New to Basketball Collecting

[texmcpherson]

Primarily a baseball card guy and I've started dabbling into NBA cards. Just looking for advice/confirmation on what I've noticed so far:

-Prizm is flagship, Flawless is the end all be all for RPA's, Optic is second to Prizm?
-Kaboom's are highly sought after

I've really enjoyed the Select Courtside RC's (it seems these are fairly rare?) and Noir RC's... based on the price point Noir seems undervalued for the design and being numbered to less than 100, I'm guessing the thick cardstock and condition sensitivity plays into this.

What I struggle with is the amount of low numbered cards. What I mean by that is it seems for each card there are a ton of numbered variants whereas when I started in baseball there were only a handful of numbered variations (usually /250, /199, /50, /25, /5, and /1). How diluted are these Prizm & Optic RC's?? Seems like there are a TON of unnumbered variations as well.

What other RC's do you like that appear to sustain value outside Prizm and Optic? Select? I'm not an investor so I do value eye appeal (sometimes Prizm just looks like tin foil) but also I try to be cognizant of cards that will retain or go up in value.

So far here's what I've picked up:

- 2020-21 LaMelo Ball Panini Prizm RC
- 2019-20 Darius Garland Panini Prizm Variation RC
- 2018-19 Miles Bridges Select Courtside RC

I've been fairly interested in players such as: Luka (sold a PSA 9 Prizm for $500 when costs were crazy), KAT, Durant, Tatum, Trae, and Ant.

Thanks for the read and any help is much appreciated. Looking forward to seeing your guys' thoughts.

[babyfaceposey]

National Treasures for RPA.

[bmf]

Yes, National treasures for RPAs ^^^

And Optic and Select are way behind Prizm.

[eastbayak]

Originally Posted by texmcpherson

Primarily a baseball card guy and I've started dabbling into NBA cards. Just looking for advice/confirmation on what I've noticed so far:

-Prizm is flagship, Flawless is the end all be all for RPA's, Optic is second to Prizm?
-Kaboom's are highly sought after

I've really enjoyed the Select Courtside RC's (it seems these are fairly rare?) and Noir RC's... based on the price point Noir seems undervalued for the design and being numbered to less than 100, I'm guessing the thick cardstock and condition sensitivity plays into this.

What I struggle with is the amount of low numbered cards. What I mean by that is it seems for each card there are a ton of numbered variants whereas when I started in baseball there were only a handful of numbered variations (usually /250, /199, /50, /25, /5, and /1). How diluted are these Prizm & Optic RC's?? Seems like there are a TON of unnumbered variations as well.

What other RC's do you like that appear to sustain value outside Prizm and Optic? Select? I'm not an investor so I do value eye appeal (sometimes Prizm just looks like tin foil) but also I try to be cognizant of cards that will retain or go up in value.

So far here's what I've picked up:

- 2020-21 LaMelo Ball Panini Prizm RC
- 2019-20 Darius Garland Panini Prizm Variation RC
- 2018-19 Miles Bridges Select Courtside RC

I've been fairly interested in players such as: Luka (sold a PSA 9 Prizm for $500 when costs were crazy), KAT, Durant, Tatum, Trae, and Ant.

Thanks for the read and any help is much appreciated. Looking forward to seeing your guys' thoughts.

As the others stated, NT is KING for RPA.

Optic/Select is second to Prizm.

Kaboom is overrated.

Times have changed. Even within baseball, there's significantly more parallels than when you started. Overtime, as long as the money continues to flow in, so will the number of parallels (and increased print-run).

Regarding your last question, I won't state a specific product but I'll say one thing, price-point is key.

Last, and most important, have fun and welcome to the basketball collecting/investing/flipping/whatever world!

[texmcpherson]

Originally Posted by eastbayak

As the others stated, NT is KING for RPA.

Optic/Select is second to Prizm.

Kaboom is overrated.

Times have changed. Even within baseball, there's significantly more parallels than when you started. Overtime, as long as the money continues to flow in, so will the number of parallels (and increased print-run).

Regarding your last question, I won't state a specific product but I'll say one thing, price-point is key.

Last, and most important, have fun and welcome to the basketball collecting/investing/flipping/whatever world!

Why do you say that Kaboom is overrated?

[RedMike]

NT is king but, defo shouldn't sleep on flawless rookie game used autos.

[volblorx8634]

If you're a fan of Noir, check out the 2019-20 Icon Holo Silver parallels /25. They're my favorite Noir design of all the years of Noir. The holofoil logos are beautiful.


2019-20 Panini Noir - [Base] - Holo Silver #178 - Rookies Icon Edition - Zion Williamson /25