搶先看:2012-13 Contenders Basketball (Preview)

Ysponder

Panini America’s Election-Night Coverage of 2012-13 Contenders Basketball (Preview)



Hey, let’s be honest: We all can use at least a little break from tonight’s wall-to-wall, budget-busting coverage of the 2012 presidential election that’s likely dominating any television you’re watching. To that end, we thought right now provided us the perfect opportunity to separate the pretenders from the contenders (or at least shed a little light on an all-new Contenders).

For the first time since 2009-10 (Panini America’s first season as the exclusive manufacturer of NBA trading cards), hoops collectors will have a Contenders-branded basketball release to call their own. After missing the 2011-12 season and temporarily morphing into Contenders Patches for 2010-11, Contenders Basketball is making a huge comeback for 2012-13.

Due out in early January, just a few weeks prior to Barack Obama or Mitt Romney taking office, 2012-13 Contenders Basketball will deliver four autographs in every 20-pack box, with at least three of those autographs being Rookie Cards. The 200-card base set features 100 rookie autographs, three parallels (Silver, Gold and Black), three unique autograph inserts and one 100-card memorabilia insert.

In addition, the product also includes a pair of base insert sets with extremely long odds in Hall of Fame Contenders (one in 20 cases) and Throwback Rookie Tickets (one in 13 cases).

2012-13 Contenders’ myriad other highlights include . . .

• Contemporary Contenders honors the game’s most electric players who promise to contend for the championship every year.
• Substantial Signatures is Contenders’ answer to the wildly popular Preferred Silhouettes and includes huge jersey-patch swatches and autographs.
• Historic Contenders Autographs pays tribute to the some of the game’s greatest all-time legends.
• Contenders Materials includes oversized memorabilia swatches from your favorite NBA stars with a short-printed Prime chase version.
  

Now, we know you need to get back to election coverage. But before you go, check out the following preview gallery and stay tuned to The Knight’s Lance for additional information on 2012-13 Contenders Basketball.

            

Ysponder

Rare Inserts in ’12-13 Contenders Basketball Gaining Secondary-Market Steam



There are no autographs on them, no massive swatches of multicolored memorabilia in them and no tell-tale sequential numbering behind them. Simply, they’re  nicely designed base inserts with cool photography and subtle foil touches. But after a few weeks of 2012-13 Contenders Basketball being on the market, it would appear that hoops collectors across the country are finally starting to realize the needle-in-a-haystack scarcity of the set’s Hall of Fame Contenders and Throwback Rookie inserts.

It’s a point not lost on those folks who’ve contacted Panini America recently in hopes of finding out just how tough these cards are to pull. For the record, they’re extremely rare. The Hall of Fame Contenders were inserted roughly one in every 409 packs; the Throwback Rookies fall one in every 273 packs.

Those ratios have led to relatively substantial secondary-market prices being paid for the cards in these sets, prices rarely seen for base insert cards. A Vince Carter Hall of Fame Contenders recently sold for $100 while cards of Carmelo Anthony ($90), Shaquille O’Neal ($81) and Allen Iverson ($70.98) have all surpassed the $70 barrier. Throwback Rookies of Kobe Bryant ($80) and LeBron James ($76.77) have sold at similar levels.

But given how infrequently these cards are surfacing on the secondary (there are many from both sets that have yet to appear), those prices could pale in comparison to the sales to come.

Stay tuned.