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.
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.
The Knight's Lance 
Absolutely gorgeous looking!! Can’t wait to see some gold ink on ’em!! Great Job guys!!
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 đŸ™‚
The SRP for 2012 Panini Black Football is $200.
That, Mr. Hackler, is outstanding! What is the per box break…re: number of autos and packs per box?
Best regards.
According to the original product information specs, 2012 Panini Black will deliver 12 cards per box with at least three autographs and two additional hits per box.
Wow. Really clean looking design. Nice patch work.
Hopefully I could get one of these.
Great job panini!
Thanks Tracy!
Always loving the updates!
Those are amazing!!!
I agree…stunning. Can’t wait to see the price point on these though.
You’re not the only one.
Yep, this is right on point with what I like. Nice!
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
Yes, sir. Russell Wilson is in the set. As for Playbook, go ahead and make your plans now. đŸ™‚
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
Love these, can’t wait!
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!
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.
My new favorite set!!! Can’t wait!
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.
These particular cards all will be signed on-card.
That makes everything better-Thanks Tracy:)
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?
These are incredibly awesome even without the gold signatures!
Also, is Panini going to make Crown Royale this year?
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!
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.
Love the dark cards. Makes the players and jerseys stand out more. Looks like some sweet pulls in this set.
Nothing sweeter looking than an auto on a black back ground. You guys just don’t quit..Awesome once again!
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
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!
Any Alfred Morris auto’s in this?
He will have autographed RCs in this product; but he’s not in the autographed memorabilia version.
If only you could see my face to see the reaction I made when I saw these…you would need the thesaurus for sure!
NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They are very nice looking…I just hope there won’t be any chipping issues like several other black stock products across several companies recently.
Valid point, Kevin. In talking with our production folks, we took some extra precautions in the printing process to prevent chipping issues. We’ll know soon enough.
Absolutely fabulous looking cards. When is the estimated release date on these bad boys?
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!