First look: 2009-10 Certified Basketball

Ysponder

By Chris Olds  
11/20/2009 9:17:20 PM



Panini America released the basic product breakdown and preview images for its 2009-10 Certified basketball card set on Friday, a product headlined by a rare autograph appearance from Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki.

Set to arrive on Feb. Certified will include four autograph or memorabilia cards in each 10-pack hobby box (one autograph minimum), while each 24-box case will include an autograph from Bill Russell, Jerry West, John Havlicek, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Panini spokesman Kobe Bryant, Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson or No. 1 overall draft pick Blake Griffin.

While that stout list of signers has some serious star power on it, consider Nowitzki’s signing habits. The German star has signed only 28 different certified autographs during his career — and the majority of those made in recent years consisted of fewer than 25 cards apiece (and most of them below 10).


                  

The last time Nowitzki signed any dramatic quantity of cards was for Fleer in 2003-04, a card with the highest print-run of any numbered Dirk autograph — a whopping 350 copies. (That ain’t much.)

How does Dirk’s certified autograph count stack up to some of those other stars mentioned above? Russell, the most historically difficult signature to obtain, has signed 416 different certified autograph cards. Kareem? 313. The Big O? Just 57. Magic? 922. West? (This writer’s not bothering to look him up — he got him through the mail for free several years ago … )

Each box will include six insert cards, while the base set consists of 150 cards, all printed on foil board as is tradition with he line.

Among the memorabilia card lineup in this product are Fabric of The Game cards, Shirt Off My Back dual memorabilia cards, Freshman Fabric cards and Certified Champions.

[ 本帖最後由 Ysponder 於 2009-11-23 10:03 編輯 ]