The Premier Lacrosse League announced their latest trading card release on Tuesday and began taking orders two days later. Unlike their past sets (which carried titles such as Championship Series, First Edition, Flagship and Snapshot), there was no obvious unique identifier on the wrappers of this new product; for the sake of ease, I will just call it PLL 2024.
PLL 2024 is the second set produced by the league this calendar year (the 2023 Snapshot set was released in late May), and also the second set issued under their PLL Collectibles banner. PLL Collectibles was the brand launched by the league which began with the Snapshot set.
Prior to the Snapshot set, PLL cards were issued by Topps. But unlike Snapshot, which was a 58-card set with a range of base parallels and autographs, the PLL 2024 checklist swelled to 156 base cards, with parallels, autographs, and insert sets featuring Draft Picks and MVPs.
As they did with Snapshot, the PLL sent sample packs to a select group of people to open on release day, aiming to build momentum for the cards on social media. I was fortunate to receive a pack. Here are my immediate thoughts:
- Like Snapshot, PLL 2024 has a very Topps-ish feel. The design is consistent with past issues, but I noticed the uneven borders resulted in a lot of oddly cropped player images. Though one benefit to these tightly cropped shots is seeing the player’s face.
- Standard packs contain eight cards, but I got a Shane Knobloch base auto as a bonus ninth card. More on extra cards below.
- The last statistics shown on card backs are 2023, and rookie bios don’t mention PLL experience, suggesting that the checklist and bios were finalized long before the 2024 season ended. This theory is strengthened when one considers the list of players in the checklist, and the notable omissions from the series, including stars who did not play in the first few games of the season (for example, Graeme Hossack)
- The MLL was ignored based on the cards in my pack. Mike Manley was drafted by the Rochester Rattlers in 2012 and won Defensive Player of the Year Awards in 2014 and 2016. For a league that owns the MLL rights, and uses its statistics in selecting Hall of Fame members, it seems odd to ignore those years.
- While the card backs have year-by-year PLL statistics, they do not show career totals. Off-hand, this is the first card set I can think of to ignore career totals.
- The auto card that I received had a terrible signature. Not sure if the pen ran out of ink or skipped, but the signature quality is very poor. I haven’t seen enough auto cards yet to know if my situation was a one-off or part of a large batch of bad signatures.
- Another collector I know pulled a relic and the note on the back not only guaranteed the memorabilia patch to be authentic, but gave the date of the game in which it was used. Very nice touch!
- The other issue with the card mentioned above is that it was the ninth card in a pack. This may be a surprise to some newer members of the hobby, but this can cause problems. An unscrupulous person could easily purchase a quantity of packs, weigh them all to determine which packs contained relics, and sell the rest to unsuspecting secondary market buyers as unsearched product. Before you raise your eyebrows, this is a big problem with hobby markets other than lacrosse.
- The overall product seems fine. As a bit of a purist, I would prefer a larger player image and less design, but that is merely a personal preference.
The problem that I believe is occurring with the PLL’s latest trading card offerings is not necessarily with the physical cards – these first two PLL Collectibles sets have consisted of quality cards. The issue is that the PLL appears to be treating lacrosse cards the same as any other item in their merch shop. By that, I mean they come up with a new design, assemble a checklist, add autos and relics for glitz, tease them a bit on social media, and then put them up for sale and seemingly forget about them.
To this point, that plan has obviously worked, as each of the four previous releases have sold out. Maybe their good fortune will continue, maybe it won’t. I don’t know. The league has asked for my input on their cards, particularly after the Snapshot release, but it doesn’t seem that much of what was suggested to them was taken into consideration with this set.
There were a few things I would have liked to see done differently. Trading cards are unlike other merchandise items (hats, jerseys, etc.) in a few ways. The most important distinction is that while regular merchandise depreciates in value, collectors expect cards to retain or hopefully appreciate (potentially significantly) in value. Because of this, factors like design, insert creation, checklist construction, and marketing are important, especially for a genre like lacrosse that is only beginning to be noticed by the hobby at-large.
When word of PLL 2024 first hit Twitter (sorry, I still struggle with the idea of calling it X), the league website had an accompanying sales page offering basic card info. The page had a subject list (NOT a checklist, which is important hobby information) and information on specialty card hit rates; names of the players with autograph and relic cards were printed in bold and/or with an accompanying asterisk.
By the end of the day, the page had been password-protected, so any information collectors may have wanted leading up to a first-day purchase was no longer accessible. But word spread quickly and most dedicated collectors had viewed (and, in some cases, screenshotted) the information. After taking time to digest what they saw, the recurring feeling I got in speaking with other collectors is that the subject list was outdated, uninspired, and potentially incorrect.
The following quotes are from collectors I communicated with on Tuesday..
“I’m so lost with this ‘checklist’. They say 156 base cards, I count 151 names. They say 23 autos, I count 21 bolded names. They say 17 players with relics, I count 19 starred names. Not off to a strong start here…”
“As I read it, I see a list they compiled and started working on when the season was almost over so they scrambled to grab the autos and relics they could, they slapped a set together.”
“My biggest first-look takeaway is that 12 of the 23 auto subjects (also) had auto cards in Snapshot…..which oversaturated that product having sooo many autos of the same guys. Now you’re going to put 12 of those same guys in a 23 card auto set with a (presumptively) larger print run.”
“Myles Jones gets an auto and relic, but Rookie of the Year TJ Malone got nothing. There’s just no cards I even want. Ajax and TJ parallels I guess, but that’s about it.”
In terms of insert cards, the autographs, parallels, MVPs and Draft Picks are low-hanging fruit. They are basic concepts that have been covered many times over in all different sports. 12 of the 23 autograph subjects in PLL 2024 are repeats from the Snapshot set issued just five months ago, so it would have been nice to see more players involved. Snapshot had autographs at base, /99, /49, /25, /10 and 1/1 levels.
That equates to somewhere around 500 autographs per player dropped into the collector base just five months ago, and for the dozen repeat individuals, another roughly 500 are hitting the market now. That’s heavy oversaturation, which has the potential to crush secondary market values. And even if you collect strictly for enjoyment, with no eye towards future value, wouldn’t you want a bit more variety?
In truth, while guys like Blaze Riorden, Josh Byrne, and Trevor Baptiste are among the PLL elite, there are other players that should be represented. Archers goalie Brett Dobson deserved some sort of specialty card recognition based on his play alone, coming off an incredible season during which his team won the PLL’s first back-to-back championships. Again, it is likely that the plans for this were made long before the second title, but Dobson is an example of an idea for future sets.
The fact that Dobson is himself a collector even further strengthens his candidacy for future releases.
But I do have to give credit where it is due. PLL 2024 includes a parallel called Player Edition that is limited to just two copies. But instead of issuing both copies in packs, one of the cards went into circulation while the other went directly to the player. This is a really neat concept that I believe is unique to the hobby, and after the countless parallel varieties that have been produced in all sports, coming up with a fresh idea is no easy thing.
The Player Edition cards offer opportunities for the PLL social media team (looking at you, RJ Kaminski) to do a lot of fun marketing stuff with collector-player meet-ups and the like. I love this idea, and hope they run with it.
My hope is the PLL will take advantage of more unique themes which would make great cards – family members in the league, college teammates, leading offensive or defensive units, their Pro Lacrosse Hall of Fame, and the absolute wealth of topics involving the game’s roots and the Indigenous players who currently play in the PLL.
These cards can be entertaining and informative as much as they would be collectible, and would assist in the never-ending pledge to “grow the game.” Trading cards are a wonderful hobby, but are also viewed by many as a legitimate business. We all want the PLL to flourish and their card program to grow as well. The league putting more effort into their plan will only elevate the quality of their product and benefit everyone involved.