2012 13 Panini Basketball Box Break Recap And Review

You have to go back to 2009/10 for the last time that a Basketball card solely carried the title of the brand Panini.  It was meant to be a retail splash to get a mass-market appeal for the emergence of the Panini brand in America.  Since then Panini has brought back some classic favorites from other lines of cards in its library.  The NBA Hoops line seemed to successfully replace the Panini brand line.  For 2012/13 Panini Basketball returns, more refined than before, adding a sophisticated but accessible series of trading cards that still retain a mass market appeal while providing enough heft for a hobby audience.  

We classify 2012/13 Panini Basketball as trading cards. Hobby boxes include 24 packs with 10 cards per pack with the promise of 2 Autograph cards per box

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

Base Set

 Kevin Durant, front and back

 Kobe Bryant, John Wall, Blake Griffin 

Derrick Rose, Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Garnett 

 LaMarcus Aldridge, Tim Duncan, LeBron James

Chris Paul, Kevin Love, Dwyane Wade 

 Kawhi Leonard, Jeremy Lin, Kris Humphries

 Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Anthony Davis, Bradley Beal

 Karl Malone, George Mikan, Willis Reed

 Tim Hardaway, George Gervin, James Worthy

 Bill Laimbeer, Elgin Baylor, Nate Thurmond

 Earl Monroe, Gary Payton, Wes Unseld

 Panini Knight Parallels

 Jimmy Butler. Markiedd Morris

 Robert Sacre, DeQuan Jones

 Perry Jones, Arnett Moultrie, Darius Morris

 Inserts

All Panini

 Andrea Bargnani, LeBron James

Heroes of the Hall

 Hakeem Olajuwon, Nate Archibald

 Gail Goodrich, Dennis Johnson

Sprit of the Game

 Derrick Rose, Kevin Love

 Kawhi Leonard, DeAndre Jordan

Matching Numbers 

#2 Kawhi Leonard & Thabo Sefolosha, #5 Josh Smith & Kevin Garnett  

 #12 LaMarcus Aldridge & Dwight Howard, #24 Paul George & Kobe Bryant

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 4, front and back, Card 62

Card 157, Card 185, Card 196

The Hits

 Malcolm Lee Autograph, Brian Roberts Autograph

Overall Look

This is smart, clean looking set with simple color schemes that work quite well.  There are just enough foil accents to elevate the feel of the cards.  Layout and lettering is sharp.  Photo selection is even better. The insert sets are simple in design but vibrant in their presentation.  Hit cards fall in line with the feel of the rest of the set.

Quality and Variety of Players.

The base set comes in at a nice 300 cards with all of the big names and rookies you would want.  The additions of throwback players in the base set and on inserts like Heroes of the Hall just add to the well-balanced nature of the checklist.

Do the hits hold up?

The majority of the hits will come from the double rookie class which would be enough.  When you throw in the chance of a Hall of Fame Autograph or one from Panini’s spokespersons like Kobe and Blake, you’ve got enough here to satisfy all collectors.

Will you want to collect them all?

From a trading card standpoint, this could be the Basketball set of the year.  No doubt you will want to collect them all.  The really adventurous might even try for a complete base set of the limited Painini Knight parallels.

Rating

5 out of 5

2012 13 Panini Basketball should become the trading card set Basketball collectors return to year after year.



Review box provided by Panini