Product Review: 2008 UD Premier Football

Premier is a second year set that has taken over Ultimate's spot as the set with all the goodies. SPA and Exquisite are on a level all their own, but this set is becoming more of a front runner as the years progress. The problem is that the boxes don’t hold their price due to the sheer numbers of crap levels mixed in with the awesomeness, so people end up buying singles instead. I have seen a lot of recent 2007 breaks at the lower price, and a lot of people were very happy with that. Anyways, off we go.

The Good

There is A LOT of good stuff about this product, and I am VERY happy we are doing a break of it. After seeing the prelim breaks, there are some amazing designs that UD has done with the cards to seemingly reinvent it. The subset autos take center stage again this year, and I love the designs compared to last years snore fest. The new direction with the patch and jersey cards makes me want to go out and buy some, and the autos make me wish I had the money to drop on all the ones I want.

Secondly, as mentioned before UD has guaranteed 1 A List auto per case, with the likes of Manning, Peterson, Tomlinson, etc, and I love that new practice. They are also including 4 autos of the top RCs like McFadden and Jones and company, and that is GREAT with a huge RC premiere class. So, if only one comes per box, we can expect that 50% of the boxes have something good. I cant tell you how good those odds are. GOOD JOB UD.

Lastly, the auto RC jersey cards are a huge improvement from last year. Every thing looks better, but the pictures are still goofy and tiny. Still an upgrade, regardless, so its not that big of a deal. I think the jersey windows are also an upgrade, especially when the patches factor in, although its all event used, so who cares. Also a big plus: multiple configurations of diecut windows for parallels. The 2007 ones were a maze of parallels, but this may help to rise above that.

The Bad

Stickers on everything? Cmon UD, I know you can do it better a la SPA. Granted, many are unnoticable thanks to the clear stickers (TAKE NOTICE TOPPS), but that doesn’t mean they should be excused for a high end product. I think it should be commonplace for the on card autos to be directly proportional to the price of the box.

The content is getting closer to the price of the box, but its still not there. In a product this expensive, everything needs to be autoed or have a nice patch. Its inexcusable to throw out 2 autos per box, with only one shot at getting a vet auto.

The Ugly

As far as I know this product will come in one big pack. That is beyond ridiculous to expect us to live with no exquisite style box or something like that. Get the wax pack idea out of your fucking head and start putting better protection in for every product - especially the high end ones. I want to scream every time I have to open a pack for a product over a hundred dollars. I need more base cards like I need a hole in the fucking head. Get rid of the packs and start tinning this shit up with a nice box.

Can someone explain to me why some of the Premier Stitching cards have no player picture on them? They look fucking ridiculous. I cant believe someone didnt catch this and say, "Hey! Put some god damned pictures on these cards. We arent Topps Paradigm!"

Overall, this is only one of a few products, that I can actually think about recommending for people to buy. That is fucking sad. The fact that the market is continually flooded with absolute fucking shit is really disproportionate to the amount of awesome technology available. Hopefully people get back on the fucking horse. Now, I would wait 3 weeks until the prices come down a little before you buy, but it could be worth a shot at that time. Also, watch for our upcoming break for an up close and personal look at the set. Hopefully we pull something huge.