I know that Prizm is a higher end set, and is extremely sought-after among collectors of all sports, but man, I just cannot buy into the hype. I feel like the amount of people trying to buy Prizm blasters/cellos/Megas at Target and WalMart and flip them either online or to a local card shop just cheapens the product so much. I mean, I understand arbitrage, and I am all for a free market economy, but people waiting in line for the restock and then clearing the shelves out? Absolutely insane. I have actually stopped breaking with a couple of online breakers when I found out that this is a significant tactic of theirs. This is all insanity.
Anyway, rant over, on to the cards. These cards are very...Prizm-y. shiny, reflective with lots of shiny, sparkly parallels and inserts. If I was a kid opening these, I would think they were about the coolest things ever, but as a 40 year old dude who refuses to buy packs on the secondary market? I just don't think that Prizm lives up to the hype.
I do like this set as a whole. I haven't followed college hoops in a long time, but I still know some of the names, and you definitely get plenty of parallels and inserts in every cello or box. Draft Picks is a nice set for priming the pump before the the regular NBA sets come out...just enough to get you excited to watch some ball and see players in their actual NBA uniforms. And maybe some of these guys will be overseas after year one, so it might be tour only chance to scoop up their cards in this weird 2020-21 season.
There's no denying that Prizm is very eye catching. That Panini can make cards like this is pretty crazy, no doubt about it. The fact that they can print pictures with this much resolution and have such a slick, reflective surface kind of boggles the mind. But here's the thing...I don't think that it is that much better than the Topps and Bowman Chrome products, or even the older Topps Finest cards.
I have a number of older Topps Chrome/Platinum/Finest cards, and maybe because I'm old, I actually prefer the slightly older cards, like my 2005 Frank Gore Topps Finest or the 1998 Moss of the same brand. Or even today's Mosaic. I really like the cards with a little bit clearer shots of the players themselves, and I'm not worried about all of the extra texture and detail that goes into the Prizm product. I think that Panini is just trying too hard to make the Prizm sets look different, and they don't look better, which to me should be what you get when you pay a higher price.
Anyone else have a hard time buying into the hype?
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