When Flawless was released, I was a little confused as to why everyone was so excited. To me, it was almost like Panini forgot to include all the crazy cards that a product costing 1250 dollars a box should have. Sure, there was some great content in the boxes themselves, as the autographs of the good players were pretty common. As explained before, the wow factor just wasn’t there. Too many cards that are just on card simplicity, in a product that should be more than that
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Don’t get me wrong, there are some pretty awesome cards in Flawless, but nothing that makes anyone truly redefine what is possible in a product costing what Flawless did.
2013 Panini Flawless Kobe Bryant Auto Patch /10
2013 Panini Flawless Damian Lillard Auto Patch
2013 Panini Flawless Kyrie Irving Auto Patch RC – Not even jumbo patches on these?
2013 Panini Flawless Kevin Durant Jumbo Patch Auto
Basically, I am getting a distinct feeling that we got played. Panini knew the price tag would drive value in the cards, and therefore held back many of the cards that made Exquisite Basketball into an unstoppable juggernaut
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Enter Immaculate Collection. Seeing previews for this product immediately bring back fond memories of the way Exquisite was done. In fact, im pretty positive that Immaculate Collection is Exquisite under a different (but much more awful) name. The white dominated design with swooping lines is an approach made famous by Upper Deck, and Immaculate is stuffed to the brim. Not only that, but its done WELL.
From everything I have seen, it makes National Treasures look like shit warmed over. Treasures was poorly designed in many different ways to begin with, never making me want to rush out and drop the cash at any point. Immaculate, on the other hand, is quite the different story. These cards truly look tremendous, despite the fact that the concept is a complete rip off. When it looks this good, it doesn’t really matter.
Here is the disclaimer that needs to go on every Panini high end product – they don’t have Jordan and they don’t have Lebron. Without those two players, the potential for greatness is stifled significantly. I don’t collect basketball, but even I can see the gaping holes left by the two biggest names in basketball history. Considering that Panini took everything from Exquisite except the name (which they should have), they should fork over the dough to get the players too.
That’s a fact.
Check these out:
Can’t wait to see these cards in my hands. Flawless had Lebron James Patches. Hope Immaculate has some Lebron Game Used.
Customers went through seven cases of Flawless in my store faster than I could have ever imagined. Content made about 90% of the boxes busted a money maker on eBay. Two customers came back several times for more Flawless after they sold singles on eBay.
Immaculate looks to be, dollar for dollar, the best product of all time. I wish I would have bought more. All my distributors say they’re out. eBay “Buy it Now” prices are now over $500 per box. Even without Jordan and Lebron autographs, Immaculate singles should sell well enough to make $500 a reasonable box price.
Charlie,
You are kind of missing the point of what I am saying. I am not denying the fact that Flawless sells well, im just wondering why Immaculate’s cards werent switched with the ones in those boxes. For the price, Flawless should have been Exquisite times ten, not just more on card autos with a better insertion rate. That is a cop out to me. Basketball collectors are a weird bunch, and are buying it just to say they bought it – as evidenced by the huge drop in price for the singles over the last few weeks since launch.
You say Immaculate is going to be the best set of all time? You might be right, only because I dont know enough about those cards to say its not the case. Personally, without Jordan or Lebron autos, I dont see how that can be possible, but that’s my opinion. You cant have the best product ever without the top two guys in the sport.
Panini obviously has the right idea with going more high end, but they cant expect people to continue biting on the line without doing something to justify the extra cost. I have been in your store and heard people complain about the crappy Panini products they put out, and how much they miss what Upper Deck used to do. In fact, I would say that’s how most Basketball collectors feel.
Was flawless a good product? Yeah, the cards looked nice, and the seeding in those boxes was well above average. It was easy to pull an auto for the top players. However, it SHOULD be easy in a product that cost 1800 a box or whatever its up to now. It should also have more than cards than ever that break the 5K mark, and that is where Flawless is a flatline. We are paying so much because content is flatlined, with no huge peaks, instead of having a higher average pull rate than normal with more INCREDIBLE pulls that cant be found anywhere else. That is where Immaculate is going to be the bee’s knees.