Box Review: 2012 Panini Preferred Basketball

Panini's 2012 Preferred basketball went live last Tuesday as the second hoops release this years from the company. Panini is touting Preferred as a high-end product that combines previously successful designs like Crown Royale, Donruss Signatures, Panini's Choice (formerly Cramer's Choice) and my favorite Silhouettes. I checkout all the press releases for upcoming products months before they go live, and every once and a while I get excited for a product to come out just like I did with Preferred. Luckily for me, Panini was nice enough to send me a box for review. So a big thanks goes out to Panini and The Knight's Lance. Now for all the fun.

Each $200 box contains four individually wrapped cards. I know that four cards for $200 seems steep, but you can see the prices for singles on eBay justify that $200 price tag. Also important to note about these four card boxes is that each card is either an auto or jersey booklet. So every card is a hit. Here is everything else you need to know about Preferred:

• - Every autograph will be limited to a print run of 99 or less
• - Tons of on-card auto's
• - The first Panini America autographs of new Clipper Chris Paul
• - 10 Autographed Crown Royale die-cuts will feature retired legends
• - Three distinct autographed Rookie Card designs for each player — Silhouettes, Crown Royale Die  Cuts and Preferred: all limited to 99 or less
• - Next-level memorabilia cards showcasing never-before-seen player combinations on each booklet

You can see the cards I pulled in the box of Preferred I opened. The Walton is the gem for me. I love collecting cards of legends like Walton and it's a pretty limited at 04/15. The foiling on the Panini's Choice cards really shines and adds a level richness to the product. Also, the on-card auto's really pop off the cards against the white background where the signatures are located. The jersey booklet is nice as well. I love the themes of these booklet cards. You really can't go wrong with a Slam Dunk theme in a basketball trading card, especially when you have the likes of Dr. J, Dominique Wilkins, Blake Griffin and Larry Johnson featured. The only gripe I have with my box break is the Patrick Paterson. Admittedly, I don't collect Patterson, but my grip is less to do with the player and more to do with the design. Where it looks like the Panini team nailed it with every other card in this product, these preferred signatures just lack the effort or higher standard of the other lines in Preferred. It's almost like the Preferred Signatures don't even belong in the product. I know some of the cards are on-card autos for certain players like Kevin Durant, and maybe that would make a difference, but the Preferred Signatures just don't make the grade compared to an otherwise flawless product.

THE VERDICT: Aside from the Preferred Signatures, Panini hit a home run on this one, or should I say slam dunk. The Silhouettes and Panini's Choice are amazing. The on-card auto's are great and the list of current NBA superstars and legends is more than extensive. If you are a collector who is looking for hits, than this is the product for you. Let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading and… "Enjoy Every Bounce of the Ball".

Contest: 2011 Panini Absolute Memorabilia Box Giveaway

Do you think you can guess some season ending stats of some of the NBA's best? If so, you can win an entire box of 2011 Panini Absolute Memorabilia I recently reviewed. To see every card included in the prize/giveaway, click here. So I suppose you want to know the rules for the contest:

1. You must be a follower of Hoopography. If you do not have a Blogger account, you can join the fun on the Hoopography Twitter page and/or Facebook page.
2. One guess per contestant.
3. Because three of the bigger cards from the box feature Jason Kidd, Blake Griffin and Kevin Love, I am asking you to guess the regular season total number of assists Jason Kidd, points Blake Griffin and rebounds Kevin Love will have combined. So I'm looking for the summation of those three numbers. Please note, it doesn't really matter if you guess the individual numbers correctly, but rather, the summation of those numbers.
4. Entires will be accepted until this Friday, April 8th (11:59 PM ET) and a winner will be announced on Thursday, April 14th. That is one day after the last day of the NBA regular season.
5. There are no extra entries for publicizing this contest on your own blog, however, one of my goals with Hoopography is to network and connect with as many collectors from around the world as possible. In other words, it would be appreciated if you publicize the contest to get as many collectors involved as possible even though it's not required to enter the contest.
6. I will utilize random.org to determine a tie break if needed.
7. If no one guesses the exact number, the closest guess will be the winner (even if that number is over the actual number).
8. Happy Collecting and… "Enjoy Every Bounce of the Ball".

Hoopography 2010 Product Year In Review

When doing a 2010 year in review of the trading card hobby, I don't think the name Stephen Strasburg can be mentioned quickly enough. The rookie phenom took the industry over this past summer. That's why I'll take all the suspense out of my pick for card of the year. It's really pretty simple. Take your pick of any of the highly sought after flamethrower's RC's. For me, the Bowman BP1 Strasburg RC is the card of the year. The Bowman Superfractor was easily the most hyped card in the hobby. I think ever blogger wrote about it and it even caught quite a bit of national media coverage. However, most collectors can't afford to spend thousands of dollars on one card. No matter how great the card or player is on it. That's why the Bowman base RC takes card of the year in the entire hobby for me. This card allowed every collector to get in on the fun and hype of Strasburg mania. Today, that card is selling for just under $10, which is further proof of the excitement the talented pitcher has and continues to create even after going under the knife for Tommy John surgery. Without question, 2010 was the year of Strasburg.

So with the Card of the Year suspense over with, it's time to get to the best of the rest. I wanted to do an entire review to include all four of the major North American sports, but I quickly realized that would have taken forever, and I don't work for a price guide or any company in the industry. So I'm sticking with my first hobby love of hoops cards. However, if a company does want my employment, i'll be happy to get paid for researching and providing my knowledgable opinion on the hobby.

I should also mention that every card image has been provided by various media releases I received via email, Facebook or company websites. That means that any product I highlight in this post that I did not get a media image for I was not able to get a corresponding image for. So hopefully you'll remember the designs of these products.

Finally, this is a 2010 product review as seen through my eyes. That means you may or may not agree with my selections, reasoning's and opinions. The cool part about this whole blog thing is that you get to voice your opinions in the comments section of the post. One of the reasons I started Hoopography was to get feed back from fellow collectors and hobby enthusiasts. So feel free to chime in with your thoughts on the 2010 product lineup and this review.

- Biggest Bang For Your Buck (Hobby Box): So we all know how it works. A product goes live for the suggested retail price and a month later it's two-thirds the price. That means patient collectors can get some pretty nice bargains. Without question, the biggest bang for collectors is Panini's Hall of Fame product. Show me another product that gives you two autographed and one memorabilia card of only Hall of Fame basketball players for $50 a box. You can't. I know these boxes started at around $85/box, but you can bust one open now for just under $50.

In addition to a nice hobby box price and HOF players, all the auto's are on-card! Finally, Panini highlighted the '92 Olympic Dream Team with base, memorabilia and auto'd cards. These Dream Team cards are easily some of the best cards of the year. With everything this product has to offer, it's a definant good bang for you buck.

Panini scored big again for budget mined collectors with it's Classics product, and for me, it earns an honorable mention in the … Bang For You Buck Category.

The two biggest draws to this product is plenty of nice looking RC's and on-card auto's. The on-card auto's included highly desirable rookies such as Blake Griffin and Tyreke Evans as well as legends like Oscar Robertson, Bob Cousy and Chris Mullin.

In addition to the auto's, jersey cards and relatively reasonable box price, the photography across the entire product is superb. With 18 packs, four auto'd or memorabilia cards and the multitude of RC's this product offers for a reasonable $60 - $85, Panini Classics is a winner.

- Best Base Card Design: So lets face it, UD's last basketball installment of their extremely successful Exquisite line could probably take just about every category up for review. Since this was going to be the last installment of Exquisite basketball, UD didn't hold back. There are even Rookie Edition auto's of legends from other sports like Tiger Woods, Mario Lemieux and John Elway. This is truly a product that will stand the test of time. It will also show up again later on in the review.

Just as the auto'd and jersey cards are exquisite, so to are the base cards. This a design that has really been around for a few years, but it still holds up and looked great in 2010. Most of the base cards feature a closeup action shot and are serial numbered to 199. It's also nice to get a base card on some pretty thick card stock. It's almost not fair to call these base cards.

Panini's Crown Royale product harkened back to the mid 90's for it's die cut crown design and for good reason. That design worked back then and still works today.

Die cuts and metal foiling/etching almost always looks good. Unfortunately, it seems like Panini doesn't share those same sentiments, but the design team at Panini thought out of the box for Crown Royale. I also like the patterned backgrounds on these cards. Very cool. There's nothing else like it out there today and certainly deserves a mention for best base card design.




- Auto'd Sub/Insert Set of the Year: So what collector doesn't like auto'd cards? It's an opportunity to get as close to our favorite athletes as most of us ever will get. These cards are also driving the hobby today. That means it's important for companies to produce some really great auto'd cards and aside form some pretty awful sticker auto'd cards, companies really came through.

In the interest of saving some time for both me and you the reader, I think these cards can really speak for themselves. Here are some of the best auto'd sets from 2010:

             Panini HOF Dream Team Auto's                Panini Crown Royale Majestic Signatures              Panini Prestige Old School Auto's

            UD Exquisite Rookie Autographs               Panini National Treasures Rookie Auto's       Panini National Treasures Notable Nicknames

- Biggest Disappointment: Upper Deck had some very good products like the above mentioned Exquisite, but it also had its share of flops like Greats of the Game. This was a good idea, but poor execution, between the black and white background on many of the cards and sticker auto's, this product just didn't get collectors excited. The card design just seemed too flat. If UD plans on releasing this line in 2011 it needs a total redesign and new approach.

Panini put some pretty solid products out last year, but National Treasure was supposed to be the cream of the crop. Although there are some A+ cards such as the Rookie auto's and Notable Nicknames, National Treasure was a bit disappointing (especially when factoring in the $400 price tag). The main problems were sticker auto's and a lack luster base card design. I certainly can't say that NT was a bad product or even average. Actually, it's a very nice looking product with some value and superb RC's. However, at $400 a box I'm looking for an A+, not a B. Panini's Absolute Memorabilia also deserves a loud shout out in this category.


- Most Fun To Bust Open: I had the pleasure of busting open a number of boxes and packs this year at several different price points. I was able to pull a Timeless Treasures LeBron James Prime 3 colored Patch card that was numbered to only 25. I also pulled a few auto's and jersey cards out of Panini Court Kings, but my favorite product to open was a tie between Panini Threads and Panini Prestige. For a relatively decent price, I was able to open a number of packs for both products. I pulled a jersey card or two, but the different amount of parallels and inserts are what made these two products fun to open. They certainly didn't product and future house down payment type cards, but were enjoyable.

- Product of the Year: Is there really any question to what the product of the year in the basketball trading card industry was? It's Upper Deck's Exquisite basketball collection. Sure, I can't afford to buy a box of the stuff, but that doesn't mean it isn't the best. The base cards look great. The base RC's are highly sought after and you can get a beautiful Jordan or LeBron auto that is sure to be the gem in most collectors' collections. UD sure went out with a bang on it's last officially licenced NBA product.



- Card of the Year: The Card of the Year category is like the the Academy Award for best actor category. I saved the best for last. Unfortunately, I couldn't decide on just one. Could you?

                               UD Exquisite Tiger Woods/LeBron James 2/4 Exclusive                      UD Exquisite Blake Griffin Rookie Base Card

        Panini National Treasures Blake Griffin Rookie Auto                                                  Panini Court Kings Le Cinque Piu Belle Auto

So that's the Hoopography 2010 Product Year in Review. It was a pretty good year across the hobby. Panini had a good showing during their inaugural year with an NBA licence and hopefully will improve upon that start in 2011. Between the good, the bad and the ugly, what do you think of 2010?

Who Would You Rather Start An NBA Franchise With, Blake Griffin or John Wall?

OR

Both Blake Griffin and John Wall are off to impressive starts to their NBA careers. Griffin is averaging 17 points and 10 rebounds in his first 5 games and Wall is putting up averages of 23.7 points, 4 steal and 10.3 assists in his first 3 games thus far. Both have been impressive for sure. I think any NBA GM would love to start a franchise with either player, but because of the nature of the point guard position, I would have to pick Wall over Griffin. I like Griffin's more polished game and tenacity, but Wall's impact on the game is so much greater simply because the ball is always in his hands. Either way, both players should be fun to watch and collect.

What do you think? Which player would you rather start an NBA franchise with, Blake Griffin or John Wall?