Panini Announces Contenders Short Prints
Per a press release from Panini, the following players are short prints in the Contenders set:
"The following players are printed to 499 or fewer: Hasheem Thabeet, James Harden, Tyreke Evans
, Jordan Hill, Brandon Jennings
and Tyler Hansbrough.
These players were produced to 649 or fewer: Blake Griffin, Dante Cunningham, Earl Clark
, Jonny Flynn
, Stephen Curry
and Terrence Williams."
We here at Penny Sleeves guessed that Harden, Evans, Jennings and Clark were SPs but we did not see it coming with Griffin and Curry.
Clearly, the big names get listed en masse like Griffin and Curry and we believe that's what threw us off.
Additionally, although there are SPs in this set its really not quite the same as football with guys #'d to 21 etc. Click the player names above to see what of the SPs is available on eBay!
Contenders SP Tracker: 2/13/2010 Update
There are now 1,100 items open if you search Contenders in basketball on eBay and an additional 2,100 closed. When I started this tracker there were only 400 open.
I will continue to update the numbers as often as I get the chance.
| Player | Listed | Sold |
| Brandon Jennings |
6 | 16 |
| Tyreke Evans |
8 | 17 |
| James Harden |
8 | 11 |
| Blake Griffin |
13 | 18 |
| Jrue Holiday |
13 | 14 |
| Ty Lawson |
22 | 37 |
| Jonny Flynn |
14 | 14 |
| DeJuan Blair |
19 | 28 |
| Earl Clark |
8 | 8 |
| Stephen Curry |
7 | 23 |
To see what's listed of any particular player, just click their name. It will take you to the eBay search for their Contenders Autos. So here are my predictions:
Non-SPs: Griffin, Lawson, Blair, Curry
Possible SPs: Harden, Evans, Jennings
Sure SPs: Clark
All the others, it is too early to call, do you think my predictions are right?
Contenders SP Tracker – 2/10/10 Update
There are now 1,100 items open if you search Contenders in basketball on eBay and an additional 1,500 closed. When I started this tracker there were only 400 open.
I will continue to update the numbers as often as I get the chance.
| Player | Listed | Sold |
| Brandon Jennings |
6 | 12 |
| Tyreke Evans |
10 | 8 |
| James Harden |
9 | 7 |
| Blake Griffin |
13 | 12 |
| Jrue Holiday |
9 | 9 |
| Ty Lawson |
23 | 22 |
| Jonny Flynn |
14 | 9 |
| DeJuan Blair |
21 | 19 |
| Earl Clark |
5 | 5 |
| Stephen Curry |
8 | 13 |
To see what's listed of any particular player, just click their name. It will take you to the eBay search for their Contenders Autos. So here are my predictions:
Non-SPs: Griffin, Lawson, Blair
Possible SPs: Harden, Evans
Sure SPs: Clark
All the others, it is too early to call, do you think my predictions are right?
Contenders SP Tracker – 02/08/10 Update
There are roughly twice as many Contenders auctions in the basketball category than when I started this tracker.
I will continue to update the numbers as often as I get the chance.
| Player | Listed | Sold |
| Brandon Jennings |
8 | 8 |
| Tyreke Evans |
3 | 6 |
| James Harden |
6 | 6 |
| Blake Griffin |
17 | 6 |
| Jrue Holiday |
7 | 6 |
| Ty Lawson |
19 | 16 |
| Jonny Flynn |
12 | 6 |
| DeJuan Blair |
17 | 14 |
| Earl Clark |
6 | 3 |
| Stephen Curry |
6 | 11 |
If you are interested in checking my totals, or finding out what of each player is listed, you can simply click through on the player's name and see the total cards listed presently.
It seems like Lawson, Griffin and Blair are out of the running for SPs and the early Contenders (sorry) for SPs are Earl Clark, James Harden and Tyreke Evans.
Another note, there are 963 auctions currently when you search "Contenders" in the eBay category basketball. There are 1,081 closed auctions under the same search parameters. That just isn't very many auctions, this product is not being busted en masse even though I view as Panini's best basketball effort to date.
Contenders Basketball SP’s – 2/5/10 Update
There are roughly twice as many Contenders auctions in the basketball category than when I started this tracker yesterday.
I will continue to update the numbers as often as I get the chance.
| Player | Listed | Sold |
| Brandon Jennings |
11 | 5 |
| Tyreke Evans |
1 | 6 |
| James Harden |
5 | 4 |
| Blake Griffin |
11 | 4 |
| Jrue Holiday |
6 | 4 |
| Ty Lawson |
17 | 7 |
| Jonny Flynn |
8 | 4 |
| DeJuan Blair |
10 | 12 |
| Earl Clark |
4 | 2 |
| Stephen Curry |
6 | 6 |
If you are interested in checking my totals, or finding out what of each player is listed, you can simply click through on the player's name and see the total cards listed presently.
It seems like Lawson and Blair are out of the running for SPs and the early Contenders (sorry) for SPs are Earl Clark and James Harden.
Contenders Basketball SP Tracker – 2/4/10 Update
There are roughly 20% more Contenders auctions in the basketball category than when I started this tracker yesterday.
I will continue to update the numbers as often as I get the chance. Again, its early to try and guess SPs but the one notable thing I saw since yesterday was a Tyreke Evans redemption selling for $200, simply incredible
| Player | Listed | Sold |
| Brandon Jennings |
5 | 2 |
| Tyreke Evans |
3 | 1 |
| James Harden |
0 | 3 |
| Blake Griffin |
4 | 2 |
| Jrue Holiday |
5 | 1 |
| Ty Lawson |
4 | 2 |
| Jonny Flynn |
2 | 4 |
| DeJuan Blair |
4 | 7 |
| Earl Clark |
2 | 1 |
| Stephen Curry |
5 | 3 |
If you are interested in checking my totals, or finding out what of each player is listed, you can simply click through on the player's name and see the total cards listed presently.
Although the results are very preliminary, it sure doesn't seem that DeJuan Blair is an SP. It also intrigues me that the 3rd pick, James Harden, doesn't have any autographs listed right now.
2009 Playoff Contenders Basketball on eBay – SP Tracker
2009 Playoff Contenders cards have hit eBay! On-card autos, NBA jerseys and possible SPs to be announced later all add to the excitement of this product. Contenders has been a huge hit in football since 1998, it remains to be seen how the basketball card collectors will react to it.
One of the most exciting parts of this release is trying to guess what players will be SP'd. Often, after SP information is released, huge price spikes happen. So lets try tracking 10 notable rookie autos. I will update this list as time goes on and educated guesses will be made on who, signed how much, of what. I will track the player and the amount of each autograph listed and sold:
| Player | Listed | Sold |
| Brandon Jennings |
4 | 0 |
| Tyreke Evans |
2 | 0 |
| James Harden |
2 | |
| Blake Griffin |
3 | |
| Jrue Holiday |
2 | |
| Ty Lawson |
2 | |
| Jonny Flynn |
4 | |
| DeJuan Blair |
5 | 1 |
| Earl Clark |
1 | |
| Stephen Curry |
3 | 1 |
If you are interested in checking my totals, or finding out what of each player is listed, you can simply click through on the player's name and see the total cards listed presently.
It is too early for prognostication upon what cards are short prints and which are not. The next few days should bring us a great deal more information as this product makes its way into the hands of more collectors.
Panini Limited – now appearing on eBay
Panini's most recent basketball release, Panini Limited, has now started showing up on eBay.
Clicking "Panini Limited," above will take you to an eBay search showing you the early selection available. Overall, I think the cards look pretty nice. We obviously have much to see yet, including the on-card "Glass Cleaners" subset but so far, so good. Here are a few of the initial cards that caught my eye at first glance.
Panini 9.5s – A scarce breed, so far.
Anyone who knows me, or regularly reads this blog, will know one thing - I like grading cards. It is why I keep coming back to chrome cards. Even though I like many of the things that Donruss/Panini has done, they simply do not have the grade-ability aspect that the Bowman Chrome and Bowman Sterling product lines do.
A few months ago I blogged about the possibility that this might change when Panini purchased Donruss, much to my chagrin the answer to this question seems to be - not so far.
Searching Panini 9.5 does not yield much in the way of results. Although the Tyreke Evans up for auction right now should fetch a pretty penny.
Completed auctions yield little more (aside from a Blake Griffin BGS 9.5 Auto /50) and the BGS Population Reports are out of date, surprise surprise. So to some degree, it is hard to tell.
Searching 2009 Donruss 9.5 leaves us feeling rather empty as well, only a few football elite 9.5s, although the Mark Sanchez is pretty nice.
But! Although we have yet to see much positive evidence so far, the book is not closed on this one. It seems to me that the most frequent graders are baseball prospectors, Panini has yet to release a baseball product yet. So we shall revisit this question several months after Elite releases and see what happens. There have been plenty of 2007 Elite 9.5s show up on eBay the past few years and that's not because the condition was that much better but simply because many more of them were graded.
D.J. Mbenga, a big man who is feeling rather small
NBA.com posted their most recent rookie rankings. As you might expect, Brandon Jennings is #1.
However, I noticed something else, the name DJ Mbenga, the Laker's center.
That would be this guy:
Apparently, he got dunked on by Blake Griffin in the preseason. Big deal right? Blake dunks on everybody, saying you got dunked on by Blake Griffin surprises people about as much as saying you ate candy on Halloween.
Saying you got dunked on by Ty Lawson...a guy who is a foot shorter than you are? Well, that might make one feel rather....small.
