2012-13 Panini Absolute Basketball Box Break Recap And Review

Absolute was another causality of last year’s lockout and its return is very welcomed. Absolute offers a wide mix of Rookie Prospecting, Game-Worn Materials and Autographs. With a double rookie class, 2012-13 Panini Absolute Basketball is a great break with a good amount of reward for those who are willing to take the risk.

We classify Absolute as premium cards.  Each hobby box contains 4-5 card packs with the promise of three autographs and one memorabilia cards per box.

Here is a look at some of the cards we pulled.

 Base Set

 Dirk Nowitzki, front and back

 Steve Nash, Kevin Garnett, Tony Parker

Inserts

 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Retired #/499, Roy Hibbert Platinum Spectrum #/10

This year in all of the Panini Basketball releases there will be a 5 card bonus pack top loaded in each box.  All cards will be part of the Kobe Bryant Anthology and cover his entire career with the Lakers. Here are the cards from our pack.

Card 42, front and back, Card 99

Card 117, Card 139, Card 175

The Hits

Autograph Rookie Cards

Quincy Acy #/399, Shelvin Mack #/299, Jimmy Butler #/299 

 Frequent Flyer Autographs

LaMarcus Aldridge  Frequent Flyer Autograph Redemption #99

Overall Look

With a refined design and plenty of shiny, there is some really nice design here. Hit cards look great too.

Quality and Variety of Players

There is a nice mix of Rookie, Veteran and Retired players. 100 Veteran base cards are combined with 50 retired stars. The 100 rookie cards are only available in autographed versions.

Do the Hits satisfy? 

There are some great hits and plenty of variety.   While we hit all autographs for our hits, some of the memorabilia cards like the Every Player, Every Game and Star Gazing Prime are super.  There are plenty of desirable autographs to be found too.

Will you keep coming back for more?

This can become an addictive product.  Multiple boxes purchase of Absolute or, if your local card shop will allow, separate pillow case packs is easy to see

Rating

 4 out of 5

2012-13 Panini Absolute Basketball is an easy purchase.   While I’ve had some really good luck with this product, I feel the term “your results may vary” applies.  But even an OK box of Absolute is better than most others.



Review box provided by Panini