What Does National Treasures Basketball Say About the Future?

I have been paying more and more attention to Panini products in other sports, just to see the level of sucktitude we are in for come 2016 in football. Even though Panini football products up to this point are so bad that I cant put it into words, I am afraid they will get exponentially worse without competition. 2014 National Treasures Basketball was a product I really wanted to check out, because I had seen the nauseating marketing blitz they put behind it.

Basically, let me break this down for you, just in case you dont follow Basketball cards. National Treasures basketball costs about the same as you get in the other sports, sticker autos and cigar box be damned. However, the dynamic has changed a bit with the releases of Flawless and Immaculate taking its place as the highest end products of the year for Panini.

I think that this year’s set is a sad excuse for 479 dollars a box, despite how Basketball really performs. Yes, you can literally fart into a box, slap a 500 dollar price tag on it, and Basketball collectors will line up to buy it. In fact, im pretty sure that’s happened before. That’s just the way basketball is, its easy to sell high end. This version of Treasures is sadly one step below, with some of the oddest sets I have seen.

First off, there is a printing plate per box, sometimes more than one. Its a bit more than strange that most of the plates are from other products. Aside from the fact that I hate printing plates in any high end product, isnt it a little weird that they are adding this as guaranteed pack content in National Treasures again? Its like putting a TV in a car that faces out the rear window (yes this is a thing). Completely useless, and really just adding for the sake of adding. Im guessing the conversation went something like this:

“Holy shit Joe, these boxes are pretty dry. Should we add more autograph or relic content?”

“Nah, just insert that pile of printing plates at the back of each pack. They love them plates.”

I guess it goes without saying that adding printing plates makes up for your Chris Andersen sticker auto you got in the box.

Then we go onto further box content of AT LEAST one redemption per box. I guess the whole points thing isnt going to transfer over to products where the cards per box actually matter? That was quick. To take it further, I cant believe people are okay with a guaranteed redemption per box. For a box to cost as much as it does, and for most of the autos to be stickers, how is this acceptable? Oh right, no one else can produce NBA cards. Forgot about that.

Then we get onto the chase cards – those logos that everyone is talking about. Have I mentioned that many of them can be numbered as high as FIVE? All those logo cards that Upper Deck used to make a name for themselves are all 1/1, but is it still a chase when 4 other people can pull the same card? Secondly, just how many game used jerseys are they hoarding per player? Good god! Is it cool that more people have a chance to pull one? Sure, but maybe not when it could be Enes Kanter and its not a 1/1?

Speaking of Enes Kanter, these product checklists are just wacky. They are about 80% too deep for a box that you literally have to drop a car payment on, and dont give me this crap about player collectors either. Im not saying to not include them ever on any auto checklist, but you would be pissed too if your box had JJ Redick as your main hit. Sure, some JJ Redick collector is half staff that he gets a card to collect in treasures, but does that make it okay?

When you consider that high end is crap shoot to begin with, I know its not a good idea to study box content in any high end product. However, when you take a look at the other products on this level, ALL OF THEM ARE 100% ON CARD. Exquisite, Five Star, Immaculate, Flawless, etc. No stickers. They definitely dont have a guaranteed redemption per box. The issue is that there is no competition to challenge Panini’s reign, and they dont even have autographs from the two biggest names in the sport.

Sure, this rant is overly harsh in a lot of ways, as there are a lot of nice looking cards in Treasures. I just cant help but be angry that collectors continue to settle. Everyone speaks with their wallet and for whatever reason, Treasures still has buyers. That is pretty sad, especially when you look at some of the breaks. I think I saw someone pull something like 10 Alex Len auto redemptions in 20 cases.

Topps has a lot of the same issues with complacency on the baseball side, which only goes to show how fucking stupid it is to grant exclusives to anyone. No matter how much you like or hate a company, its just blasphemous to say that exclusivity is better than a competitive marketplace. Competition has always bred innovation, or at least some minuscule level of quality in the product. Now, its just a matter how close to a fart in a box a company can get before people start asking for their money back.

8 thoughts on “What Does National Treasures Basketball Say About the Future?

  1. I have to give Panini credit, they managed to take most of the appeal out of National Treasures and put it in Immaculate & Flawless, which they sell for more, and people still buy NT because of the name.

    The number of sticker autos in this years set is appalling, and I find myself buying less and less basketball every year. Let some other sucker open these boxes and then I’ll get my Hawks singles on ebay. Yes, I’m one of the four Hawks fans…

    I would love to say it’s not going to happen to the NFL, but it’s coming and it will be bad, maybe not in the first year, but you can start expecting this crap too.

    If the CLC license leaves Upper Deck, I’m done.

  2. Whose fart would it be? Because an authenticated Andrew Luck stink bomb could very well be coming to a 2016 Panini set!

  3. I am not arguing about benefits of competition versus exclusivity. However, I believe you are wrong in pointing to National Treasurers Basketball as an indicator that Panini will be taking advantage of collectors when their NFL exclusive contract takes effect in 2016.

    2012-13 National Treasures Basketball continues to sell well in the $700 to $800 range (under NBA Exclusive Contract). This is because of the collect-ability of rookies in 2012-13 product. The 2013-14 Rookie Class is weaker than last two years and this years product is currently selling a little under $500. 2012-13 NT and 2013-14 NT both have 1 base card, 1 or 2 Print Plates and 8 Autos/Memorabilia.

    As far as redemptions are concerned, I saw two cases opened in my store with only one redemption per case. One of the redemptions was for a Magic Johnson Auto Jersey card.

    While many autographs are sticker, I saw some great on-card autos. The two cases had a great looking Shaq on-card autographed Game-Worn Shoe card #d/50 and Anfernee Hardaway on-card autographed Game-Worn Shoe card #d/30. Also saw a Grant Hill On-Card Auto Jersey Patch card and the Magic Johnson redemption auto. There was also a few Auto Patch RCs which sell well on eBay.

    At only $500 per box, 2013-14 NT Basketball gives you more for your money than 2012-13 NT Basketball at $750 per box. I believe that increasing the number of NBA Jersey Logo cards was a smart move to make up for this being a weaker Rookie Class Year. While it will decrease the value of this year’s NBA Logo Cards, the NBA Logo Cards will continue to be highly valued and increase the probability of hitting a “great box.”

  4. I see Panini’s shill is back again in the comments. Seriously, Topps losing their NFL license is going to suck. HARD.

    Get ready for an overproduction of CRAP by Panini. It will be interesting to see how many variations of the same crappy product they will put out each or every other week. You’re guaranteed to see plenty of foil board and sticker autos!

    I’ll probably stop collecting football all together like I did basketball a couple of years ago. Just not worth it.

  5. The problem with increasing the print runs on the NBA logo cards to “make up for a weak class” is that it usually never goes back the next year. So, the Panini apologists defend them this year and then it just kind of becomes the status quo going forward.

  6. responding to charlie dipietro: I watched all of cardinfinitys breaks of nat treasures, probably 10, and my main thought was it’s 500 bucks for one rpa of the worst rookie class in 20 years. Most of the great hits are only gonna sell for around 100-150 bucks. If you’re lucky you’ll hit 1-2 of those a case. The majority of your cards will sell for 20-30 dollars.
    When you spend 500 dollars on a box you want a CHANCE at something high end, and without jordan or james you don’t have it. I love shaq and penny as much as the next guy, but they’re not high end.

  7. Bottom line is that stickers and printing plates are in National Treasures. National Treasures!! When your favorite restaurant begins adding high fructose corn syrup and sodium to their best dishes, you know all is not well.

    However, kudos to Panini for finding the customer base to support their products. You can’t argue with that. The problem is the lack of competition in football would seem to breed higher prices and lower-quality content. Those who don’t like Panini products will be up the creek. We shall see.

  8. Yep 13-14 NT STINKS BAD there is no point debating this, it is a fact.
    The amount of breaks and boxes I have seen opened that are just hideous
    I have lost count. The RPA cards from last year were fantastic in design, this
    year they look cheap n nasty. They clearly do not care about supplying the customer or collector with value and quality. It really is a shame a company
    as big as PANINI could produce such GARBAGE. Shame on you PANINI.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *