Saturday, August 20, 2016

REVIEW:2015/16 Panini Preferred Basketball

If you prefer high-end basketball products and prefer them to come with on-card autographs and prefer that they come with booklets, well, I am about to introduce to you Panini Preferred. Or maybe you have already met once.

Either way, here we go!
In every box of 2015/16 Panini Preferred Basketball there are two packs. Each pack comes with an autograph and memorabilia booklet giving you two on-card autographs and 2 booklets per box. Boxes, well I said high-end, will run you about $220.

The base set, yes, there is a base set, but it is strictly all autographs and is a big set to collect. There are 300 autographed cards in the base set composed of Silhouettes, Rookie Silhouettes, Autographs, Crown Royale, and Unparalleled. Every Autograph in Preferred is #'d/99 or less and is on-card.
 
Here were my two autograph pulls from my box. One of them is from my favorite all-time autograph memorabilia autograph set in Silhouette while the other is actually a blue parallel numbered to 15 and is the better card of the two. It's nice to see on-card content in a high-end product.

The base set consists of top rookies, veterans and legends of the game. There are parallels for the set as well numbered to 49 or less.



 
Like I mentioned above, you also find two booklets per box too!

Leading the way for the booklets are 2015 NBA Finals Memorabilia Booklets that have a vertical design and offer rarities like the one-of-one Finals Logo parallels. Stat Line Memorabilia Booklets include Tags (1/1) and focus on single-game performances from top stars.Vs One on One Memorabilia Booklets are a trifold layout with two players per book. 
 
There are also other book offerings like Board Members, Crazy Eights (8 players), Dual Memorabilia, Playbook Rookie Jumbo Relics, Playbook Jumbo Veteran Relics, Quads relics (4 players), Trending Upward, and Triple Memorabilia.
 
All booklets also have Prime and Super Prime parallels numbered to 25 or less. But, for some of them, not all players are included. 

The booklets are also nicely designed and have a high-end feel.

Here are the booklets I pulled,
 
 Board Members:


 
 
And 2015 NBA Finals:


 
 
Overall, like with most high-end products it's a gamble. This one was definitely that and it didn't quite live up for the price. However, there is plenty of offerings in Preferred that could help a box live up to it's price when you start to look at the checklist.
 
There's Kobe, Durant, Bird, among others in the autograph checklist. That's also not counting all of the booklets with prime pieces you can pull as well.

For me, when it comes to a product like this, you have three options I believe.

1. If you are a gambler, then take a chance. There are some beautiful cards waiting in here for you.
2. If you are looking for specific cards, buy singles. Like I said, they look great and the autographs are on-card.
3. If you want to take the gamble but don't want to pay full price, buy into a box break. That way you still have a chance of landing some of the sweet cards but for a third of the price.

By the way, make sure you thank Panini America for this review box and check out their site for products like this one and others.You will find one or more of these hits in the Super Bowl Contest going on now!

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