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.
Tyreke Evans – Rookie Card Buffet
Tyreke Evans is the odds-on favorite to win NBA Rookie of the Year. 20.5 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 5.0 apg and 1.5 steals-per-game. The stats don't lie, that is a nice stat line for anyone, let alone and NBA Rookie.
With Panini acquiring the exclusive NBA license in 2010, the basketball card market has changed significantly. So have the rookie card options. Panini has already released seven basketball offerings, and we know about four more that are on the way.
As a result of this, the collector has a ton of options available to purchase that fall in the "Panini" category of rookie cards. From what I can see, it appears that collectors aren't differentiating much between products, for example:
This 2009 Panini Limited Auto Jersey /299 sells for about $50 right now.
This Threads Auto Jersey /50, also sells for about $50.
This manufactured patch, from Rookies & Stars is #'d /349 and sells for between $45-$50.
It seems that to some degree, collectors are thinking "its a Panini release" and lumping the cards together, thus the similarity in prices.
On the other hand, both Upper Deck and Topps had unconventional releases this year, 2009-10 UD Exquisite was multi-sport and also did not feature NBA logos for rookies. Many of the rookies, Evans included. did not have an autograph, only a base card #'d to 225. Topps Chrome
also didn't have players featured in their NBA jerseys and instead of having thousands of chrome and parallels had a very limited print run.
Both of these releases are selling stunningly well on the secondary market right now:
Tyreke Evans Exquisites /225 are selling for $150+, a Gold /12 sold for $900!
Tyreke Evans Base Chromes /999 are selling for $30-$35, Refractors are even higher
Although there are many conclusions to be drawn from these sales, the ones that comes through the clearest are differentiation, rarity and name-brand.
Collectors like the fact that Topps and UD won't be producing more cards like the Chromes and Exquisites this year. Because of that, the ones that exist now are fairly rare. There are only 225 Evans Exquisite cards, total, for the year. Lastly, Topps Chrome and UD Exquisite have been THE standards of basketball rookies since 1996-97 and 2003-04 respectively. Even with some modifications, it is clear, collectors still respect and collect that.
It also makes something very clear for Panini. Differentiation between brands will be the most effective way to make the most of the NBA license. Producing 20 brands that look and feel the same will not. I'm not saying they have done this but it is something they must be proactive about not doing.
As a for instance, if they can make a National Treasures basketball card that is similar to the patch autographs we are seeing from the 2009 football release, they will give collectors a totally different card to chase and that would be a very good thing.
As with most everything else, time will tell how this will play out and we shall see if the Rookie Card buffet gets stocked with a variety of items, or if we continue to see the same dishes.
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.
2009-10 Panini Base Basketball Review
One of the questions often floated around by the powers-that-be of card collecting is, "how do we get kids back into collecting." If you measure by age-at-heart, there are still many kids involved in collecting, myself included. However, children between the ages of 8-18 are not nearly as engaged as they once were. Those of us kids at heart are involved because we feel like kids when collecting but can play with big people money.
When I was busting 1990 Topps, I paid $.44 for a pack, got a piece of gum and a chance at cards that were truly worth something. To attract kids back to the hobby, we must offer them this same proposition. A product to entice young kids must be:
A. Relatively cheap - allowances are not hundreds of dollars a week.
B. Provide variety (large set with all their favorite players) - just a base set with nothing else (a la 1990 Topps) no longer cuts it.
C. Quantity - these kids are buying a pack, spending all their allowance and coming away with three cards just won't work.
D. Give them a chance to hit something meaningful - kids aren't dumb, in fact, many know crap when they see it quicker than some adults.
I believe this is what Panini is trying to accomplish with its Base Basketball release. Lets compare it to my criteria above and see how it measures up.
A. Cheap Cost: check, $40 a box for 36 packs of 12 cards each. 432 cards a box!
B. Variety: check, 9 different insert sets, 400 card base set, sticker autos, on-card autos
C. Card Quantity: check, 12 cards per pack, 432 cards per box, over 8,000 cards in a case
D. Chance for meaningful hits: check, one auto per box, the on-card autos are very rare and command high $
If you are looking for refractors, multi-color patches, high gloss on-card autos, huge $$ hits or high-end packs, look elsewhere. If you are looking for a solid basketball product to break for cheap, this is your product.
I picked up 4 blister packs (the 42 cards per pack deals) at Wal-Mart. I got a Danny Green auto, a handful of rookies (including Jennings and Evans) and a variety of inserts. As an adult, I know I am not going to make my money back on the Danny Green auto but the fact that I got one is sweet. As a kid, I would have been stoked to pull an auto. Scans are below. For whatever reason, the stickers were a favorite of mine. Reminds me of the 1994 FunPack I used to love so much.
