absolutely nothing to me, and I certainly don't trust the published production numbers.