My 2.5c for what it is worth...
I only got back into collecting NRL cards in 2010 after a ten year absence and in hindsight that 2010 Champions was the worst set ever made. Dull, repetitive inserts, boring commons and parallels. 2011 Champions would not have been much better apart from the Star signature series which saved that set. If you look at the 2011 Champions there were only 7 guaranteed hits per box the same as Traders although I will conceed that the low level inserts were slightly better but still very tired with 2 sets of rookie inserts which doubled up players and also had players with a few games who never played again! I can recall a poll toward the ned of 2011 on the Select website asking if Star Sigs should be in the 2012 release and the response was over 98% in favour. The 2012 Champions were a great release IMO but lacked the killer punch that a continuation of star sigs would have brought so Select obviously didn't listen to their customers.
2011 Strike was okay, really only saved IMO by some good quality TP's. 2012 Dynasty was awesome and will take some beating and for me you can't go past 2008 Centenary as the best NRL set ever released. I would bust a box of Centenary or Dynasty over any other Select or ESP product anytime ATM.
In saying all this I liked Elite and aside from all the obvious teething issues which have been done to death on this forum I think ESP are moving in the right direction. It would appear they must have listened to some extent as each series seems to improve and I like the fact that Elite were readily available in newsagents. Overall I am really looking forward to 2014 Traders and see what ESP can bring to the table. I love busting packets / boxes and I am glad to have something to open!
I only got back into collecting NRL cards in 2010 after a ten year absence and in hindsight that 2010 Champions was the worst set ever made. Dull, repetitive inserts, boring commons and parallels. 2011 Champions would not have been much better apart from the Star signature series which saved that set. If you look at the 2011 Champions there were only 7 guaranteed hits per box the same as Traders although I will conceed that the low level inserts were slightly better but still very tired with 2 sets of rookie inserts which doubled up players and also had players with a few games who never played again! I can recall a poll toward the ned of 2011 on the Select website asking if Star Sigs should be in the 2012 release and the response was over 98% in favour. The 2012 Champions were a great release IMO but lacked the killer punch that a continuation of star sigs would have brought so Select obviously didn't listen to their customers.
2011 Strike was okay, really only saved IMO by some good quality TP's. 2012 Dynasty was awesome and will take some beating and for me you can't go past 2008 Centenary as the best NRL set ever released. I would bust a box of Centenary or Dynasty over any other Select or ESP product anytime ATM.
In saying all this I liked Elite and aside from all the obvious teething issues which have been done to death on this forum I think ESP are moving in the right direction. It would appear they must have listened to some extent as each series seems to improve and I like the fact that Elite were readily available in newsagents. Overall I am really looking forward to 2014 Traders and see what ESP can bring to the table. I love busting packets / boxes and I am glad to have something to open!