Basketball Cards

This letter is to Topps. This letter is to Panini. This letter is to Upper Deck, Leaf, Tri-Star and any other company that is in the business of making sports cards.This is the first day of baseball. For me and many of my fellow sports enthusiasts, thi

Basketball fans were treated to another late season NBA release by Panini this last week. I say “another” with emphasis as there have been several Panini basketball sets that have come out in the last month or so. You can almost tell the product managers at Panini have had their hands full with all these releases, as the sets lack the insert depth that many Panini sets often have. I’m not really saying this is a good thing or a bad thing, as sometimes less inserts with larger number of players in the checklist can be a simpler way to collect. This set lacks the fluidity that a Select, Preferred or Prizm have. The namesake cards (Crusade) have a unique deign and card stock. Whereas the rest of the cards are rather plain white-out type designs anyone can make in 45 mins on their home computer. The base set seems neglected to me in most sets, but especially 12/13 Crusade basketball. There are 100 total cards, with no parallel or variations. Seems odd to me that the cards most people end up with (commons/base) are often the cards the company spends the least amount of time trying to make them collectible. What makes the base set seem really out of place in this set are the 300 Crusade insert cards that bear the sets namesake, but also are colorful designs with several parallels. Just seems like the Crusade inserts make it look like Panini threw a 100 card base set together because they had to, and not because they expect (or want) people to collect the cards. To me, if the Crusade set was the base set, they’d be even more collectible. The design of these cards would have made awesome base cards, but instead this is a quasi-base set at best. Not to mention, you have “rookies” like Klay Thompson that has a base card and a Crusade insert …. Basketball collectors would have went crazy for “true rookie” Crusade parallels. Not that collectors aren’t paying up for the rare Crusade parallel cards, it just would have been cooler if these were the base set an not an insert set. That all being said, the inclusion of 5 parallel levels (Red – Serial #/99, Purple – Serial #/49, Green – Serial #/25, Gold – Serial #/10, Black – Serial #1/1) makes these exciting to find when you do open packs or boxes. If this set makes it back on the roster for 13/14 let’s hope the Crusade designs and card stock is used though out the set, not just on these cards. The insert cards in this set not named Crusade all look like they could be extensions of the base set, but they all have their own unique numbering. The Knight Court plays off the Panini’s logo that features a knight on horseback. This is one of the larger insert sete you’ll see with 50 total cards in the set. Nobility could almost be confused as a base card, except it says Nobility on it. Which seems like a strange term to use on any set referring to any athlete, but we’ll let that slide. What we won’t let slide are how weak these cards (and the other almost identical looking inserts) are. No serial ##’s – no parallel cards to chase…just 25 cards of guys that have nobility. That’s not going to get hardcore collectors excited, let alone new ones. Royalty is a more appropriate named set and again would be much cooler if it featured the card technology the crusade inserts do, or even if they were serial #/1000 but the world isn’t perfect I guess. Nothing special here except the hall of fame players that appear on the cards. Like many of the sets that have come out recently from Panini, this set contains many current and NBA stars autograph, which with a double rookie class isn’t the best, but its not all bad. The first 50 players on the Majestic Autograph cards appear to be current NBA players, where the latter 50 players on the list are former NBA players. There are two levels of parallel cards in the auto set, both gold and black. To keep th

This Came Across The Wire Today As A New Set From Panini: 8 cards per pack, 1 pack per box, 15 boxes per case CONTENT HIGHLIGHTS: - 3 Autographs or memorabilia cards on average per box! - Loaded with exciting new inserts including the debut of Stained Glass, a 100-card set printed on colored, textured acetate! - Find Rookie Prime Jersey displaying a huge jersey swatch from the top 30 picks! - Look for dazzlingly designed transparent rookie cards entitle Rookie View landing one per box! ***Release Date:  August 14, 2013***

Paul Arizin Elected To Hall of Fame in 1978 Truly one of the games greats that few people born in the last 2 decades have heard of. Played in the NBA for 10 years, and was an All-Star in each of them. Was the leagues Rookie of the Year, and lead the league in scoring twice. More importantly – he sat out 2 seasons during the prime of his career to serve in the Marines. Think LeBron or Kobe would do that? Of course the NBA, and world was different back in Arizin’s time – but he is a true American hero. Considering Arizin passed away on December 12, 2006 – his on-card autograph cards are obviously no-longer being made. Finding on-card examples should be pretty expensive right? Not really, I think a pizza chain sells pizza’s for the same price. 1999/00 Upper Deck Legends On-Card Auto Sold: May 29, 2013 $11.00 (9 Bids + Free S/H) Sources: WikiPedia – NBA Hall of Fame Adrian Dantley Elected To Hall of Fame in 2008 One of the leagues best scorers for over a decade. Dantley lead the NBA in scoring in 80/81 averaging 30.7 ppg. Two years later he lead the league in scoring again averaging 30.6 ppg. Dantley always shot a high percentage from both the field and free-throw line. If Adrian played the prime of his career in the NBA glory days of the late 80′s and 90′s – he would probably be far more popular with fans today. So his cards are at least worth something right? Not really, $4 or $5 dollars barely buys you lunch these days and not even two gallons of gas – but it could land you an NBA Hall of Famer who’s career stats are very impressive. 12/13 Panini Preferred Auto (On Card) Autograph  #/49 Sold: May 26, 2013 $4.99 (1 Bid + $2.99 S/H) Sources: Basketball Reference – WikiPedia – NBA Hall of Fame Lenny Wilkens Elected To Hall of Fame as a Player in: 1989 Elect To Hall of Fame as a Coach in: 1998 Lenny Wilkens has been officially enshrined into the Basketball Hall of Fame and amazing three different times! Once as a player, and twice as a coach – that makes him one of the most remarkable people in the NBA’s history. During his playing career, he was known for being a great passer, leading the league in total assists twice during his career. Most people didn’t see Lenny Wilkens play, but many remember him as a coach for the Atlanta Hawks, Toronto Raptors and other teams. He lead the Seattle SuperSonics to their only NBA title in 1979. His autograph cards are not very expensive in most cases, usually ending for under $10.00. 11/12 Gold Standard Auto Autograph  #/149 Sold: May 17, 2013 $5.99 (2 Bids + Free S/H) Sources: Basketball Reference – WikiPedia – NBA Hall of Fame Rick Barry Elected To Hall of Fame in 1987 Averaged an amazing 37.4 ppg during his senior year in college and an equally impressive 35.6 ppg in only his second season in the NBA. Is widely regarded as the best player in Golden State Warriors history, and was a member of the teams NBA championship in 1975.  Famously shot under-hand free-throws during his career – and consistently lead the league in FT percentage during his career. There were rumors while Rick Barry was doing radio in the Bay Area that he would be a coaching candidate for the Warriors one day … but his somewhat hard-nosed personality has kept him off the NBA sidelines according to some. The example card I have pictured below, I actually wouldn’t really call cheap – but is a really nice card, and it seems Rick Barry doesn’t sign as much as other Hall of Famers. Most Rick Barry autographs sell for less than $20.00 and if you find one for less than $10 – I think you’re getting great value. 1996 Topps Stars On-Card Autograph Sold: May 09, 2013 $15.75 (5 Bids + $2.25 S/H) Sources: WikiPedia – Basketball Reference – NBA Hall of Fame David Thompson Elected To Hall of Fame in 1996 A prolific dunker and scorer during his day in the ABA/NBA

Once the king of all basketball sets, Upper Deck SP Authentic Basketball has been reduced to a limited number of players due to UD’s ability to only use players in college (or high school) uniforms. You’ll still find the games two biggest stars , and with LeBron James and Michael Jordan not ever signing for a Panini set, SP Authentic Basketball can still turn heads and make you want to crack a box. The Base Set, which in the glory days of SP Authentic – you used to get mostly base cards in each pack. This year only has 50 players on the base set, including some names we’ve been coming quite familiar with when it comes to Upper Deck Set (other than MJ and LeBron). We’ve seen lots of Anfernee Hardaway, Allen Iverson, Dennis Rodman, and Gary Payton from Upper Deck recently – and my guess is that the NBA pension checks aren’t really as big as they need to be, so you’ll be seeing these players for a long time to come. The rest of the base set is mostly 2nd rate young NBA players or guys we haven’t even really seen play much yet. SP Authentic base set used to have gold and silver type parallel cards, plus sometimes a mini-set that was serial numbered – no longer. 50 cards on the checklist and nothing too special if you ask me. What is new, is that practically every player in the base-set does sign autographs for a base set autograph parallel (which include the gold parallel most fans are used to). It looks like a few guys don’t sign including #22 Jeremy Lamb, #45 John Shurna and #47 Ricardo Ratliffe – but you have Jordan and LeBron autographs to go after. There are the “Rookie F/X” cards inserted at a rate of 1 every 4 packs. However, the term Rookie on these is really odd – and most of time – players like LeBron and Jordan already have a version of this card in a previous years set. This is essentially an extionsion of the base set, as the cards numbering starts where the base set left off. Most of the players are veteran and even Hall of Fame players – which makes this a strange set to collect with the “Rookie” term attached to the set. Similar to the base cards, you will find autograph parallel cards of just about each player in the set. Canvas Collection cards are Upper Deck’s play on Topps Canvas Collection cards that are often found in baseball sets. (Card companies all use the same 3rd party vendors that print, package and usually ship the cards for them – so when one comes up with a card design, you’ll see all the other manufactures try the same thing because it’s typically the 3rd party vendors technology).  These cards fall about 1 in 8 packs and there are 45 different cards in the checklist. You’ll also find gold parallel versions and autograph versions as well. By the Letter autographs is a familiar set in the SP Authentic lineup – and you’ll find lots of these, as they fall once per box. I have mixed feelings about letterman autographs. First of all, these are manufactured – the player never wore this jersey ….. in fact it was never a jersey at all – just a cloth letter piece made in mass quantities. The sad thing is, you often don’t know this if you were to open a pack or box of this product. Not to mention, some buyers on eBay are going to think LeBron and Jordan actually wore this jersey – which would make the card be worth much more. Not that these letterman autograph cards aren’t nice – or that I wouldn’t like to get a LeBron James, however it does cause some confusion for new and younger collectors – and that’s not always the best way to get people to stay in the hobby for life. Not to mention, the autographs tend to be small and squished on these – as the letters tend to be thin, barely leaving enough room to sign. Home Court autograph cards are not that tough to get, and LeBron James and Mich

The month of May was a big one for basketball card collectors, as 3 different Panini sets launched during the month (Past & Present, Momentum, and Brilliance). June marks the release of 2 different NBA sets: June 12, 2013 – Panini Crusade Basketball Checklist: Sports Card Radio Preview: Panini America Here & Here June 26, 2013 – Panini Gold Standard Basketball Checklist: Sports Card Radio Preview: Panini America Here & Here We’ll have a full review once the sets go live and we can take a look at some of the photographs of the cards. Both sets look promising, Crusade is a new ‘set’ however Crusade cards have existed in previous Panini basketball sets. Gold Standard (after not being released this year for the NFL) marks another release for the NBA collectors. This year you get 1 real metal (not gold) card per box.

12/13 Panini Brilliance basketball marks the initial release of a set that utilizes some of Panini’s newly found printing technologies to create a good looking set with multiple inserts and parallel cards to chase. Complete Checklist: Sports Card Radio Reviews: Panini America Lets start with the base set: features a whopping 300 cards (includes rookies & legends). Compared to most basketball sets, that’s quite a few cards. You’ll want to keep that in mind when you’re collecting the 3 different parallel cards in the base set. With 300 cards, it makes getting any one particular card that much harder to get. There is a Starburst parallel which is slated at about 2 per box. Then you have an Above & Beyond parallel – both the Starburst and the Above & Beyond parallel cards are not serial numbered. The one parallel that is serial numbered are the Artist Proof parallel cards – those are limited to just 10 copies each. The set features 60 autograph rookie cards. Other Panini sets have had about 80 signed rookies, so this lineup is a bit tighter than other sets you might find this season. The autograph rookie cards are not serial numbered, nor are there any parallel cards – so it will be interesting to see if there are any true SP rookie cards to be found. We can imagine that not every rookie card has the same quantity, so some players may be harder to find than others. Accolades is the first in a decent lineup of insert cards. These cards feature lots of shiny foil and detail that we’ve come to expect since the 12/13 Panini Prizm set launched last year. There are only 20 cards to collect from this set, including LeBron James and other NBA superstars. The City to City Jersey cards feature 2 different jersey pieces that are from a single player – but each one is from a different team they have played for. This actually is a pretty neat way to hit a Metta World Peace jersey card when he played for the Sacramento Kings (and was named Ron Artest) plus you get a piece of his current team. If you’re a fan of any of the players on the 20 card checklist, these certainly make for a unique card to collect. There are prime jersey versions serial numbered to 25 or less of each player. Game Time Jerseys are like the main jersey set, because it features 80 different NBA players. You also have prime jersey versions of each card that are serial numbered. You get 1 memorabilia card per box, so we can expect the non-prime versions to be available on the open market in substantial quantities. The Magic Numbers set is a small 15 card set featuring many of the games best players & scorers. These cards feature a mirror-like finish and have the players jersey number embossed on the card. The highlight of the set might be the Marks of Brilliance autograph cards – which is a set of 240 different serial ## autograph cards! Panini has been delivering big on some autograph sets recently, and pretty much just about any NBA player not named LeBron or Michael Jordan have some kind of ink with Panini. The depth of the autograph checklist might water down boxes (which only cost about $90 originally), but it’s cool seeing so many names – and the possibilities to pull a rare auto are still there. Scorers Inc is a 20 card set of the leagues best scoring talents. Stephen Curry proved in the postseason he was one of the leagues best shooters, and he’s joined by Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James and others. Spellbound is a 100 card set, but actually only features about 18 different players. Each player has about 4 or 5 different cards, which might make this a nice mini-set to collect if you don’t want to go after all 100 cards. Springfield is where the Basketball Hall of Fame is located, and this set of 25 cards features all HOF players that have been enshrined. Recent inductees like Chris Mullin can now have one of his first Hall of Fame cards. These cards actuall

Release Date: May 15, 2013 Checklist: Sports Card Radio Panini Review: Panini America Blog Base Cards: A nice mixture of current NBA players we expect, rookie cards, plus some legend cards. There are three types of parallel cards in the base set. You have a Force Die-Cut, which is serial #/25. Then you have the Drive parallel cards, which are serial numbered to 49 copies. The Drive parallel cards look as if they have a large foil layer on top of the card so they are hard to miss. Then you have ultra rare Power parallel cards serial numbered to one. Rookie Cards: Essentially two types of rookie cards exist in this set. You have the base card rookies, which are not autographed. Then you have the Momentus Autograph set, which will act as the autograph rookie in 12/13 Panini Momentum basketball. There are about 85 autograph rookie cards in the Momentus set, which has two parallel versions of the main set. You have Blue Momentus Rookies and Red Momentus Rookies. Looks like most of the blue rookies are serial numbered to 49 or 48 copies, where as the red versions appear to be numbered out of 10. Given that the 12/13 NBA Playoffs are being contested when this set drops, several rookie cards are going to be highly sought after now. Harrison Barnes, Klay Thompson, Kawhi Leonard and others will see increased demand over previous sets because their teams are in the playoff hunt. Momentum Autograph Cards: A very basic autograph card design with some interesting names among the names on the checklist. Recent Hall of Fame inductee Chris Mullin, everyone’s favorite 90′s underachiever Anfernee Hardaway, and high flyer J.J. Hickson are among the many that sign. 100 total players sign, which would make this a ‘large’ set …. but if you continue reading, Monumental Marks is even bigger! There are three different parallels for the Momentum Autograph card set – Drive #/49 or less, Force #/25 or less, and Power #1/1. Panini went away from the color theme, and went to the base set parallels for this set. Monumental Marks Autograph Cards: Another real simple autograph card, which says Monumental in the name, but I’m not sure what the theme is here when you have everyone from Kwame Brown to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the set. However, hand it to Panini, they do often deliver a pretty wide range of players for collectors to collect. And this set truly delivers for collectors – 300 total players sign in this set! Holy crap! All the cards are serial numbered, and some are numbered in the 129 – 149 range, and some are short printed to about 15. It would have been slightly more interesting from a collecting standpoint if Panini had not put serial numbers on these, and let collectors find out which autographs are SP (or come out with blogs later that have print runs). Anyway, just my opinion. Can’t really complain too much about a 300 card auto set. There are 3 types of parallel cards, Blue serial #/49 or less, Red numbered #/10 or less and Black versions numbered 1/1. That’s it! Tight set with pretty deep checklists within each sub-set. Boxes deliver 5 autographs per box. Some may be duds, but if you land a rare autograph #/49 or less – it will probably be a great card to add to your collection or sell/trade for something else. You also get a Kobe Bryant anthology pack with 5 Kobe cards in each pack.

It’s almost like every Panini basketball set has a bit of Past & Present NBA players, but this set is named Past and Present so we expect a nice mix in this set. Comparing the checklist to another set that just came out in Preferred Basketball, there are as many intriguing past & present NBA players (with on-card autographs) in Preferred as Past & Present, so it makes it a tough sell initially for me. But then Panini posted that the memorabilia cards (Gamers and Dual Jerseys) would only be found in retail packs! Might not get the guys who bust hobby boxes much love, but there are 2 Targets and 2 Wal-Marts in my town (and no card shops) making it much easier to score a pack or two at retail. The only concerning thing to me about only having the memorabilia cards in retail are that pack searchers will likely feast on the unopened stuff – so I wouldn’t be expecting to land one unless it was from a sealed blaster. I’ve made a few trips to Target on the way home, so far – no dice, but will try others this weekend. The Treads cards are kind of neat, as they look like the treads of a sneaker. The winning touch die-cut banners are very cool as well, featuring players that have won an NBA championship. There’s not too many real stand-out type cards in this set that are must haves, although Duke fans might note that Jay Williams autographs were inserted for the first time in 9 years. Panini made an announcement on their blog like it was a big deal, but his career was riddled with injuries and unless you like Duke it makes these not really a big draw. Seems like collectors agree, as they only sell for about $5 – $10 on eBay, and I can imagine when his signature shows up in others sets, it might not go anywhere but down. A box break typically yields about 3 autograph cards, and like we said earlier – the jersey cards are only found in retail packs. I would probably avoid buying a box, as you could spend $80 – $90 on single cards and score some nice ones from this set. Other soon-to-be-released Panini sets look like a more exciting break, including 12/13 Momentum Basketball or 12/13 Elite Series Basketball. Overall, this set met expectations (that were low) but might be a set that could be eliminated because of the strength of Prizm, Select, Limited and other brands Panini has already. There is nothing in this set (like a Wilt Chamberlain cut) or even rookie redemptions for the 2013/14 NBA rookie class to really make it stand out over the other sets on the market already. Why diminish your brand with somewhat weak sets? Not sure, maybe this will sell well enough to make a profit, but it doesn’t really deliver anything for a basketball collector to want to run out and spend money on like Prizm and Select have.