Early Preview: 2012 Panini Golden Age Baseball

One of Panini’s upcoming products is the 2012 Golden Age Baseball release, set for a late November release date. Each 24 pack box (6 cards/pack) should run in the $70-75 range and will include an interesting collection of baseball related cards along with historical related cards.

 

The set consists of 150 base cards (there are 25 SP variation cards), 150 mini parallel versions (two different colored backs), 50 Historical Signatures, 50 Museum Age memorabilia cards and a Triple Crown Winners signature card. The Historical Signature autograph cards will have cut signatures from deceased personalities and sticker autographs for living personalities. The preview images show the cards as hard signed but with the white mist at the bottom where the auto goes leads me to believe it will contain a sticker.

 

Box Break:

1 Historic Signature
1 Museum Age relic card
24 Mini Parallels
2 Headlines
2 Batter-Up
1 Newark Evening World Supplement
1 Box Topper (Either a Ferguson Bakery Pennant or a 5x7 Movie Poster)

Mini Parallel

This set was created with the intent of offering up a historical view at baseball and Popular Culture and with a low price-point Panini will probably sell through pretty easily. I know that there are collectors who do not care for this type of mixed product but personally I get a kick out of stuff like this because of the history connection.

 

On the down side I am not a fan of the design and I do not like the use of gold/tan coloring. I know it plays on a sepia type coloring, which is often used to generate feelings of vintage and historical, but the color and design elements do not appeal to me. The base card is depicted above with the Loch Ness Monster.

 

Some of the highlights of the product:

Autographs and memorabilia from the past 100 years from both sports and non-sports personalities

 

 

 

Headlines: These cards cover various headlines from major historical events

 

Batter Up: Pop-up cards based on the 1934-36 Batter Up cards

Original 1934-36 Batters-Up Charles Gehringer card for example

 

Newark Evening World Supplement: Cards based on the original 1907 Newark Evening World Supplements set, though significantly smaller than the original 7.5x11 sized cards. The originals were included in the Newark Evening World newspaper, any of the original 15 card in the set are nearly impossible to find

Original 1907 Newark Evening World Supplement cards for example

 

Box Topper: The box topper will be either a

Ferguson Bakery Pennant (miniature version)

Or

5x7 Movie Posters

 

 

The 1916 Ferguson Bakery Pennants were a 2.5x5.75 felt pennant that contained a picture of either a baseball player or a war hero. The Allied Hero versions contained a black and white photo of the hero along with “Allied Heroes” across the pennant while the baseball player versions had the player picture along with their name and team name across the pennant.

Original 1916 Ferguson Bakery Pennants for example

 

 

The movie posters are based on reprints of original Golden Age cinema. Some of the posters will even contain a relic from an actor/actress in the movie depicted.

 

Buybacks: Each case will include 1 Buyback card from the 1930s or 1940s and according to Panini’s sales materials this includes Goudey Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig cards

 

Black Sox Bats: A Joe Jackson bat relic card, I am not certain how many of his bat cards will be printed. Additionally, while some of their sales materials only show a Joe Jackson card they have posted on their web site “…and memorabilia cards featuring the infamous 1919 Black Sox” so I am wondering if there are other players from the team.

 

 Triple Card Winners Autograph: A hard signed triple-autograph card from three living Triple Crown jockeys

 

Even though I do not care for the elements of the card design I still expect to pick up some packs to get a hands on review, who knows, maybe once the cards are in my hand I may feel differently. It is also hard to argue with what you will pull from a box when you are only paying $75 a box. The Batter Up, Newark Evening World Supplement and Ferguson Bakery Pennant reprints alone peak my interest, toss in an autograph and museum relic along with the possibility of pulling a buyback and I am almost ready to buy in right now.