Other inserts include Headlines (two per box), Batter-Up (two per box) and cards based on the 1907 Newark Evening News Supplements set (one per box). Every case 2012 Panini Golden Age Baseball has a buyback from the 1930s or 1940s.

Every box of 2012 Panini Golden Age Baseball comes with one of two different box toppers. The first is a set of mini pennants based on the 1916 BF2 Ferguson Bakery Felt Pennants . The second set of box toppers are a series of 5" x 7" movie poster reprints . Random movie poster reprints have memorabilia swatches embedded in them.

Forty Museum Age memorabilia cards dig through history to highlight some of the most significant moments of the 20th Century. Relics include "Shoeless" Joe Jackson bat cards explaining his place in the 1919 Black Sox Scandal. A Titanic card comes with pieces of pine from the doomed ocean liner.

Historic Signatures include a wide variety of autographs. Confirmed for the 50-card checklist is Bob Woodward, one of the journalists who uncovered the Watergate scandal. Historic Signatures are included one per box. A separate Triple Crown Winners Autograph is signed by Steve Cauthen, Ron Turcotte and Jean Cruguet, the three living jockeys who captured racing's elusive achievement.

Sound familiar? Perhaps. But it's one of the hobby's most popular formats. There's also a ton of material to cull content from.

2012 Panini Golden Age Baseball sees the card maker hop in their proverbial DeLorean and head back to a time when everything cost a nickel and people walked 10 miles to school each day, uphill both ways. It's a trip to the past, combining baseball, history, entertainment and pop culture.

Product Review

2012 Panini Golden Age Baseball Product Review

Reviewed by Jeff Woodward

Good: Solid mix of athletes and historical figures. Nice insert card designs. Mini tobacco cards. Some big-name autographs from all aspects of pop culture. Memorabilia cards including the Titanic and Secretariat.

Bad: Only two guaranteed hits per box. Product is not advertised well as box promotes it as a baseball product, which might steer some people in the wrong direction.

The Bottom Line: 2012 Panini Golden Age Baseball is a decent release for some and not so good for others. If you are into collecting historical cards from a baseball product, this is the perfect box for you. It might rival others like Allen & Ginter, but none of those are my favorites. I would prefer companies put out products under different categories when there is so much variation in it. Case in point, this was a baseball box and I received an autograph from a golfer and a memorabilia card from an actress. That's not my idea of fun if I am going to open a box of baseball cards.

Staff Rating: 2.7 / 5.0

Card Design: 3.0/5.0

For me, this is the highlight of the product. The cards combine the feel and look of Allen & Ginter and Americana. They are well designed with a nice vintage feel. They have a light color border with a classy name plate and product name near the bottom of the card. The pictures in the product are pretty well done. They are all touched up, similar to other products. The black an white photography in the product is nice. Some still look as though they have been colorized. They would have been better off sticking with the black and white for those.

Mini cards have very similar designs to the base cards.The Headlines insert are designed as black and white newspaper headlines. I'm not a fan of the black and white Newark Evening World Supplement inserts as they are bland. Batter Up inserts are cutout stand-up cards of an old-time baseball players and pop culture figures that takes collects back to the old days of card collecting. I'm not overly crazy about the pennant cards. It is inserted as a box topper and seems a bit odd to even have a pennant card of an actress, when those were typically a staple of baseball collecting.

Overall a pretty decent variation in the design of the cards and inserts. The memorabilia cards have a jersey swatch, piece of clothing, wooden planks, and more. The autographs are on-card, which is a plus.

Checklist: 2.5/5.0

The checklist for this product is pretty good. There is a wide variety of everything in here: baseball, basketball, football, hockey, racing, golf, boxing, other sports, presidents, celebrities, actors, and more. There are some good names in the autograph list, but nothing that is going to make me go out and buy a ton of this stuff. Again, that is personal preference when it comes to these mixed sport/historical products. There will be a lot of people that will like the low-end cut signatures from the likes of Richard Nixon and George Burns, and the Triple Crown Winner Tribute autographs, but they're not really my cup of tea. The tobacco minis and the pennant cards give the product something else to look forward to, but these are things I am seeing in other similar products.

Value: 2.5/5.0

There is more potential here than value. I always look at the cards pulled and see what could have been pulled. For a baseball product to produce a golf autograph and an actress memorabilia card makes me not want to call this a baseball product at all. I know the majority of the overall cards are baseball I'd prefer that everything were baseball. While there is the potential to pull something like a Ted Williams, Duke Snider or Bob Feller cut autograph, the low print runs make it tough. For my money, if I buy a baseball product, I want more baseball cards in it.

The Fun Factor: 2.5/5.0

For the right collector, there is some fun to be had with 2012 Panini Golden Age Baseball. The cards have a decent design. But the risk of getting no baseball hits brings the fun factor down quite a bit. I would much prefer that I had more potential for a hit in a sport that I actually collect. This product absolutely has its place in the hobby, and there are collectors that will love busting boxes. I just not one of them as I prefer products that focus on a single sport.