The Panini America Quality Control Gallery: 2012 Prime Cuts Baseball (85 Images)

Imagine my surprise on Monday morning when Panini America Product Development Director Ben Ecklar shared with me 35 revealing images from the 2012 Prime Cuts Baseball quality-control process he’d just completed. Somewhere between Black Friday madness and the launches of 2012-13 Totally Certified Basketball and 2012-13 Prizm Basketball,  I had completely lost track of where Prime Cuts was on the production schedule.

And where it was on this particular day was shipping to distributors and dealers in advance of Friday’s release date.  So I grabbed those 35 images from Ecklar’s iPhone and, over the course of the last few days, I’ve managed to add a more to the following QC gallery.

Simply, the 85 images that follow detail autographs and game-worn memorabilia cards from the greatest players in baseball history as well as some small doses of the game’s future. Many of the images you’re about to see — especially some of the jaw-dropping booklets and bat barrel cards — were taken by Ecklar during the pre-packout process for Prime Cuts.

We’ll have much more to share on 2012 Prime Cuts Baseball right here on The Knight’s Lance in the coming days. Until then, though, we encourage you to sit back and enjoy an unadulterated stroll through hardball greatness . . .