2012 Playoff Prime Cuts Baseball Box Break & Review

Design:  

Upon opening my box and viewing other cards online, all I can say is that the design is quite simple.  A large portion of the autographs are on-card, but that opens up the opportunity for a lot of redemptions especially when it comes to Panini.  When it comes to high-end products I believe having logos and team names make all the difference too.

Price: 

Boxes are currently selling for around $150.00 – I think they’re drastically overpriced.

“Hit” Quality: 

Inside each box you’ll only find two cards.  No base, inserts, or funky parallels.  It gets straight to the “hits”.

I pulled the following:

Auto

• Tony Perez Significant Signatures Auto Redemption #’ed/25 – I redeemed this just to see how long it takes to arrive.  Perez has other autographs within Prime Cuts that aren’t redemptions.  I guess he didn’t stick around for these.  It probably has to do with being an on-card signature.

Relic

• Troy Tulowitzki Jersey #’ed/99

Overall: 

Overall, I give 2012 Playoff Prime Cuts Baseball 3 Pipino Knights out of 5 (1=poor & 5=perfect).  Just like with ’12 Signature Series Baseball, its the price that gets to me the most.  Based on what I pulled, its just way too expensive.  My favorite part of this product are the relics of older players that you don’t see that much – Burleigh Grimes, Lefty Williams, Miller Huggins, and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson.

Card of the Day: Don King 2009 Upper Deck Prominent Cuts Auto

2013 Press Pass Platinum Cuts Inscription Edition Preview – Do We Really Need Another Cut Signature Driven Product?

I have to be honest.  The hobby doesn’t need another all cut signature driven product.  Panini, Leaf, TRISTAR, and Historic Autographs already do plenty of them.  We don’t need another.  Is there a spot for them?  Sure.  But just because a few companies do something doesn’t mean you have to join in.  Competition is good for collectors, but when it comes to cut signature products you’re not really competing for much.  When an entire product is based on the signature itself, design goes straight out the window.  Nobody gives two cents about the border design or if the card is encapsulated in a Beckett holder.  With each release the market gets flooded with the same signatures.  Of course they all contain cards we would love to pull, but the chances of that happening are slim to none.

2013 Press Pass Platinum Cuts Inscription Edition is Press Pass’s first venture with a cut signature product.  With 2,000 “1 of 1” cuts in an already saturated market, I’m sorry to say I don’t see this going too far.  I also don’t think cut signatures should be made of people that are still living.  Personally, I’d like to see some fancy insert cards made of these people.  Do something different.

Card of the Day: Ernest Borgnine 2008 Celebrity Cuts Movie Stars

Card of the Day: George Halas 2010 Limited Cuts Auto

Card of the Day: Mariano Rivera 2011 Playoff Prime Cuts Century Auto

Card of the Day: Ben Hogan Sportkings Series E Vintage Paper Cuts

2011 Panini Prime Cuts Baseball Preview

I’ve opened two boxes of Prime Cuts in the past.  One contained a Garrett Anderson autographed jersey #’ed/16, and the other had a Wade Boggs jersey/bat/jersey relic #’ed/5.

Panini’s 2011 Prime Cuts looks to be one of their better looking baseball products.  Each box will contain (5) cards – (2) autographs, (2) relics, plus (1) additional autograph or relic.  I like high-end products like this, and from what we’ve seen so far Panini hasn’t filled it up with foil covered inserts.  I would love to see some premium cards made of historical artifacts found in the the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.  I’d like to see the same done for historical events in baseball history as well.  OBAK covers a lot of subject areas like this, but Panini has the money to make some really nice premium cards.

Panini Teams-Up With The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

Panini announced today that they have reached a multi-year deal with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.  This means Panini can make cards of the inductees, make use of Hall of Fame logos, artifacts, and induction ceremony pictures within their line of baseball card products.  Collectors will see Panini’s first use of this new agreement in 2011 Prime Cuts Baseball due out in March.

Panini is trying to create good baseball products without an MLB license.  They aren’t sitting back and dealing with the fact they have no license.  Making an agreement with the MLBPA and the National Baseball Hall of Fame definitely helps, and is much better than nothing.  I still think they could take a lesson from Leaf.  Then again, everyone could learn a lesson from Leaf.

I think it would interesting to see Panini make cards featuring various artifacts found in the Hall of Fame.  On the back could be a quick history of the artifact.  I don’t see this turning into an entire product, not unless they sell it as a set in the Hall of Fame gift shop.  I could easily see it as an insert set though.  There are lots of collectors that have never been to the Hall of Fame to see all those great relics.  Making cards like this could really bring the Hall of Fame to them. That’s just my idea.  Feel free to use it.

Card of the Day: Robert Hegyes 2011 Panini Americana Celebrity Cuts Auto