2012-13 Limited Basketball Is Live

Today 2012-13 Limited Basketball was released, each $100 box contains one pack with a total of 7 cards; 1 Rookie Autograph, 1 Additional Autograph, 1 Memorabilia card and 4 base cards/parallels.

 

As far as a set goes, it is loaded with foil and acetate. Which might not be so bad was it not for the fact that you are paying $100 for 7 total cards and only 3 hits. Sure you have the chance to pull top rookie autographs from both the 2011 and 2012 NBA Drafts but with 100 base rookie autographs you are bound to find the dogs of the draft before pulling Anthony Davis or Kyrie Irving.

 

Most of the relic inserts could have as easily been inserted in to any other Panini basketball release, besides some of the cards being extremely limited nothing screams “High End” inserts.

 

Cards like the Glass Cleaners insert is a complete disappointment, the card itself is fine but the forced addition of the relic and the vertical autograph sticker just ruin it. Some designers just do not understand that more does not always equate better. I am actually hard pressed to think of another autograph set that uses a vertical autograph besides the Topps Letterman cards.

 

On the positive side I do like the base Rookie Autographs; they bring back memories of Pacific’s Cramer Choice Award cards. They are die-cut, acetate cards with an on-card autograph and they are limited to #/399 or less. I think had they included a little fold-out base so the card could stand up it would have been a pretty cool way to display the card.

 

The Home/Away Jersey cards are another card I like, for some reason the basic design appeals to me. To add to the value, taking another page out of Pacific’s playbook, there are relics on each side of the card. One side has a home jersey relic and the other side has an away jersey relic, the relic square even rotates in the card so you can display either side.