2012-13 Panini Crusade Hobby Box Break and Review

With my latest box purchase, I decided to keep my streak of buying 2012-13 Panini Basketball products. I promise, I'll review something else soon. This is one those "high(er) end" products, so you're basically just buying a box of hits. 

6 packs, 5 cards per pack. 3 Autos, 3 Memorabilia Cards, at hit per pack.

The box:

Shinnnyyyyyyy. 

The shininess can seen by the reflection of my hands/phone. I'm a card collector, not a photographer.

The base cards. Very nice cards. Panini makes it very clear that this is a CRUSADE card. Not sure how I feel about that huge banner. I do like the gold font.

Knight Court Insert. These come one per box. Very similar to the base. They seem to have little value on the secondary market.

Here are the first three Prizms that I pulled. These are the regular Prizms, and are really gorgeous cards. That Andrew Bynum on the left, whom I managed to decapitate with my lamp. He's accompanied by Nick Young and Marcin Gortat.

These are my other three Prizms, rounding out the total of six per box. These come in variety of Parallels: Red & Gold /99, Purple & Gold /49, Green & Gold /25, Gold /10 and Black 1/1.

 At the far right is Jared Sullinger, he fits in with his buddies above. In the middle is Draymond Green, Red & Gold /99. To the far left is Rasheed Wallace, Gold /10.

I'm not high on Green. I loved him in college but he lacks NBA size. The 'Sheed Gold card is a great pull. Very rare and very attractive card.

Here are the jersey cards, all appearing on inserts. The Paul Pierce card is awesome, I love the green swatch. Thomas Robinson has the skills to be a beast, but his character issues seem to outweigh his abilities. I'm not too familiar with Rick Mahorn but another nice jersey.

The three autos. At left, Festus Ezeli. Center, Buck Williams, Right, Quincy Acy. Nothing too impressive here. I love Ezeli's story, but not his NBA potential. Quincy Acy is in the D-League, I'm assuming he'll be overseas soon. Buck Williams was a fun player to watch, I'd say he's the highlight here.

REVIEW

Overall Design: The base cards are nice. The picture is sharp as ever with exceptional contrast. As I've said with previous 2012-13 Panini Products, I'm not a fan of how they throw a huge "PANINI" on the front of the card. It's over-branding. Beyond the base set, the other cards are excellent, especially the Prizms. Some of the nicest cards I've ever seen.

Box contents: There's only 30 cards per pack, so it would take some hunting to complete the base set. It's only 100 cards though, so do-able. The fact that each pack contains a hit is exciting. The Prizms are definitely the highlight of this set. The Prizm checklist is massive 300 cards, with all sorts of names mixed in- past, current, and future.

The Hits: It's definitely possible to hit the jackpot with this product. The Prizm cards are a hot ticket right now. The variety of parallel colors generates excitement, especially the Gold cards and Black cards. If you search the Gold Parallels on eBay, many sellers are asking over $100 for guys that aren't even big names. The black cards are obviously the big prize. The J.J. Redick Black 1/1 is listed for over $400 dollars on eBay, to put it in perspective. Yes, J.J. Redick.

Positives: Design, prominence of short prints, Prizm technology, players from various generations, number of hits guaranteed hits (6), chance for 1/1

Negatives: Autos are stickers, small number of total cards

Rating: 8 out of 10. This is a fun product. It has the high-end feel, but for right around 100 bucks, it's affordable high-end. Also a great way to get your hands on Prizm cards without actually buying a box of Panini Prizm.

As always, thanks for reading and please feel free to comment!

2012-13 Panini Basketball 3 Hobby Box Break and Review

I splurged.


I bought three hobby boxes at once. I typically try to stick to one, but because of the low price, I just had to. My wallet is furious, but after the breaks it may have all been worth it. Without further ado, the boxes:

What a gorgeous sight. Three boxes ready to be torn into. On to the cards:

Pictured on the left is an example of the base cards. Pretty cool look, in my opinion. Border colors vary to match team colors. To the right is one of the gold parallels. There are 7 per box. Out of my 21, the big names were Irving, Monroe, Noah, B. Lopez, Granger, Durant (obivously), and Dwight Howard... in a Lakers jersey... remember when he played for them? LOL. Moving on:

The top picture is the Heros of the Hall insert. 3 per box. I love seeing Bob Lanier getting some love. Very underrated. Bottom picture is an example of the Matching Numbers 

inserts, also three per box. Cool idea.

Top, Spirit of the Game insert. You guessed it! Three per box. Bottom is the All Panini Inserts, which I absolutely love, mostly because of the sick silver border. Unfortunately you can't really see it, because my camera did an outstanding job of catching the reflection of my pale shirtless body in the border. I suppose it's a testament to how shiny the border is, though.

 These cards are only TWO per box. I got Magic, O.J. Mayo, Brandon Knight, D12, Klay Thompson, and Greg Monroe. The whole set of these inserts has a total of 100 cards. These also come in gold parallels that are numbered to 25. Would love to get my hands on some of those. 

On to the hits! (2 Auto's per box)

We'll start here, with the base autos that I pulled. In my opinion... nooottttthinnnngggg special. Barton was rumored to be in Portland's eight man rotation... before the draft. Malcolm Lee is... Malcolm Lee. And Kyle Singler is from Duke, which means I hate his guts. He's also incredibly unproductive in the pros. BUT, who knows, these guys are all very young.

Here's two redemptions. I like both of these, specifically Kawhi Leonard. Lavoy really came into his own in Philly last year, and I'm hoping he can continue to get solid minutes this year. I've been dying for a Kawhi Leonard auto ever since I saw him in the NBA finals. A 21 year old guard/forward who defends like Bruce Bowen, rebounds like Charles Oakley, and plays on a great team. Love this guy.

The boxes don't guarantee any memorabilia cards, but I was lucky enough to pull one:

I must say, this was a treat. It's one of the first times l've seen Ray Allen in a Miami Jersey on a card.  What's really cool is that the back of the card specifically says the jersey swatch is from a Celtics jersey.

And time for the GRAND FINALE! Drumroll....

 This made it all worth it. This card, fittingly, was in the final box that I broke. This is what you pray for when you're buying boxes. It's a base card, so it will look exactly like the Lee, Singler, and Barton cards. Base card unfortunately, sticker unfortunately, but it's frickin' Kyrie Irving!!


I scratched and redeemed all of the redemption cards, so hopefully Panini won't take a decade and a half to get them to me as I've heard they're infamous for.

REVIEW

Overall design: These are pretty good looking cards. I don't like how large the word PANINI is on the front of the card, it's really not necessary. I'm assuming it's for branding purposes, to really try and engrain the brand name in the minds of consumers. I do like how the borders vary per card to match the team's colors.

Box contents: The base set is huge, which may appeal to some collectors. There are a variety of inserts, none of which are anything special save for the All-Panini inserts which I think are gorgeous. If you're lucky enough to pull a memorabilia card they're an awesome bonus.

The Hits: This one is tough. I feel like my hits were incredibly fortunate, with the Leonard and Irving autos and picking up the jersey card. If I bought just one box and it had the Malcolm Lee auto and the Will Barton auto, I'd be pissed. The possibility of pulling a big name is always intriguing, and pulling one of the those All-Panini gold parallels would be sick. I'd say this product is best bought in multiple boxes.

Positives: Large base set, rookie autos, potential for low serial numbers, PRICE

Negatives: Lack of overall serial numbers, autos are stickers

Rating: 7 out of 10. Pretty decent product, and affordable. I'd advise spending the extra cash to upgrade to a box of Threads, Prestige, or Marquee however.

2012-13 Panini Threads Basketball Hobby Box Break and Review

After a nice check on payday, I couldn't help but ponder my next hobby box. Panini basketball products are my favorite type of sports card, which you'll see as my blog continues to develop. I've never dabbled in the Threads product line, so I gave it a shot with a hobby box. Guaranteed 3 auto's and a memorabilia card for $73. Can't beat that. Onto the break:

The box

Here's a look at the base cards. I love the Ray Allen card and the way it highlights his move to Miami. All the other base cards in the box were more like the Derrick Rose card. The photos are of perfect quality, and the banner running up the left side of the cards looks great. The color varies per team. Moving to the inserts:

Here we see the "Inside Presence" inserts. Pretty decent names.I dig the backgrounds.

Next is the "Floor Generals" inserts. Unlike above, these cards keep their natural background. I prefer the latter but not a big deal.

"High Flyers" inserts. I love the names I pulled here, Ibaka, J.R. Smith, Rose, and Blake Griffin. All cards have nice action shots on them.

Another line of inserts for this box, the "Century Greats." Love seeing Havilcek get some love here, and what a great picture of Walton. Really cool cards.

Here are the dicut threads cards. A somewhat odd group of names here (L to R): Serge Ibaka, Marc Gasol, Marquis Teague, John Henson, Chris Singleton.

My favorite line of inserts, the "Talented Twosomes." Couldn't be happier with the pulls either, particularly the Knight/Monroe card. What a duo they can be. The Curry/Lee card is a better picture though. Again, photography is clear as day.

The Hits

Tony Parker Jersey- Nice card. No serial number, which is a bit disappointing. It's shame that the Spurs lost the finals, because this guy may have had a shot at the MVP. Probably would have been Tim Duncan.. but one can dream.

Look who it is, again! Another Derrick Williams auto, along with Enes Kanter. For some reason, neither one of these guys excites me too much. Maybe it's because they're both on terrible teams, who knows. I really should not complain though. These guys did go #2 and #3 in the draft, after all. The cards are actually made of wood, and the auto's are on card. No serial numbers :(

Now, why the Jrue Holiday you ask? Take a close look at the silver stripe along the bottom. Every other base card in the box has a bronze stripe (The Ray Allen and D-Rose commons up top are visually misleading, but trust me, they're identical).

So that silver stripe caught my eye. A parallel! My favorite. I flipped the card over and to overwhelming surprise...

BOOM! Hiding in the left hand corner. It's the lowest serial numbered card I've ever owned. Turns out that the stripe isn't silver, it's platinum. Very exciting card from an exciting young player. 

Last but not least, a redemption auto in my final pack:

I can redeem a torn ACL! Poor Gallo. Hope his rehab is going well. It's my understanding that this card will be an on-card auto on one of the jersey style threads cards seen above. I don't believe that it will be numbered.

The checklist for the Team Threads Signatures has some awesome names on it, so seeing that made my heart jump, and seeing Gallo made it un-jump. He deserves some credit though, he's a very consistent scorer and this looks to be a really nice card. I'll probably redeem it sooner than later.

Overall design: The cards themselves satisfy. The photography is professional, and I'm a huge fan of the horizontal banner on the left side of the base cards, it's a creative and looks sharp. Out of all the inserts, I like the Inside Presence the best when I comes to design. 

Box contents: The base set of 150 is very collectable, and you'll be well over halfway to a set with just one box. The base set contains only veterans. The insert sets offer some great variety, from big men to point guards to legends. 

The Hits: This product really comes through. Three autos and a patch card (possibly triple patch) is an awesome ratio for cost. The possibility of pulling low numbered cards ups the ante. 

Positives: Value, card design, variety, autos are on card

Negatives: No rookie base cards, only 5 cards per pack

Rating: 9 out of 10. A staple of Panini Basketball.

2013 Panini Marquee Hobby Box Break and Review

My first hobby box of the summer is a from my favorite manufacturer of basketball cards- Panini. After some research, I decided to try out a box from the "Marquee" product line.

Not that it's all that important, but I love shape and dimensions of the box itself. It's long rectangular shape makes it easy to put the base cards back in once the box is empty. Easy for storage.

Anyways, on to the highlights of the break: 

Paul George Base #94

Dominique Wilkins "Slam Dunk Legends" #4

(L to R)

Brandon Knight White PETG Group V Rookie #474 

Brandon Knight Holoboard Group II Rookie #244

Anthony Davis Laser Cut Group III Rookie #312

Swirlorama Group I Rookies:

Kemba Walker #162

Kyrie Irving #161

Jimmer Fredette #170

Rookie Signatures:

Derrick Williams #13

Orlando Johnson #70

Lance Thomas #86

Overall design: These cards are really pretty. I included the picture of the Paul George card so you can get an idea of what the base cards look like. Every card is made of thick cardstock, including the base set. The refractor look to the base set is a really nice touch. For those who enjoy collecting base sets, this product is for you. The inserts are also nice cards. The halographic swirl patterns on certain sets adds a "wow factor."

Box contents: With a total of sixteen different sets in the product line, collectors will be getting a great variety in each box. About half of those sets are rookie sets, so expect a lot of young faces in your packs. About 40% of the cards from my box were rookies, so it's safe to say that this product is very rookie-based. The product guarantees 3 auto's, and as you can see, all three of mine were rookies. For those of you who prefer veterans, this isn't a box for you. Veteran cards are sparse, but they are in here, including a set of autos. There is also a 24 card set of coach's autographs, many of whom are legends. It's also important to note that there no memorabilia cards.

The Hits: This product seems to come through with the hits. I'm not ecstatic with mine, but I'm not complaining either. Any product that brings three autos for less than 100 bucks is worth it to me. The Derrick Williams auto was nice to see- here's to hoping he pans out, being the #2 overall pick and all. The Kyrie Irving Swirlorama seems to have some serious value as well.

Positives: Cards design, variety, rookies, value

Negatives: Lack of veterans, lack of serial numbers, autos are stickers

Rating: 8 out of 10. Another great product from Panini.