The Hobby Boards

I know Panini is not popular here but as it comes to a close I have found myself reflecting on the era. Particularly because my main PC Kemba is exclusively panini and rather unlikely he would carry any post playing cards.

Part of this reflection is to understand what might be missing from the collection I don't know about, or to try something new. Therefore I would like to get everyone's opinion on their favourite card, set, Parellel, case hit, rare pack odds from the era,

Your list or opinion could be a well known parallel however from a particular yr only. Do you like firsts? This is rather a very open discussion / thread that maybe can be extended on over the yrs post panini. This could be something we might learn from and can look back at like a time capsule to see what might have been popular now, might not be ten yrs from now.

I would rather not offer my opinions for now so as to avoid any potential bias and would rather everyone be able to openly express what they enjoy and like. However I would like to mention one particular card as the 2017 essentials platinum, I don't know much about them other than they look cool and are tough to find.

Thanks

What specific cards do you like from the era?

Great topic!

When I was reading through your post I was immediately thinking about Essentials Platinums, lol.

Below is a link to a post where I have a photo of one of my binder pages. I'm currently down to 9 left for my set!
viewtopic.php?p=973#p973

This is a photo I took of Tatum and Brown platinums after the Celtics won the championship last season.


The platinums were basically case hits. I think estimated print run is around 10. I personally like them because they remind me of the Flair legacy parallels from the 90's. While not quite as nice, they are still one of the better looking low print run "non-numbered" parallels that Panini has ever done. They flew under the radar for the most part due to being unnumbered and from a one and done product, so they were never super expensive (still aren't really). Once I have some time i'll throw up some more photos.

Another set I've always really liked is Optic. It was never as hyped as Prizm so you could generally get them for cheaper. In later years they actually look a lot better than Prizm as well IMO. Especially photography-wise. Prizm went close up dribbling or holding the ball for the most part while Optiic maintained the in game action photos. (Besides 17-18 Optic, that release sucked lol)

Here's my team set from the Nuggets championship season (22-23), minus the rookies Christian Brown and Peyton Watson, still need those.

mindcycle wrote: Fri Apr 18, 2025 6:02 pm Great topic!

When I was reading through your post I was immediately thinking about Essentials Platinums, lol.

Below is a link to a post where I have a photo of one of my binder pages. I'm currently down to 9 left for my set!
viewtopic.php?p=973#p973

This is a photo I took of Tatum and Brown platinums after the Celtics won the championship last season.


The platinums were basically case hits. I think estimated print run is around 10. I personally like them because they remind me of the Flair legacy parallels from the 90's. While not quite as nice, they are still one of the better looking low print run "non-numbered" parallels that Panini has ever done. They flew under the radar for the most part due to being unnumbered and from a one and done product, so they were never super expensive (still aren't really). Once I have some time i'll throw up some more photos.

Another set I've always really liked is Optic. It was never as hyped as Prizm so you could generally get them for cheaper. In later years they actually look a lot better than Prizm as well IMO. Especially photography-wise. Prizm went close up dribbling or holding the ball for the most part while Optic maintained the in game action photos. (Besides 17-18 Optic, that release sucked lol)

Here's my team set from the Nuggets championship season (22-23), minus the rookies Christian Brown and Peyton Watson, still need those.

Agree, great cards here. The essentials also remind me of the 90s legacies which are great. I also agree with the sentiment around optic vs prizm. I really like 2018 optic along with 2021 and 2023.

I do like the 17 and 18 status cards, 2017 blank slate, one and one along with photogenic. A set I particularly like the look of is the 2009 court kings base set. If only kemba was around then I would be grabbing that for sure.

I think the Essentials line is really good looking, unfortunately I don't think any of my guys were in these sets, except for a couple cards of Shawn Kemp.

I also really enjoyed their Prizm stuff, but not all the years because they just got worse and worse as time went on, too many parallels. Even though 13/14 is my favorite design, they have 10 parallels, more/less, otherwise 13/14 Prizm is definitely on my list.

Panini Optic was also great, but again, not a ton of cards for me personally.

Getting onto offerings from Immaculate and Flawless, this is where I have the most interest. Kemp had very little in the way of autos and game used with Upper Deck and very few GU items from Fleer/Skybox. Fortunately, Panini delivered when it comes to auto/GU and in particular their Sneaker cards, which are stellar.

BOTTOM LINE - They did a lot of stuff really well and provided stuff that other companies completely failed to do. For example, more guys should have been in Exquisite, but were not properly represented and Panini picked up the ball, where UD dropped the ball. However, a lot of stuff Panini did right, they tend to kill off with bad subsequent designs and too many parallels.

13/14 Prizm Gold and Donruss Optic with a more classic border.




Autos + great photography and design.




Glorious GU stuff, absolutely MONSTER patches here. The Cavs card looks like it's part of the number 4, the Sonics patches I think are part of the number and the K in Kemp upside down. The Sneaker Swatch card is a 360pt monster, it's a cinder block of a card and feels super premium. My only complaints about these Flawless examples is they don't have the gold holofoil parallels, the only holofoil is on the 1/1 cards as far as I know.





The Shadow Box Signatures gold /10 is a really cool one, golden holofoil pops. I don't know if these were done pre-Panini.

Cardiac kemba pc wrote: Fri Apr 18, 2025 4:03 am I know Panini is not popular here but as it comes to a close I have found myself reflecting on the era. Particularly because my main PC Kemba is exclusively panini and rather unlikely he would carry any post playing cards.

Thanks for making this thread. I started collecting during Panini's first year with the license, so I would say the majority of my PC falls in the Panini years, so I'm excited reading all this high quality Panini stuff. I'm surprised Essentials Platinum hasn't seen astronomical value rises as I've seen lots of love for it, on IG mainly.

mindcycle wrote: Fri Apr 18, 2025 6:02 pm Below is a link to a post where I have a photo of one of my binder pages. I'm currently down to 9 left for my set!
viewtopic.php?p=973#p973

Woah, so you've got 191/200? That's ridiculous. Well done and good luck grabbing the rest!

mindcycle wrote: Fri Apr 18, 2025 6:02 pm Another set I've always really liked is Optic. It was never as hyped as Prizm so you could generally get them for cheaper. In later years they actually look a lot better than Prizm as well IMO. Especially photography-wise. Prizm went close up dribbling or holding the ball for the most part while Optiic maintained the in game action photos. (Besides 17-18 Optic, that release sucked lol)

Do you remember when people were trying to make Optic more valuable than Prizm? I wholly agree it's superior if only for the superior photography, not to mention the Optic specific parallels like the velocities are better than the prizm cracked ice, in my opinion. On the topic of 17-18 Optic, what was up with that? I guess Panini trying to do something different with those brown borders? Good effort, I guess. The Donruss lasers from 17-18 are also weird. THey don't have the laser effect...


2017-18 Panini Donruss - [Base] - Holo Red Laser #140 - Delon Wright /99
Courtesy of COMC.com

Huh??

Cardiac kemba pc wrote: Sat Apr 19, 2025 2:00 am I do like the 17 and 18 status cards, 2017 blank slate, one and one along with photogenic. A set I particularly like the look of is the 2009 court kings base set. If only kemba was around then I would be grabbing that for sure.

Some great choices and fan favorites for sure. Since you brought it up, 2009 Court Kings along with a ton of 09-10 Panini releases, is SO underappreciated. There was certainly room for improvement but as a first year foray into basketball cards, the designs looked good and each set had its own flavor and personality. Court Kings specifically was a great product with the canvas base with sneaky great action game photography:



I also love the inserts and box toppers. Such uniqueness; Supreme Court is great and the auto versions are on card.

AbraCalabro wrote: Sat Apr 19, 2025 5:33 pm I also really enjoyed their Prizm stuff, but not all the years because they just got worse and worse as time went on, too many parallels. Even though 13/14 is my favorite design, they have 10 parallels, more/less, otherwise 13/14 Prizm is definitely on my list.

Getting onto offerings from Immaculate and Flawless, this is where I have the most interest. Kemp had very little in the way of autos and game used with Upper Deck and very few GU items from Fleer/Skybox. Fortunately, Panini delivered when it comes to auto/GU and in particular their Sneaker cards, which are stellar.

BOTTOM LINE - They did a lot of stuff really well and provided stuff that other companies completely failed to do. For example, more guys should have been in Exquisite, but were not properly represented and Panini picked up the ball, where UD dropped the ball. However, a lot of stuff Panini did right, they tend to kill off with bad subsequent designs and too many parallels.

13/14 Prizm Gold and Donruss Optic with a more classic border.

Autos + great photography and design.

Glorious GU stuff, absolutely MONSTER patches here. The Cavs card looks like it's part of the number 4, the Sonics patches I think are part of the number and the K in Kemp upside down. The Sneaker Swatch card is a 360pt monster, it's a cinder block of a card and feels super premium. My only complaints about these Flawless examples is they don't have the gold holofoil parallels, the only holofoil is on the 1/1 cards as far as I know.

The Shadow Box Signatures gold /10 is a really cool one, golden holofoil pops. I don't know if these were done pre-Panini.

Dude don't even know where to begin. You did such a good job summarizing some of the awesome higher end Panini stuff. What stands out to me is that it's all early year Panini stuff before a lot of stuff went to stickers and started looking the same. Select and Preferred on card autos were awesome. Of course the Flawless patches and immaculate autos are no brainers. I think Noir has a Shadowbox acetate auto set too at some point, though I don't know what years or what players were featured.

Some additions I would make without thinking too much:

Preferred Statline Memorabilia Booklets:
My love for these is no secret, I like 15-16 the best because I think the small design details are best executed. 14-15 is the only year with vertical orientation. Without going into excruciating detail, they're beautiful, game dated, and like pieces of memorabilia art:


Donruss Lasers:
Just an amazing effect and when added to the action photography from donruss, something just works. Photogenic has the equivalent, but with full bleed photography, which is something I'm avoiding investigating more because that's a rabbit hole I probably shouldn't fall down. My favorite years of lasers are 18-19 for the vets and 21-22 for the rookies. Just one of my recent laser additions:


Side note: Up until 2019, Panini actually didn't recycle designs and such the way it does now. So you look at donruss from 16-17 through 18-19 and they're each unique in design and some are hits and some are misses, but at least it felt fresh. I personally like the 16-17 design a lot, especially with the lasers, but pretty much everything has looked the same since 19-20 as far as donruss is concerned, which sucks.

20-21 Legendary Contenders
I think similar to the Essentials Platinums these cards use platinum foil, though these inserts are much more common. If I recall correctly they run about 1 every 2 boxes. I just think they're one of the best design to value cards Panini has put out in their time making basketball cards honestly. But I guess I'm biased. Found the Stockton at a card show for $0.80 and was floored at how beautiful it was.