2016 NFL Football Cards - Anyone have a clue?

[PowderedH2O]

So, Topps is out of the market for the first time since 1954. I've got most of those cards, so I am disappointed that Topps is no longer there. My shelf won't look quite right. But, here are my questions:

Does anyone know what sets Panini will be putting out? If so, is there a base set that could take the place of the regular Topps set that I get each year?
Are they using the "Panini" name, or are they resurrecting other company names?
I've not really bought any of their products. Is this going to be an upgrade, downgrade, or just the same?

Also, if Topps has an exclusive deal with MLB, why does Donruss make cards (aka Panini)?

[quinnsryche]

Panini is the only NFL licensed card company. They signed an exclusive contract last year and that's why Topps is out. To my knowledge Panini does not/will not release any of their products as a factory set so you are stuck busting boxes. I hope you like sticker autos and 1 color swatches because that's the majority of their pulls these days although I haven't opened any of this years products yet. They have released 3-4 product lines so far and have at least another 1/2 dozen planned as of right now. I have never been totally impressed with their products and can only hope that being the exclusive NFL card co. that they do a better job than in the past. That said, Topps releases in the last year were an absolute garbage sticker dump and very disappointing also.

[Rookiemonster]

I thought topps was still going to make cards just not with the nfl uniforms? I haven't been a fan of panini but I'll give them a chance.

[mid50sbaseball]

Originally Posted by Rookiemonster

I thought topps was still going to make cards just not with the nfl uniforms? I haven't been a fan of panini but I'll give them a chance.

Correct...Topps will still be making cards. Whether they will be producing cards with all of the players pictured in college uniforms or if they'll be airbrushing all of the logos out like Panini does in baseball I couldn't say for sure.

In terms of what Panini puts out. Frankly quite a bit. They do have a few...what I would call "core products" that they do every year though that might be worth looking into in terms of set building.

If you're just looking for a set to put together that would be relatively cheap but have a decent size to it in terms of card count with a lot of different players represented including all of the new rookies, your best bet would probably be the Score set. To my knowledge, they don't release a factory sealed set of this product, however it is a low end product that will consist primarily of just the base cards so hand collating a set would likely not be terribly difficult if you bought a couple boxes of packs. It's one of the few products Panini puts out (maybe the only one?) where the focus is not the "hits"

If you like the idea of doing a rookie autograph set or something along those lines, I'd recommend Contenders.

And if you like the color refractors and parallels made so popular by Topps Chrome, then I'd recommend Panini Prizm (which was basically created specifically to compete with Chrome and has a very similar setup with all of the colored refractor variations etc.)

hope this helps.

*edit* another note: Panini recently for whatever reason has decided to start releasing two different Contenders products each year and also 2 different Prizm products. The products this year are called "Contenders Draft Picks" and "Prizm Collegiate Draft" all of the cards in these sets feature players in their college uniforms. folks who are big college football fans like them and will go after them, but folks who are more NFL fans will be much better served waiting for the Contenders and Prizm products that release later in the year with players in their NFL uni's.

[Jayworld]

When Topps produces football cards presumably this year, they will have to airbrush out logos on the helmets, etc., so how would this be any different than what they did for their football cards from 1970-81? If that be the case, I assume collectors that collected Topps football in the "airbrush decade" would have no problem buying any new product. I remember in 1979 that Topps did not totally airbrush out the Rams horn helmet decals but only the end of the round curving tip...

Would there be more acceptance from collectors regarding Topps airbrushed football cards as opposed to the current Donruss (Panini) airbrushed baseball cards, which (from reading on the forum) most collectors don't like?

[Rich Klein]

Panini's base brand the last few years has been their "SCORE" brand in Football. If you are looking for that type of set, then I would go and buy those boxes

Rich