Busting Open Two 2019-20 Panini Prizm Blasters

In the past two weeks I’ve made several dedicated trips to my local Target to see if they’d gotten any 2019-20 Panini Prizm in, and all of my attempts came up empty. After a few trips I decided to give it up. Yesterday I needed to stop by Target to pick up some household items and of course I took a stroll down the card aisle as well. To my delight, Prizm had landed. I grabbed two blasters and went on my way.

For those of you who aren’t basketball collectors: Why are you even here? Just kidding (seriously, thanks for reading). For those of you who aren’t familiar with basketball card products, Prizm is essentially the Bowman Chrome. It includes both rookies and veterans. The most prized rookie cards for the year come from Prizm, very similar to Bowman 1^st. There may not be a ton of immediate value in Prizm but it’s definitely the top basketball product to buy and hang on to.

The contents of the two boxes couldn’t have been more different, but let’s get into it. I’m not going to go card-by-card, just some highlights and hits:

Box one:

This box had great consistency, as I was finding great rookies in almost every pack. These are the base cards,  Culver and Edwards are solid, and Matisse Thybulle is very quietly emerging as one of the stronger rookies in the class.

It seems like each blaster box contains one of the green parallels. Ideally you’d love for this to be a rookie, but no complaints from me. I really like Whiteside’s game. He’s more of a classic big man, and you don’t get too many of those in today’s NBA.

Here’s a look at what one of the “Silver” cards looks like. Simply put, these are refractors – and just like in baseball, these are sought after, especially when it comes to rookies. Deividas Sirvydas was drafted at age 19 out of Lithuania by the Pistons. He’s super, super raw and he’ll be overseas for the next several years. Hopefully some day he’ll make it back over the pond.

Each blaster promises a hit in the form of an autograph or a memorabilia card, and here’s mine. Crabbe was very solid for the Nets last year before signing with the Hawks and assuming a bench role. Either way, a boring white jersey swatch covers any team he’s playing for. 

It’s my lucky day! The Vlad Jr. of basketball. I have my doubts about Zion. Not because of his ability but moreso because of his inability to stay healthy lately. I do believe he’s a generational talent, but I’m nervous he could be headed down the Derrick Rose/Blake Griffin route with injuries. I certainly hope I’m wrong. I’m on the fence about whether to sell or stash. I can’t remember a time when a base card was worth as much this, so I’m certainly tempted to move it.

On to box number two:

This box was much less exciting. Clockwise from top left: Kevin Garnett green parallel, Keldon Johnson memorabilia card, Cam Johnson rookie base card, Jalen McDaniels rookie Silver.

Not a lot to write home about. I’m a big fan of Keldon Johnson, although I’m not sure what his NBA ceiling is looking like. At least it’s not a plain white swatch – plain black is a tiny step up. The Garnett green parallel is cool, especially in the old Timberwolves jersey which is way better than a Boston Jersey. McDaniels is a late-second rounder that’s spent most of his year in the G-League. I’ll be stashing this way and hoping he turns into Jimmy Butler in three years.

So there we have it. This break was a lot fun – highly recommended for any basketball fans.