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.