Brendan_B
OZCT Supporter
Two months post release, time for a snappy review to gather some constructive thoughts.
Base Set - I always put together a base set and these base cards are fine without being great. I still feel that the team sets should be 9 or 18 with the centre card on each page being a logo maybe a coaches card. By comparison I feel the AFL Footy Stars commons are much nicer, slightly thicker stock and look quite classy as well as having that blurred game background.
Pearl Special - This years PS cards remind me more of an elite style with a thinner stock. The cards themselves are fine but very standard and certainly nothing special. The PS cards from 17 Traders were much better by comparison as they were something completely different.
Faces of the Game - I have really come to enjoy this subset and I like how they have moved the autograph space back to the bottom of the card and focused on players who are mostly up and coming and are unlikely to have had an official signature card.
Season to Remember - A good example of a 1:6 card. Nice and shiny, generally good moments to have picked and I like how the backs make up a small team puzzle. Obvious issues were the numbering and some of the images don't appear to correspond with the relevant game. The latter is not as much of an issue for me because of the very low end nature of the set.
Club Heroes - This theme continues and I feel that it is a bit boring and 18 Traders needs to be the last year. The Milestones from 14 Traders were great and I think this set should have continued on as the 1:12 release as you would have new players every year and there are really endless options for types of milestones.
Startoons (all) - I don't mind the fact that the packet startoons have dropped back to two per box. They are bright and colourful and another example of a solid low end insert but maybe getting a bit repetitive. The Startoon parallels in the starter packs were a great concept and having the pinks foil numbered to /100 was a really pleasant surprise. The fact that starter packs could be searched for this was poorly thought out though as it allowed the green eyed monster to appear in search of $$ and of course dumped huge amounts of these onto the market at once which ends up hurting the value. I don't blame collectors for this so much as there is no real difference between searching starters and buying 6 packs of Elite from bottom right where the numbered cards are often found. Newsagents should have sold these sight unseen hanging from the wall behind the counter or the clear part of the starter pack should have been frosted.
SOO Stars - I love a rep based insert set and it has been years since we have seen a SOO set. These are a really well designed card and a great inclusion.
World Cup Heroes - As above, I like rep based sets and the world cup is a good theme. Great to see Women's RL finally getting some cards and I can see why the album parallels of these are so popular, they look a treat. Another great inclusion and well designed subset.
Retirements - A solid theme that seems to generally well designed and allows a nicer card for really good club level players. Unfortunately with the gold foil borders these are easily damaged and as discussed the way the cards are allocated to the last club they played at and the images they use need reviewing. I don't think there is an easy answer to this that will please all collectors but the club they played their most footy at should get the card however there would be exceptions such as ENNIS.
NRL Authentics (all) - The design on these gets better each year. Good player selection (Raiders choices were crackers) with many not having had official signature cards before. The only thing I would raise is signature quality. This is difficult to manage because I am sure an ESP rep wouldn't always be present when the cards are signed but I have seen several smudged / scratched signatures and also some signatures not kept within the allocated area which looks a bit poor. Perhaps some of the damage is also from being inserted directly into packets so maybe a redemption is the way to go. This might also prevent high end cards falling into the hands of those who can't look after them. I love the landscape design on a signature card as it makes the signature jump out and become the real focus the card as it should.
Dynamic Duo - Great to see the clubs that hadn't had one of these cards finally get one this year. I have always liked this theme, some the player choices have been interesting but generally speaking quite good. I am undecided on the changing appearance of the set each year since it's release although I did see one of the members post a picture of his full set and it looked quite good. I will be interested to see what high end theme replaces this next year!
Premiership Predictors - The design of the card is very nice again and while the redemption offer of 50 numbered sets showing the 2018 team photograph and obviously the premiers sets is an improvement they are still falling well short. What is the point in having these numbered to /218 when only 50 (aside from the premiers) can be redeemed? To that end, I would imagine you get the predictors back if you redeem the full set so the numbers on the predictors will not match the redeemed sets. This is an easy fix, every card needs to be redeemable for something. There are so many themes, the team photo is fine, Select ran the Top Try Scorer for a few releases and Enforcers before that. The 1:6 predictor card from Centenary when redeemed as a set got you a signed GF winning Captains Card! I really like the AFL Footy Stars concept having Brownlow Predictors in both gold and platinum. We could have either Dally M Predictors or Premiership and the lower end version could be 1:72 and get you an unnumbered set and the higher end could get you the GF winning Captains Signature or the Dally M Winners signature.
Legends (case & /28 included) - I can't speak highly enough of these cards and I am really glad they went back in time a small way and back to their initial theme of players from the CORL top 100 (I don't know if this was ever intended though). Good choices, would have preferred Blocker in his Balmain gear and I hope the rumors of this years Legends being the last are not true. Case cards of the Legends have always been nice, good that they have been more limited and numbered the past few releases. The /28 is a good bonus but the numbered is odd and I really got the impression that it might have been intended for a dual signature but this just didn't happen. I suppose it is hard to complain too much when the /28 cards are a bonus!
Signature Case Cards - I haven't seen these in hand but sticker signatures...yuck! Please don't tell me this is a sign of things to come! Again nice concept, design looks okay and theme of both Origin skippers is quality.
Overall - ESP continue to improve from release to release and generally show great initiative. They seem to be listening which is why constructive feedback is important as it contributes to a better next release. I have enjoyed this release so far, pretty good value for money so 8/10 from me.
Please post your thoughts and views!
Base Set - I always put together a base set and these base cards are fine without being great. I still feel that the team sets should be 9 or 18 with the centre card on each page being a logo maybe a coaches card. By comparison I feel the AFL Footy Stars commons are much nicer, slightly thicker stock and look quite classy as well as having that blurred game background.
Pearl Special - This years PS cards remind me more of an elite style with a thinner stock. The cards themselves are fine but very standard and certainly nothing special. The PS cards from 17 Traders were much better by comparison as they were something completely different.
Faces of the Game - I have really come to enjoy this subset and I like how they have moved the autograph space back to the bottom of the card and focused on players who are mostly up and coming and are unlikely to have had an official signature card.
Season to Remember - A good example of a 1:6 card. Nice and shiny, generally good moments to have picked and I like how the backs make up a small team puzzle. Obvious issues were the numbering and some of the images don't appear to correspond with the relevant game. The latter is not as much of an issue for me because of the very low end nature of the set.
Club Heroes - This theme continues and I feel that it is a bit boring and 18 Traders needs to be the last year. The Milestones from 14 Traders were great and I think this set should have continued on as the 1:12 release as you would have new players every year and there are really endless options for types of milestones.
Startoons (all) - I don't mind the fact that the packet startoons have dropped back to two per box. They are bright and colourful and another example of a solid low end insert but maybe getting a bit repetitive. The Startoon parallels in the starter packs were a great concept and having the pinks foil numbered to /100 was a really pleasant surprise. The fact that starter packs could be searched for this was poorly thought out though as it allowed the green eyed monster to appear in search of $$ and of course dumped huge amounts of these onto the market at once which ends up hurting the value. I don't blame collectors for this so much as there is no real difference between searching starters and buying 6 packs of Elite from bottom right where the numbered cards are often found. Newsagents should have sold these sight unseen hanging from the wall behind the counter or the clear part of the starter pack should have been frosted.
SOO Stars - I love a rep based insert set and it has been years since we have seen a SOO set. These are a really well designed card and a great inclusion.
World Cup Heroes - As above, I like rep based sets and the world cup is a good theme. Great to see Women's RL finally getting some cards and I can see why the album parallels of these are so popular, they look a treat. Another great inclusion and well designed subset.
Retirements - A solid theme that seems to generally well designed and allows a nicer card for really good club level players. Unfortunately with the gold foil borders these are easily damaged and as discussed the way the cards are allocated to the last club they played at and the images they use need reviewing. I don't think there is an easy answer to this that will please all collectors but the club they played their most footy at should get the card however there would be exceptions such as ENNIS.
NRL Authentics (all) - The design on these gets better each year. Good player selection (Raiders choices were crackers) with many not having had official signature cards before. The only thing I would raise is signature quality. This is difficult to manage because I am sure an ESP rep wouldn't always be present when the cards are signed but I have seen several smudged / scratched signatures and also some signatures not kept within the allocated area which looks a bit poor. Perhaps some of the damage is also from being inserted directly into packets so maybe a redemption is the way to go. This might also prevent high end cards falling into the hands of those who can't look after them. I love the landscape design on a signature card as it makes the signature jump out and become the real focus the card as it should.
Dynamic Duo - Great to see the clubs that hadn't had one of these cards finally get one this year. I have always liked this theme, some the player choices have been interesting but generally speaking quite good. I am undecided on the changing appearance of the set each year since it's release although I did see one of the members post a picture of his full set and it looked quite good. I will be interested to see what high end theme replaces this next year!
Premiership Predictors - The design of the card is very nice again and while the redemption offer of 50 numbered sets showing the 2018 team photograph and obviously the premiers sets is an improvement they are still falling well short. What is the point in having these numbered to /218 when only 50 (aside from the premiers) can be redeemed? To that end, I would imagine you get the predictors back if you redeem the full set so the numbers on the predictors will not match the redeemed sets. This is an easy fix, every card needs to be redeemable for something. There are so many themes, the team photo is fine, Select ran the Top Try Scorer for a few releases and Enforcers before that. The 1:6 predictor card from Centenary when redeemed as a set got you a signed GF winning Captains Card! I really like the AFL Footy Stars concept having Brownlow Predictors in both gold and platinum. We could have either Dally M Predictors or Premiership and the lower end version could be 1:72 and get you an unnumbered set and the higher end could get you the GF winning Captains Signature or the Dally M Winners signature.
Legends (case & /28 included) - I can't speak highly enough of these cards and I am really glad they went back in time a small way and back to their initial theme of players from the CORL top 100 (I don't know if this was ever intended though). Good choices, would have preferred Blocker in his Balmain gear and I hope the rumors of this years Legends being the last are not true. Case cards of the Legends have always been nice, good that they have been more limited and numbered the past few releases. The /28 is a good bonus but the numbered is odd and I really got the impression that it might have been intended for a dual signature but this just didn't happen. I suppose it is hard to complain too much when the /28 cards are a bonus!
Signature Case Cards - I haven't seen these in hand but sticker signatures...yuck! Please don't tell me this is a sign of things to come! Again nice concept, design looks okay and theme of both Origin skippers is quality.
Overall - ESP continue to improve from release to release and generally show great initiative. They seem to be listening which is why constructive feedback is important as it contributes to a better next release. I have enjoyed this release so far, pretty good value for money so 8/10 from me.
Please post your thoughts and views!
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