Saturday, December 20, 2014

2012-13 Panini Brilliance basketball hobby box

Sport:  Basketball
Product:  2012-13 Brilliance hobby box
Break Date:  December 19, 2014
Hit Breakdown:   Two autographs + 1 game-used

Summary:  When buying my last Prestige Premium box, I noticed that Target had hobby boxes of Brilliance for $49.99. I didn't open too much Brilliance back when it was released, and it wasn't too well-received at the time, but I had a $25 Target gift card (I love the holidays :)...and I also had a $10 American Express gift check that I've been carrying around for five years (literally)...someone gave it to me when my youngest was born. I haven't been able to find any place that had any idea what it was, so I haven't used it. I figured I'd give it one last shot, and miraculously the checkout person at Target knew what to do with it.

So, with those in hand, I walked out of Target with a box of Brilliance for the grand total of $18 and change - not too shabby :)

I'm real happy I did.

With a double rookie class I KNOW that there's a good chance I'm going to land some rookies who either don't contribute or are frankly out of the NBA, and the first hit out of the box was just that - a Quincy Acy autograph. At the very least, Acy's still in the league and actually making a decent impact in his minutes with the Knicks.

The second hit out of the box, though, was the big fish - a Kyrie Irving auto. It's a redemption, unfortunately, but I've been hunting a Kyrie for a few years, so I don't even care. It expired a couple weeks back but Panini honors them still, and the card is already live, so hopefully it'll arrive in the next few weeks.

The jersey card was about as bad as it gets (Ryan Andreson), and I was shorted one of the Starburst parallels that are supposed to come two per box, but because of the Kyrie, I don't even care.

Insert-wise I did pretty well with a Kobe, a Steph Curry, a few Carmelos, and a Blake Griffin. And, there was an Anthony Davis rookie as well.

But, this box was all about the Kyrie auto. An $18 Kyrie auto – a slam dunk all the way.

Grade for the product:  B
Grade for the break:  A

Brilliant Beginnings Autographs:  Kyrie Irving (Redemption), Quincy Acy
Game Time Jerseys:  Ryan Andreson
Starburst:  Tyshawn Taylor
Accolades:  Jason Terry, Antawn Jamison, Rasheed Wallace
Magic Numbers:  Kobe Bryant, Stephen Curry, Brandon Knight
Scorers, Inc.:  Russell Westbrook, Carmelo Anthony, OJ Mayo
Spellbound:  Blake Griffin, Serge Ibaka, Carmelo Anthony
Springfield:  Julius Erving, Patrick Ewing, Joe Dumars
Team Tomorrow:  Andre Drummond, Tobias Harris








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