Sports Cards and Memories: Christmas Box Break: 15-16 Panini Black Gold Basketball

Monday, December 26, 2016

Christmas Box Break: 15-16 Panini Black Gold Basketball

So it's been 5 years since I've collected cards, and it's been even longer since I've received cards as a Christmas gift. The last time I remember getting cards from my parents was Christmas 2003. They bought me a box 2003-04 Upper Deck Black Diamond Basketball and in that box I did indeed pull a Lebron James Rookie Card. Fast Forward 13 years later and here's the first gift of cards I've gotten since then. Panini Black Gold was on sale during Black Friday and I put it on my XMas list knowing just like with most high end Panini Products there's a pretty good chance at the box busting. I felt at the price point it was worth a shot and put it as one of my options for my parents to chose from. They went with it. This is also going to be the last break of 2016, as I have no other boxes coming in before the New Year's. So...would there be some Christmas Magic? Here's what I got

Base Cards
Hassan Whiteside
Damian Lillard

Base Bronze Parallel
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Tim Duncan

Vintage Gold Autographs
Tom Heinsohn (#100/149)

Rookie Jersey Autographs
Willie Cauley-Stein (#116/199)

Massive Materials
Dante Exum (#34/49)
Kevin Love (#144/199)

Overall Thoughts: Well...2016 ends with a dud unfortunately and boxes like this will probably make my parents never want to buy me boxes as a Christmas present again, lol. The cards themselves are amazing looking. I really love the shadowbox look of the base cards and they are really eye popping. I like the design of the hits too, the subjects of the hits leave a lot to be desired though. At it's normal $200 price point, this stuff is MASSIVELY horrible value wise. I mean, this is maybe $15-$20 worth of cards at most? Disappointing that the "Massive Materials" were both plain color swatches (the Love especially since it's a plain colored WHITE swatch). Willie Cauley-Stein isn't a great rookie. At least I pulled a Celtics HOF'er in Tom Heinsohn. Again just like Gala, Gold Standard, etc...Panini has no clue how to balance value in their boxes. You either hit it big or lose your ass completely. I'm not going to tell my parents how awful this break was, I'll sugar coat it as to not hurt their feelings. Singles is probably the way to go as boxes are still a little over $100 per box. Here's my pulls