Card of the Day: Andrew “Rube” Foster 2001 Topps Chrome What Could Have Been Refractor #5

Panini’s Rip-Off Strategy Could Benefit NASCAR Collectors

Collectors will get to see the first Panini made NASCAR cards within their 2016 Father’s Day promotional set.  Panini mainly holds these promotions to help dealers move all that unwanted product off the shelves.  Trust me.  There is a lot dealers want to get rid of.  Most of the products you’ll need to buy in order to participate will be ones that performed poorly.  The odds are good that Panini will bring back all those crappy products again next year because that’s what they do.

During the NFLPA Rookie Premiere last month, Panini showed off a lot of cards that we’ll see in their 2016 products.  One of their new NFL products is called Panini Origins.  Taking a look at it, you can clearly see its a straight up design rip-off of Topps Inception.  Panini has such a difficult time coming up with original content on their own.  Its bad enough that they have an NFL exclusive.  Ripping-off another company’s designs just shows you who should truly be allowed to make licensed NFL cards.  Don’t get me wrong, Panini Origins looks good only because it mimics the design of a Topps product.  This makes Panini look just plain lazy.  I use to be a big supporter of them, but all they do is copy others.

Getting back to NASCAR.  Panini’s rip-off strategy could benefit NASCAR collectors.  If they plan to rip-off designs made popular by Topps, why not apply those designs to NASCAR cards.  I wouldn’t mind seeing some Inception-like racing stuff.  Football fans may have seen these designs before, but certainly not NASCAR collectors.  If ripping-off designs is their strategy, at least use it for a sport that hasn’t seen it yet.

In addition to the 2016 Father’s Day set, Panini is suppose to be releasing four NASCAR products – Prizm, Certified, National Treasures, and Torque.  We have yet to know when these will come out.  If anyone of them has the slightest possibility at featuring a ripped-off Topps design, it would be Torque.  Collectors sorta know what to expect when it comes to the three other brands.

I highly doubt Panini will follow through here with any of the suggestions I’ve made.  It would be nice if they came up with some original ideas, but that doesn’t happen very often.  I don’t expect as much on-card autograph content with Panini’s NASCAR products compared to what Press Pass had.  A lot of drivers have posted pictures on social media of them signing stickers.