Panini Anthology: Worst Product Ever????

[Sharky94]

And what exactly is this supposed to be? It is the flip-side of a Hertl card and is supposed to belong to Matt Nieto. I am not a genius, but I can tell that there is no "D" in "Matt" or "Nieto" or "San Jose Sharks." So exactly what is this supposed to represent? That is why I don't trust any of these things as actually belonging to who they say they do.

[TheIronHorse4]

The product is terrible, most notably as other have said due to the lack of any licensing to do anything aesthetically pleasing...

That said, there are is not a sentence in this hobby I hate more than "blah blah blah, And (name whatever daily rant collectors have here) is what is destroying the hobby!!!!."

I've been hearing a variation of that sentence now for the last 12 years. Are there things about the hobby that could certainly be better? Yep. Can the value of products be better? Sure, but I think people in general will never be happy with that. Do the cards look similar year after year? I don't know, to some extent yes, however I like that I can expect a similar look from SPA year after year. A couple new designs tweaks and a new autograph insert and I'm happy. The same people that want all of the design changes are the same people who would be complaining that "SPA doesn't look like SPA at all this year!!"

Bottom line:
The hobby is what you make of it. You only want to collect cards from the early 2000's because you loved Pacific? There are plenty of avenues now where you can do just that. Don't have the money to buy high end products? Stick to Series 1-2 and OPC. Don't like the value you get from boxes? Buy singles. You find yourself disenchanted with the hobby and think it's going nowhere but down? Get out and collect/do something else for a hobby.

All that said, stop saying "This is what's destroying the hobby" because I assure you, it's not. It might not be better than it once was, but it's a subjective thing to say, and seeing as how people have been screaming "the end is near" since I got back into collecting in 2004; all of these rants come across as hyperbole in order to just complain about something that you just don't like. Feel free to bookmark this comment for the future so that when/if the collecting world goes belly up you can come back and say "I told you so!!!"

[RGM81]

^^^ Well said. It reminds me of people complaining every week about how terrible WWE Raw is and how they're done with it, and in the end it's "See you all next Monday night!"

I mean, we live in a world where 11-12 Titanium, a whole bunch of 12-13 products, and 08-09 Upper Deck Series 2 exists. To compare that with what is essentially a memorabilia/sticker dump product isn't really fair.

[Drunken Monkey]

And what exactly is this supposed to be? It is the flip-side of a Hertl card and is supposed to belong to Matt Nieto. I am not a genius, but I can tell that there is no "D" in "Matt" or "Nieto" or "San Jose Sharks." So exactly what is this supposed to represent? That is why I don't trust any of these things as actually belonging to who they say they do.

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but this Nieto mystery has me intrigued. Maybe that's not a "D", but a "B"? I still don't know where that would come from, but there was another one of these Hertl-Nieto double coverage cards on eBay where the Nieto patch looks like it came from the same jersey and had what could have been the right part of a "B" and the letter "A" and maybe the start of a "T": http://www.ebay.ca/itm/MATT-NIETO-Tomas-Hertl-2015-16-Panini-Anthology-Double-Coverage-Patches-49-/191866660209

[RGM81]

Yeah that is goofy. We've seen in the past stuff like "2008 PITTSBURGH PENGUINS ROOKIE" slapped across a jersey. But this doesn't look like that type of verbage at all.

[apod417]

Someone e-mail Panini and ask what the details on this are? That is very strange, could it be a warm up jersey from a theme night honoring someone or something possibly from time with the Worcester Sharks?

Personally I think Panini did a decent job for what they had to work with. Some of the cards that have been popping up look fantastic with huge multi-color jerseys pieces and patches others are bland but you get that with UD you just also get a nice picture of the players with it lol.

[creasecollector]

I wouldn't compare Anthology to the products this year anyways. It's just a sticker/memorabilia dump as others have already said. So it's not really fair to compare the two. Without a licence, they did what they had to do.

The price point though is way too high. Not going to touch this stuff.

[geschrocks33]

Given the fact they had very little freedom to work with, this isn't a horrible product. It's not like UD, Leaf, or ITG haven't sent out atrocious designs before anyways, everyone does it. Some of these cards actually look pretty awesome.

On the Nieto subject, didn't the Sharks have a black alternate (or do they still) they could've slapped random letters on the back of there like they do with rookies, and that's where it comes from. The card does state "Player-Worn" as opposed to "Game-Worn"

[*censored*]

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.

I can tell you that Panini found out in mid-February of 2014 that the NHL deal was going Upper-Deck-only. So it is likely they would have been buying early season jerseys from a lot of players-- especially young players-- expecting that in all likelihood they would have the NHL deal for 2014-15. The NHL was notoriously bad about signing card deals at the last minute so they had to be prepared no matter what. When Panini first entered the market, the NHL didn't announce the split deal with them and Upper Deck until the later part of the summer when it was first signed to start the upcoming season. Meanwhile, card companies know a YEAR ahead of time from MLB and the NFL if and when contracts are renewed or expiring.

Then again, this is the league who picked the Outdoor Life Network over ESPN.

[Craig2]

To answer the question in the thread title, this latest release could easily be the worst hockey product ever.

I know why Panini did it, but the result is a horrible product.