More Preview Images of Panini National Treasure NBA

Last month I posted up some preview images from Panini showing their upcoming 2010-11 National Treasure Basketball releases, still set to release in early August. Early pricing has it hitting @ $385/box and you will pull 6 Autos or memorabilia cards, 1 common #/99 and 1 Legend/Rookie/Parallel or other insert.

 I love the patches, who wouldn’t love a Logoman patch or prime multi-colored patch, but the design is just horrid. The designers just seemed to keep adding and adding on these cards. Take the rookie patch-autograph cards, it is like they started with a jumbo patch (good start) but then added some designs, I figure the conversation went something like this…

Designer #1- “OK, we have a solid start with the jumbo patch, oh wait… a quarter-sized player image should go here.”

Designer #2- “Uh oh, we forgot the autograph what should we do?”

Designer #1- “Well let’s just put it on the bottom border and toss in some laurels around it to make it pretty.”

Designer #2- “Sweet, we can now send it to get proofed and then on to print. What’s next on the schedule? ”

 The Logoman patch cards are pretty cool (Even though they changed from the promo images released last month) and I also like the Souvenir Cuts and ABA Legends autographs but the rest I could easily pass on without a second thought.

Early Preview Images of Panini National Treasure NBA

Panini National Treasures NBA is back and is scheduled for an August 3, 2011 release date. This year’s releases has some definite pluses including many on-card autographs, plenty of patches and relics including logos and laundry tags, and to top it off a nice list of Hall of Famers on the checklist to balance out the list of current players. On the downside there are still sticker autographs and card designs that really should have never made it to the packs. Panini has made some strides forward but still loses out on the ugly coloring and designs used in such a set.

The George Mikan cut signature is probably the best of the cards posted up by Panini, a pleasant design works nicely with the close-up portrait and the coloring. It reminds me a bit of Upper Decks SP Legendary Cuts, a great card for any collector.

The Dr. J ABA Legends autograph card has a lot of energy but the design captures the connection to the ABA and the 1970s well and a huge plus is that this card appears to be one of the on-card autographs, you cannot go wrong here.

The David Robinson Notable Nicknames is the epitome of the National Treasures set. The designers made the card design “over classy”, something that is not really necessary in a sports card but I like the connection of the nicknames to the autographs.

 The John Wall Logoman autograph card is a pleasant card. Like the Notable Nickname insert I think the designers tried to add to much flash and pomp to the designs but at least the player’s image is now prominent on the card and not a dime sized component lost in the design.

 The Kobe Timeline multi-relic autograph card is indicative of the things that are wrong with many of Panini’s designs. Too much was forced on to the card’s design and this is not a good thing. I know more is better in some cases; this is not one of those cases.

The Stephen Curry card is another attempt at mixing poor color choices with over-designed elements and you can see where this is going.

The same can be said about the Kevin Durant Colossal relic autograph card. I have never been a fan of using die-cut numbers; why not use a standard die-cut window for the patch?  I understand the 35 is a connection to Durant but it does not add anything to the design and even takes away.

It just hurts seeing a card with such potential like the Hall of Fame quad-autograph card and adding sticker autographs. These are Hall of Famers, these guys deserve the time and effort of being able to sign on a card and in a set like this it would only add to the value.

 On a final (and seriously positive) note, there will be memorabilia cards of both George Mikan and Wilt Chamberlin in this set. This is a huge coup for Panini.

Panini National Treasure Basketball

As we close out the 2009/2010 NBA Season we still have a couple of Panini NBA sets scheduled to be released; Panini Crown Royale Basketball is up next at the end of the month, June 30, 2010. Panini has delayed two releases, Court Kings Basketball has been pushed back to July 14, 2010 and Hall Of Fame Basketball has been delayed until August 18, 2010. One set that is still on target is National Treasure Basketball, scheduled to be released August 4, 2010.

This set may very well be Panini’s Cadillac of their basketball releases… well lets say BMW considering American cars don’t seem to have the same “splash” that they once did.

Scheduled Release Date: August 4, 2010
Box Configuration: 8 cards per pack, 1 pack per box
SRP: $339-400

Box Break:
6 Autograph and/or Memorabilia cards
1 Common base card #/99
1 Legend/Rookie/Parallel or Insert card

This set is all about flash and glitz.
You want autographs? You get them!
You want patches, logos and tags? You get them!
You want parallels galore? You get waaaaay to many parallels!

Some of the inserts are over designed, forced patches or logos can really defeat the purpose of a card. The colors and lines draw your eyes in so many directions, there is too much to look at to be appealing. The “Timeline Signature Materials Custom Team Nicknames” set is just designers gone wild. Even the insert set name is a mouth full. The die-cut windows are tiny so as to fit the team name, toss in the National Treasures logo, the headline, the player name, the date, the “Prime” patch logo and the player’s image and you get the idea of where I am going with this.

Oddly enough, Panini’s designers rebound with the Logoman Combo set and the Rookie Signature Materials inserts. Nice designs, nice lines, the patches fit well and the player images work in to the design. I am confused, are the same designers working on the entire set?

The base set checklist is 238 cards, not counting parallels, and consists of stars, semi-stars, rookies and legends so you get a wide variety to choose from. Though I cannot for the life of me figure why Panini would include players like David Andersen of the Houston Rockets or Ronnie Brewer of the Grizzlies. Who wants to pull guys like this when you are paying over $300 per pack?

One thing that I found of interest, they included 5 Harlem Globetrotters in the base set including Meadowlark Lemon and Curly Neal, two of my favorites while growing up. Unfortunately no Globetrotters are included in any of the relics or autograph sets.

A down side, most of the autographs are on stickers outside of the Souvenir Cuts and Signature Patches NBA/College Teams which are cut signatures and manufactured patches respectively.

My Thoughts:
If you are a serious basketball collector and you have money to burn, this set will give you return on your investment. If you are like me, collecting on a reasonable budget, this set is a bit outside of my price range. Imagine Bob Uecker’s call of Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn’s first start and you get my drift of what I mean when I say “a bit outside”. I actually may hunt down the Globetrotters base cards but I think most of the “hits” will be beyond my budget even if I hunt down singles.

I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on a pack to bust, but that may be asking too much unless I can find a tremendous deal.

Rating:

Not taking price in to consideration, I will give this set a 4 out of 5. It looses out a bit on some of the design qualities, but it makes up in hits.