Panini Announces Contenders Basketball Short Prints
After weeks of anticipation, officials at Panini America confirmed the existence of short prints in 2010 Playoff Contenders Basketball.
“Unlike football, where there were more than 100 rookies in the autographed Rookie Ticket insert, there are just 35 rookie players in Contenders Basketball,” said Panini Basketball Brand Manager David Porter. “But even with a considerably smaller rookie checklist, some of the Rookie Ticket cards were still produced in fewer quantities than others in the 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.
My quick two cents:
Well, I can say that Panini got this one right in the fact that they didn't make a ton of RC's to chase like they did in football. 35 RC's is an attainable number for a collector of this set - and there are always those folks who love nothing more than to chase Contenders RC's in both football and basketball.
Personally, I like the Contenders model for releasing the SP numbers. Unlike Bowman, where nearly everybody knows what a Red Refractor is numbered to, the Contenders feels like a double lottery. Not only do you pull the card, but you don't really know if you're sitting on super-short print gold or not. Obviously, the release above doesn't list the specific numberings yet, but it's looking like it's going to be a better lot than what the football chasers got this year.
If you're thinking about building an insert/auto set this year, this might be the one you would look into. Jennings, Evans and Curry alone would all be great additions to any collection. And with only 35 subjects, as long as you follow the league, you'll at least know who all the players are.
3 comments:
These are really cool looking cards and i like the "Rookie Ticket" Theme. One of the best insert sets from Panini yet. The SP numbers makes the cards even more exciting. I am a 'cuse fan and willhave to look for a J. Flynn version of the cards, a Griffin would hurt as well. Dante Cunningham is interesting too; with his resent playing time in "The Rose City"
Great. Now I've lost all my Dante Cunningham bids.
yeah, all of the two people in the world that are bidding on his cards.
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