Hobby Musings: Panini Transitions from Classics to Legacy – One of the football products I most look forward to every year is Panini Classics. Coming back after a long layoff, it provided a nice checklist mix of rookies, veterans and retired legends. With a good collation of base, inserts, numbered parallels and hits, Classics was a good value product that gave collectors good potential at a cheaper buy-in relatively speaking.

Tyree Jackson Panini Legacy Autographed Card
As such, I was disappointed when I found out Panini wouldn’t be producing Classics this year. Instead, they opted to come out with a similar product called Legacy. With two autographs per box instead of one autograph and one relic card from last year, Legacy offers the same mix of checklist subjects. Still curious though, I was able to catch up with Panini’s Rob Springs at the National to talk about the change and why it happened. For the full explanation, be sure to check out the video. After listening to Rob, it was interesting to hear the factors that go into such a decision.

With that in mind, Panini was able to provide a box of Legacy so I could compare the two products. As I mentioned, a lot of what made Classics interesting is present in Legacy.  Each 16-pack box features 32 base rookie cards. My own box featured a lot of notable prospects from the 2019 draft class, including top overall pick Kyler Murray. I’m not sure why, but the rookie card design made me think of previous Prime Cuts designs, in a good way. It’s a fairly simple design across the board for the base cards, but it’s a sleek and simple one that works for this.

I also pulled a couple of rookie parallels among my numbered inserts in the box. I didn’t come away with anything too low-numbered, but the variety of numbered parallels from rookies to legends was good. The inserts themselves were also pretty nice, and I liked that players like Billy Jo Dupree, who don’t often get a lot of hobby love, were included. One big difference I noticed is that the base checklist doesn’t include retired legends like Classics did. For players who switched teams like Antonio Brown, the cards didn’t show them in their new uniforms, but it did have text explain the team change.

Panini also included a nice variety of players in the autographed checklist. In addition to rookie ink like Murray and Daniel Jones, you can also find legends like Terry Bradshaw. This mix was on display in my box as I pulled a parallel signature of QB prospect Tyree Jackson numbered to 50. My second signature yielded Packers legend and Pro Football Hall of Famer Jerry Kramer. Not numbered, the card featured a sticker autograph, as did the Jackson.

All in all, Legacy provided an enjoyable box break on par with Classics. While I didn’t pull one in mine, there are rookie autographed relic cards. One drawback for collectors may be not having the rookies in their professional uniforms. A downside of releasing a product this early makes it hard to get the updated photography, but it does get collectors their rookie cards a little earlier in the year. Legacy is currently around the $90 mark online, so there’s some value there to be had, especially if you pull a nice autograph. Either way, I hope Panini chooses to keep it around. Not every box has to be mega-expensive to make a splash, and I think Legacy is one of Panini’s better value products for the football line.

Hobby Musings: Panini Transitions from Classics to Legacy – Image Gallery

For more Hobby Musings from Kelsey Schroyer, follow him on Twitter @KelSchroy75.


Kelsey’s ability to bring hobby coverage to the mainstream sports fan has been a true asset. GTS is happy to feature his thoughts on collecting in Hobby Musings. The opinions expressed are his and do not necessarily reflect those of GTS Distribution.
Hobby Musings: Panini Transitions from Classics to Legacy
Kelsey Schroyer

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