Mindless repetition

It's pretty well established that I have little use for Panini products.

I'm primarily a baseball collector, so I don't collect what seems to be Panini's better efforts in basketball and football. I've written about Panini's baseball short-comings time and again, the unappealing designs, the lack of logos, the inability to present that lack of logos in any kind of pleasing manner (cutting off the tops of heads? Come on), the poorly constructed card backs.

Panini has made exactly one set that I've liked enough to collect, 2013 Hometown Heroes. And, of course, that had to be a one-off set because why should Panini continue anything worthwhile?

There are exceptions here and there to be sure. Some of the Donruss inserts are fancy and nice. I'm coming around, a little, on its 2014 Golden Age set. And I've always tolerated Panini's Diamond Kings set because it's filled with legend players and they don't seem to be hampered by the inability to show logos like current players.

But Panini's gone goofy with Diamond Kings as well.

The set began in 2015 when Panini rebranded the 2014 Classics set as "Diamond Kings," and tried to give the cards a painted look. We're now into our sixth year of Diamond Kings with the recent arrival of the 2020 set.

The above Carl Erskine card is from the 2020 set. It looks pretty terrific for someone viewing Diamond Kings for the very first time.

But veteran collectors of the set know ...

... this image has been used a few times.

Those cards are from the 2020, 2019 and 2017 Diamond Kings sets.

It's stuff like this that makes me not want to even bother with attempting to complete the team sets from Diamond Kings. I don't care enough because why am I collecting the same damn image?

It's especially annoying because the legends are the only thing that appeals to me in this set. I've never thought the current players, and especially the rookies, look right in this set. The lack of logos stand out much more on current players.

Erskine isn't the only repeated image. Walter Alston's card in the 2020 Diamond Kings set is the same image that appeared of Alston in the 2019 set.

From earlier sets, Carl Furillo's and Jim Gilliam's images were reused.

Pee Wee Reese's image -- both of them -- has been repeated.

One of the repeated images below is actually a variation image, which seems a mean thing to do, making the variation picture a same old photo.

But there are Diamond King images of the above players that have been used just once.

That Erskine image, while not as exciting as the one used three times, was used once, in the 2018 DK set.

Furillo's 2018 DK card also is different from his repeated 2015 and 2017 cards.

Here is a list of the Dodgers legends for each year of Diamond Kings and I'll note whether the image has been repeated:

2015

Walter Alston
Leo Durocher
Don Drysdale
Carl Furillo
Jim Gilliam
Gil Hodges
Pee Wee Reese
Duke Snider

2016

Jake Daubert
Leo Durocher (new image)
Jim Gilliam (repeated image from 2015)
Gil Hodges (new image)
Walter O'Malley
Pee Wee Reese (new image)

2017

Leo Durocher (new image)
Carl Erskine
Carl Furillo (repeated image from 2015)
Pee Wee Reese (repeated image from 2016)
Jackie Robinson

(The Pee Wee Reese variation photo is a repeated image from 2015)

2018

Carl Erskine (new image)
Carl Furillo (new image)
Pee Wee Reese (repeated image from 2015)
Jackie Robinson (new image)

(The Reese and Robinson variation photos are both repeated images)

2019

Walter Alston (new image)
Carl Erskine (repeated image from 2017)
Pee Wee Reese (repeated image from 2015)
Jackie Robinson (new image)

2020

Walter Alston (repeated image from 2019)
Carl Erskine (repeated image from 2017)
Jackie Robinson (repeated image from 2017 variation)
Eddie Stanky

I don't have all the variation information so I'm not sure about some of those repeats.

I do appreciate the arrival of new legends, such as this year with a new Eddie Stanky card. I haven't seen a new Dodger Eddie Stanky card in three decades.

But you will notice that the number of legends, at least for the Dodgers, in Diamond Kings has steadily decreased.

This is likely because getting legends into a card product is a rather difficult production. I've noticed it with Topps as well, and Topps has many more baseball resources than Panini. But there are licenses to pay and card companies often insist on having autograph and relic tie-ins for their legends, too, so they have to track down uniform swatches from 1948 or whatever.

And then there's the matter of having the right to reproduce photos or having a photo library. Chances are Panini doesn't have much of that for baseball.

While all of those are good reasons for cutting down on the number of legends in a set like Diamond Kings, they're nothing but excuses when it comes to repeating photos. If you don't have different photos, pick someone else for your checklist.

The repetition of photos -- I've said it with Topps and it goes double for stumble-bum Panini -- at best makes you look like you don't care, and at worst makes you look inept.

My guess is that some folks at Panini do care and are not inept, but card sets like Diamond Kings have got to stop repeating images. I won't collect it. Nothing turns me off quite like seeing the exact same image in a set that I saw the PREVIOUS YEAR.

And not even a cool shot of Carl Erskine will excuse that.

(NOTE: Nachos Grande is holding a break of 2020 Diamond Kings right now. My timing is probably not great here 😉, but there are still cool cards to get so head on over there. I've already taken the Dodgers, I may not want to collect the team set, but buy it all at once? Sure!).