2013-14 Panini Spectra Basketball Cards

Oustanding product, beautiful design, and excellent return on value.

I’ve said from the get go that Panini is not in it for the hobby. This is Panini Italia folks. Don’t let Panini America fool you. This about American money to them. Just look at the products that have come out recently..Flawless, Innovation,Spectra, to go with National Treasures, Gold Standard, Preferred, and so on to a lesser degree. But these are all $100 and up folks! Who are they catering to here? Certainly isn’t me. Now sure they have come out with some cheaper stuff but who wants that when they are waving these other high end products in our faces at the same time. Those of us that were able to buy cards as young kids in the 70s and 80s were so lucky. What do kids have now that they can afford? Stickers? They have to get their parents to buy for them. It’s ridiculous! And to reiterate what a few have said here, so many autos out there now of these older generation players who were such great players, and they are worth nothing now. And that is a shame! You see how Panini Italy cares about that? They don’t care what these players mean to us! Guys and gals we need to let them know we are tired of them saturating the market and really let them know we do not care for what they are doing to the hobby. Because they are forcing other companies to push new products out so they can compete. We all know what’s coming here people! It’s going to be a collapse of the hobby. Now Panini has the NFL to themselves! Goody. It’s really a shame where this is all heading. It’s just greed.

2013-14 Panini Spectra Basketball Set is just more proof that Panini Basketball cards are just uncolleable! As a small private collector we little guys have no chance had completing this overpriced set with the same type of cards in other editions released this year! There are so many parallels and short prints it’s very unlikely that anyone who has an average day job or income can afford this Panini set of nothing new! Thick card board over priced junk!

Pretty hard for Spectra to follow the unbelievable Select product. I’ll give Spectra a
2.5 and I was disappointed in the basketball
version after being familiar with the football
product.

What’s to like? Well, the design is fair
enough and there are some ‘new’ patches
that are always welcomed from this collector;
Terry Cummings, Steve Mix and Tracy McGrady come to mind. It would be great if Panini could work out something with Upper Deck to allow Michael Jordan to be at least pictured on their products if even to forego
autos and relics to UD exclusively. To think
of MJ on some of these Panini products….mmmmm. I don’t understand why Barkley & Reggie Miller are not featured
on Panini basketball?!? In looking at some
of the comments above about an apparent
over saturation of product in the market;
I would only add that it allows me to see if
Panini has added any new old school players
to autos and patches. They should do more
and do so quickly before a lot of really great
players pass on.

On the bad side, I do not care for the extra
thick cards as it serves no purpose. The football cards were standard width. I am an
avid collector who uses Ultra Pro sheets and
these cards BARELY fit in the sleeves. If Panini reads this at all, your Innovation Main
Exhibit Signatures do not come close to
fitting in sleeved pages. If I had known, I
never would have bought them. There is no
logic for the extra thick cards. Should there
be so, please feel free to explain it.

The green cards are inexplicably not ‘prizm’ or
refractor like. The red, blue and golds are.
Also, other than jersey and autos, there are
NO inserts with this product. And that sucks.
Even football had City Limits.

The Spectra product is certainly nicely put together and the multi-color swatches… while not quite “NT” grade, are still pretty hefty.
The price point is a bit steep, but I get the fact that Panini is putting 5 autos and mem’ in each box…& there lies my criticism.
With 26 products already in circulation and more to come, just how many Kelly Tripuka, Mark Price, Avery Johnson and Alex English autos do collectors need? Certainly those who pull Durant, Kobe, and Kyrie autos, not to mention Bird, Pipp’, Magic and Jordan are thrilled… but overall, there is a limited market for retired and even active players. The over-saturation of the hobby… especially Hoops, which doesn’t attract the number of collectors Football and Baseball do (at least in the northeast), cannot be under-stated.
I applaud Panini for trying to release a suite of products that appeals to a variety of price points, but there comes a tipping point where the manufacturer does the customer a disservice. I believe we have arrived at that point.
I love Panini’s products, for the most part, but I also wish to see the market healthy and viable as opposed to derailed by the now primary Basketball card manufacturer.
Nuff’ Said.

Beautiful product. I’ve seen a number of case breaks and the cards that came out are spectacular! All the big names. But, if money is a concern buying a personal box will be a real gamble (like most higher end products). A random case break may be the way to go.

To many products. Very tough to get your money back. Save your money for Treasures Basketball.

You must be kidding me! Most of the boxes will be like the two Panini blog pulled. You cant get half the money back. Spend $280 on a graded Kobe or Kyrie somewhere else.

It�s for sure another good product from Panini. But how many more do we need? 26 brands in 2012-13 from Hoops to Flawless. 18 already for this season and there is still a lot to come. Panini is milking the cow.