For someone who is not a Basketball collector to be engaged with a product like Immaculate is a rarity. However, for some reason, I find myself refreshing eBay to see the new cards listed, something that I have really never done with NBA cards. For the most part, the cards turned out to be some of the best basketball cards produced since the last licensed edition of Exquisite, and that is saying something considering all the cards that have been released since early 2010.

These cards are quite impressive, no doubt about it:

2013 Panini Immaculate Harrison Barnes NBA Logoman Patch Auto 1/1

2013 Panini Immaculate Kobe Bryant Jumbo Patch Auto

2013 Panini Immaculate Damian Lillard Auto RC Patch

2013 Panini Immaculate Wilt Chamberlain Patch

2013 Panini Immaculate LeBron James Jumbo Patch

My favorite cards in the product are the jumbo patch autos, which look to have a direct correlation with the Limited Logos cards that were a staple of Exquisite back in the day. Not only are the patches turning out to be ridiculous, but the overall structure of the design is really well done. Add in hard signed autographs and it’s a party.

The six logo booklet cards are new, and though I don’t really like the way they look, I think the concept is perfect for basketball’s high end tastes. Im still a bit confused as to why multiple logos of the same person are present, but it is novel, no doubt. Upper Deck had triple logo cards for a number of years in Exquisite, some of which are known to sell for over $10,000 when player collectors get in bidding wars.

As for the box breaks, that’s where I see extreme variance in the content – as the dud boxes are ENORMOUS duds, rather than just being hard to stomach. Considering that collectors are paying $450-500, and walking away with less than 100 bucks worth of value, that is not a good situation.

Immaculate, despite its terrible name, has turned out to be more impressive than Flawless, in my opinion. Although the content and likelihood of making money is drastically reduced, the visual appeal of the big hits is immeasurable. The giant logo patches alone should be representative of the ridiculous miss on Flawless’ content, something that shouldn’t have happened. Either way, it should work out well for basketball collectors.