A Momentous preview from Panini

Posted Feb 4, 2013 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Mar 27, 2013 at 09:18 PM

The Super Bowl is over, so now it’s time for other sports to grab onto that momentum and draw some fan interest.

Panini America is trying to do that with its 2012-13 Momentum Basketball product, and the company has taken some steps to excite high-end hoops collectors.

Each pack will contain 15 cards and has a suggested retail price of $200. And while that may seem steep, collectors who buy this product when its becomes available on April 8 will be assured of five autographs in each pack.

Inserts with signatures will be called Momentous Autographs, Momentous Rookie Autographs and Monumental Marks (which will include 300 cards).
There will be a 300-card base set that will include 85 rookies. Rookie collectors will love that feature; if you’re collecting this set for building a set, well, I hope you have deep pockets.

I do like the look of the Monumental Marks autograph cards, and the example Panini sent of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar catches the signature of the Hall of Fame center so well. Kareem never signs his first name on autograph cards (or I guess I should say rarely, just in case someone has an example of that). Definitely a cool-looking card in my book.

Other preliminary highlights released by Panini today are the die-cut Force insert and Drive parallels that will have an etched-foil design.
Momentous Basketball does mirror, in part, its football counterpart. However, the abundance of rookies and the number of autographs per pack could be an attractive lure for big ticket seekers.