My Take: Panini Gold Standard USA Jersey/Autograph Cards

When the product previews for Panini Gold Standard hit, I was really feeling the product.  The initial images were solid, looking completely different than anything Panini had put out in the last two years.  The USA cards were particularly cool.

Then Panini started leaking bits and pieces of the cards, throughout the production process on their blog.  The cards looked good.  The theme names were fitting. But then I saw the dreaded sticker section.

Ugh.

Okay, so I was prepared for them to put sticker autographs on top of the card.  Panini, in all its great wisdom mashed together this monstrosity of a card, placing a sticker behind a tiny cut out window.  In many cases the autograph is hidden or cut off and obviously, none of the signatures are as loopy or have the same character that they would have, if the player were allowed to sign directly on the card:

It looks absolutely horrible, in my opinion.  But, no fear…. Photoshop is here!  These cards could have been the most beautiful the company has every made in the basketball line had they been able to secure on card autographs for everyone not named LeBron James.

My project is on-going, until it is complete: