Pack War: basketball

Showing posts with label basketball. Show all posts

Sunday, January 20, 2013

First Look At 2012-13 Marquee Basketball

Every so often I come across a product that has me speechless, something that leaves me unable to explain in depth my feelings about the set (good or bad), which is rare because I usually talk too much.

This is one of those sets

I am just at a complete loss for words when it comes to this upcoming Panini basketball release. Maybe “appalling” or “dreadful” might work; I am not sure what to say really.

I give you 2012-13 Marquee Basketball

Each box (No SRP announced yet) will contain 20 packs with 8 cards per pack. You will pull 3 autographs and 35 rookie cards. There are 5 different rookie subsets (all part of the 150 card base set) and 10 different inserts; which includes 4 player autograph insert sets, 1 coach autograph insert set and 5 uniquely designed inserts (Panini’s words, not mine).

Some of the technology that is being used in the set and inserts include Swirlorama (The Griffin Slam Dunk insert), Black Holographic Film Board (The Durant Stars of the Night insert), Acetate (The Bryant Champions) and Laser Cut (The Irving Rookie card).

I really have nothing else to say but…

Here…

Monday, May 14, 2012

What Is Up With Past & Present?

When you take a first look at Panini’s 2011-12 Past & Present Basketball you think “Cool” because you are looking at a stack of cards that will immediately bring you back to the crazy inserts from the 1990s. Inserts with names like “Raining 3s” and “Fireworks” seem like they are right out of Fleer's think tank.

That is until you realize that this product just seems like a hodge-podge with almost no rhyme or reason to what you see. You realize that there is no continuity to the product but instead seems like random inserts tossed in to a pack with a couple having sticker autographs stuck on along with a $100 price tag. The product will hit shelves this Wednesday so I guess we will find out quickly how collectors feel about the release.

The base set is broken down in to a couple of vintage-looking cards and then you will also pull a number of inserts:

3 Autograph cards

1 Memorabilia card
4 Bread for Energy
3 Bread for Health
1 Bread for Life
4 Changing Times
2 Raining 3s
2 Fireworks
4 Breakout

Admittedly when I first saw the product I was stoked, and to a point I still am very interested, but the $100 price tag seems like a stretch for the product which is loaded with sticker autographs of such superstars like Lawrence Funderburke, LaBradford Smith and Scooter McCray. (Sarcasm sign here). Go ahead, look them up I can wait.

Oh, did I mention that Panini is not inserting any 2011 or 2012 NBA rookies in to their product? The only way to get a rookie card from either year is to pull a redemption card from select products. The promotion is called Panini America’s Dual Rookie Redemption program and there will be randomly redemption cards of the top draft picks from the 2011-12 and 2012-13 NBA Draft.

Maybe if they dropped out the autographs and memorabilia cards (or left one “hit” per box) and set the price to $50 a box I would buy in to it but all that keeps popping in to my head is:

Sunday, October 10, 2010

2010-11 Panini Timeless Threads Basketball

The 2010-11 Panini Timless Threads Basketball set is scheduled for release December 8, 2010. Each pack will contain 5 cards (3 Autograph or Memorabilia cards and 2 base cards #/399 or less) for $100.

I am posting up some of the preview images that Panini released. When you drop $100 on a pack you really shouldn't be pulling sticker autographs. I mean come on Panini, the NBA Threads release is being advertised as containing "Over 20,000 on-card autographs" and this is a $4/pack set so why is the $100/pack set coming with stickers?

Rajon Rondo base card

John Wall Rookie Recruits

Hakeem Olajuwon Home & Road Gamers

Magic Timeless Signatures

Andrea Bargnani Prime Patch Autograph

Thursday, October 7, 2010

2010-11 Panini Threads Basketball

Schedule Release Date: November 24, 2010
Box Configuration: 5 cards per pack, 24 packs per box
SRP: @$ 90/box

Box Break:
2 Autographs Cards
2 Memorabilia Cards
13 Inserts

My Thoughts:
The first thing I have to point out is that Panini is advertising the product as having “more then 20,000 on-card autographs in the product”. I guess you can say that is a start for Panini. They are bringing the collectors what they want by getting the cards hard signed and doing away with the lick-em stick-em autographs.

There are some interesting inserts like the "Rookie Collection". I like the layout and having a swatch and hard signed autograph make this card a winner. On the other side there are cards like the Rookie autographs. Unless the cards are made to be displayed side-by-side who thought it would be a good idea to cut a team's logo in half? I don't really even want to get in to the mess called "Triple Threats" or the "All-Time Big Men" autographs.

After pointing that out I find myself in a difficult position trying to find a reason to care about this product. It is actually as if Panini’s designers literally phoned in the design for the set. Take a look at the 2009-10 Panini Threads Basketball design and compare it with the 2010-11 Threads design, are you feeling a bit of deja-vu?

2009-10 Panini Threads base

2010-11 Panini Threads base

Pros:
4 Hits per box (2 auto & 2 memorabilia)

On-card autographs

Die-Cut jersey cards also available in an autographed version #/99

Cons:
Parallels

Typical Panini designs

Rating:

I find giving this set a 2 out of 5 is being generous. The hard signed autos are a start but so much more needs attention to really get over the hump of being just plain F’d up.

This set gets thumbs up for going with the on-card autographs and using some original designs like the die-cut jersey autographs but this set is just a big cluster. Serious design flaws and some inserts (like the Triple Threat insert) are just plain dizzying and are dragging the whole set down.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

2007-2008 Topps Chrome Basketball

OK, so tonight I was out with my son and we stopped by one of our local shops. We decided to grab some of the older packs that were sitting in a discount bin. He grabbed a handful of football packs and I grabbed up some basketball packs. Given there was a mixture of both hobby and retail packs, but the fun is in opening the packs and checking out whose cards you get.

The first pack that I opened was a 2007-2008 Topps Chrome Basketball pack. They stuck with the clean theme that Topps is known for, but then they went overboard with the chrome. The logo is chromed, the team name is chromed and the player’s name is chromed. The only color besides the player image is the 4 boxes around the player image in the team colors. It is unfortunate too because had the team name and player name been in the team colors the cards would have come out aesthetically pleasing.

On to a selection of the cards that I pulled:

61- Richard Hamilton

104- Kevin Martin

Veteran 57-58 Variation Kobe Bryant

Like I pointed out with the 08-09 Topps, the Variation cards use blurred photos which when mixed with chrome make an almost hideous card. Take the Bryant Variant card I pulled, the name/team bar is nice and clean. Good coloring and no fuzziness but the image has the appearance of a 3D photo without the glasses. You get a headache trying to focus on the player.

I like the idea of the 57-58 Variants but they should have used clean photos, it really ruins a nice subset.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

2008-09 Topps Basketball Breakdown

The Topps product has always been a clean design and usually some nice photos. The 2008-09 Topps Basketball set contains white borders, clean action shots and foil names. The backs have the standard info; a short player bio and complete career stats (a nice addition in today’s world of minimal stats and poorly designed backs). There are a couple of parallels this year; a Gold Parallel limited to 2008 and an Orange Parallel limited to 1199. The set also includes the ‘58-‘59 Variations which replicate the Topps 1958-59 Basketball set.

On to the cards:

3- Allen Iverson Pre-Pistons trade
AI caught Louis Williams sitting flat-footed and is ready to blow by him

34- Paul Pierce
Pierce gliding in for a well-earned 2 points

OJ Mayo Orange Parallel, definitely one of the better cards that I pulled from the boxes

Derrick Rose 58-59 Variations

Overall I was quite pleased with the set. There are a couple of things that I did not like regarding the photos that were used on some of the cards. Many of the images in the retired subset were blurred or just poor poses. You have a great shot of Magic ready to make a no-look pass then a couple of cards later you looking at a blurred out George Gervin. The photos used in the 58-59 Variants were also blurred. I realize this was probably a tip of the hat to the original set, but honestly the card layout replicating the original set is honor enough, no need to travel back in time and use blurred photos too. Finally, the images for the rookies were mostly from Summer League play so they were not in official uniforms. But, being an early season release I guess this is expected.

My biggest complaint overall was the number of duplicates. Two blaster boxes, ten packs each box with 8 cards per box= 180 total cards. I ended up with 41 duplicates between the two boxes. With a 220-card base set, I only completed 46.8% of the set (102 base cards, 41 duplicates and 37 inserts, variations and parallels).

Sunday, June 7, 2009

2008-09 Topps Basketball

With the economy affecting our budget my sports card purchases have been limited to the occasionally stop at the sports card shop, a deal on eBay or blowoutcards.com or on occasion, picking up a blaster box at a retail store.

About 2 weeks ago my wife and I were shopping at Wal-Mart and I decided to take a look at the sports card section to see what they had available. With basketball season winding down the retailers have been pretty limited on what they carry for basketball, so I was looking to see what I could find. I came across two boxes of 08-09 Topps Basketball; unfortunately a pack searcher got to the boxes and busted them open leaving bent packs all over the shelves. Sad to say, the other day I stopped by again and the packs were put back in to the boxes, the boxes were sealed with tape and put back on the shelf at regular price…

Anyway, I was really in the mood for basketball and while shopping at another store I found 2 sealed boxes of 08-09 Topps Basketball sitting nicely on the shelf so I grabbed them up. I will be reviewing the set in a day or two.

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