I often accused Panini products of being bland, boring and repetitive year after year with little to distinguish between the sets. In other words, everything looks and feels about the same. Let’s put that to the test with a little pack battle of their latest products, 2010-11 Panini Threads, 2010-11 Rookie & Stars and 2010-11 Donruss. One thing is for sure. They all have the same price point at $4 a pack and all have 3-4 hits per box. Not off to a good start.
2010-11 Panini Threads
With a design like this, Panini Threads could easily be mistaken for their low tier product (it is that bland) but of course the price says otherwise. I don’t there is a good reason for anyone to build the base set. The one thing that saves this pack is the little jersey die cut. I think is a pretty neat idea. It is of DeMarcus Cousins by the way.
2010-11 Rookies & Stars
This is suppose to be their edgier, more modern product. I like the look and feel of it last year and not much has changed since with could be a good thing or a bad thing (more of a bad thing to me). With a theme like Rookies and Stars I guess you can have basically any kind of inserts. But the Studio Rookies inserts really feel like it can fit in any product like say Panini Threads. It is numbered 18/199 and of course it is of DeMarcus Cousins again who many are saying it going to be a bust. Interesting note. Darington Hobson was the Knicks target in the draft but had to “settle” for Landry Fields. Hobson was cut due to injury and Fields is a double- double machine in the making. Funny how life works out.
2010-11 Donruss
I am assuming Panini is angling this product as their low tier, affordable product for the kids (other than Panini Adrenalyn) so is this the product taking the place of 2009-10 Panini last year (which is dirt cheap right now by the way)? Anyways I normally don’t like retro sets but I really think this design works especially the old school tint of the photos (it looks better in person). It is certainly one thing that set this set apart and a lot more interesting that 2009-10 Panini. Of course the inserts suck though.
If I had to rank the products by just the pack above alone I would rank Donruss first, Panini Thread second (just for the jersey die cut) and Rookies and Stars last. But still I am not that impressed and I really miss Upper Deck. What do you guys think?
Shot Not Taken 
Yeah, I miss UD too, but I really like the design of the Donruss set. Going to put that one together!
Best of luck! I don’t know how much Donruss I’ll buy this year but maybe I can help you out down the line. Just let me know.
Thanks, bought a bunch so far, should be close.
Love the ’84 Donruss redux, nice looking cards. Thinking about collecting the regular Production Line set. They’ve sorta got a “You Crash The Game”-type of shininess to them. Very cool. Also pulled a scrub RC auto redemption from a rack pack the other day.
Cousins is averaging 13.7ppg/7.7rpg in less than 27 minutes per game this year. Not a superstar yet, but definitely not a bust either.
Err, maybe they are Rack Pack Exclusives or something. No mention of such, but that one you pulled doesn’t appear to be die-cut, but has no… fractury shininess, so I dunno. Can’t make heads or tails of it.
If you talking about the Cousins jersey, it is a die cut but I guess it didn’t come across as such in the scan.
No, I know they are, I meant the Production Line.