Black’s Beauties: Panini America Provides a Pre-Autograph Peek at 2012 Black Football

Perhaps more than any other Panini America NFL card design this season, the one I've been looking forward to seeing the most -- more than even 2012 Contenders Football or 2012 National Treasures Football -- is the Rookie Card layout for the new 2012 Panini Black Football.

Perhaps more than any other Panini America NFL card design this season, the one I’ve been looking forward to seeing the most — more than even 2012 Contenders Football or 2012 National Treasures Football — is the Rookie Card layout for the new 2012 Panini Black Football.

And judging by the buzz that’s been reverberating throughout the football hobby since we first announced in late August the addition of Black to our 2012 roster, I’m not alone.

Which is why a certain special delivery yesterday — a day we’ll refer to as “Black Tuesday” for the purposes of this post — provided cause for celebration. The Rookie Cards and parallels featuring the 35 young stars who attended the 2012 NFLPA Rookie Premiere arrived safely and soundly at Panini America HQ.

Literally still hot off the presses from the printing facility when they arrived yesterday afternoon, the cards have since been carefully counted, cataloged and prepared for the next leg of their journey — into the safe hands of the players on them to receive their on-card signatures in metallic gold Sharpie.

While I could break out a thesaurus in an attempt to come up with my thoughts on how 2012 Panini Black Football’s RCs turned out. I figured I’d let the cards do the talking for me. After that, we’d love to hear your thoughts, too.

Enjoy.

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38 Replies to “Black’s Beauties: Panini America Provides a Pre-Autograph Peek at 2012 Black Football”

  1. Pingback: Anonymous
  2. Beautiful issues, the gold signatures should really pop off the card.
    Looking forward to more Panini Black galleries. If the Black MSRP is on the same footing as NT’s, then the galleries are as close as I will be able to get to the product 🙂

  3. Wow. Really clean looking design. Nice patch work.
    Hopefully I could get one of these.
    Great job panini!
    Thanks Tracy!
    Always loving the updates!

  4. Tracy,
    These are unbelieveable, that Tannehill jumps off that black background. Does Russell Wilson have one too? When is the scheduled release date for this product?
    Great addition to the line up.
    Also, still can’t wait to hear if there will be a Playbook again. I hope so, please.
    Thanks,
    T

      1. Tracy,
        You have made my day, I cannot wait for the images of Playbook, I could not get enough last year and this year’s class being a Dolphins fan is even better!
        Great news.
        T

  5. Cards look stunning! What I thought stood out most, was the smooth black coating to the cards. I know some card companies, that we wont name. Had issues with their Black Baseball rookies card autos. The black tended too chip very easy on the edges, is some minds ruining the whole out look of the card. If all the cards came out that nice and sleek, then Black with be a product to remember!! Great work. One question, are some of the player shots, actual shots of them from games, or still just the rookie photo shoot? Either way, looks great!

    1. Good question, Jon. Although most of the shots used are from the 2012 NFLPA Rookie Premiere; that Bernard Pierce image appears to be game-action, probably from the preseason. These cards were built early in the process when quality game-action photography wasn’t feasible for every player.

  6. Bigger patch cards and die cut corners would also make this even better-can’t wait to see the autographs-Are they sticker autos too? I don’t mind sticker autos but like everyone else on card autos are what I like most.

  7. Black looks real nice, love gold signatures. Any new products in line besides Black? Also, will we be seeing Crown Royale or Plates & Patches this year?

  8. These are incredibly awesome even without the gold signatures!

    Also, is Panini going to make Crown Royale this year?

  9. Sleek look. Colors in the patches pop out from the card a lot! Love the idea of hard-signed in gold sharpie. Great touch. Makes them different! Looking forward to seeing more. Love the FOLES! Maybe he won’t fumble his signature!

  10. I know nothing about the NFL as I don’t follow it but wow those cards a fricking amazing and make me want to collect them. Nice patches and great design.

  11. These cards look awesome, the signature will certainly standout on these cards!

    Please use this design in an upcoming basketball release!

    Once again, great cards!

    Cheers
    Matt

  12. These cards are absolutley STUNNING!!! This looks like it will win this years Rookie of The Year product! Can’t wait to see the finished product! I can already tell my this sneak preview that my daughters and I are going to bust A LOT of boxes of BLACK! Great job Panini!

  13. If only you could see my face to see the reaction I made when I saw these…you would need the thesaurus for sure!

  14. Pretty impressive gallery, I second Kevin’s point on the chipping prevention being a big potential issue. Should be a great release when it hits, thanks for the preview Tracy!

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