Collect call: 2009-2010 Panini Timeless Treasures basketball

Posted May 26, 2010 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated May 26, 2010 at 05:12 PM

With a $100 suggested retail price tag, you will have to decide whether buying a tin of Panini’s Timeless Treasures basketball is worth it.

Certainly, there is great potential. If you like to roll the dice, go ahead and take a chance.

Each copper-colored tin contains five cards, three of which are either autograph or memorabilia cards. The other two are either part of the 100-card base set or one of the silver (numbered to 25), gold (numbered to 10) or platinum (numbered to 1) parallel cards. The tin I sampled had an action pose of Lakers great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on it.

Here is what was contained in the tin I sampled:

A pair of base cards. An NBA Apprentice rookie, game-used card of the Bulls’ James Johnson, numbered to 100. A Rookie Recruits relic/autograph card of the Hornets’ Marcus Thornton, numbered to 299. What’s nice about this card is that the background for the autograph is a large, white area that has plenty of texture. The autograph is not a sticker, and it is boldly displayed. Very nice card.

The final card was a Statistical Champions Materials, game-used purple swatch card of Kobe Bryant numbered to 100. As you can see by the accompanying photograph, it’s a little bit busy — but the colors are vibrant, and anything with Bryant (Panini’s main spokesman) is a valuable collectible.

While this particular tin did not have that “knock your socks off” card, there are plenty of dynamite cards to uncover. There are laundry tags and laundry tag team logo cards that are numbered 1/1, Home and Road Gamers Prime Signatures (two photos of a player — one in his home uniform, one in his road jersey — numbered to 10 or less.

Another subset that excites me is the HOF Signature Series, which comes in silver (numbered to 25 or less), gold (10 or less) or platinum (1/1) and contains the autograph of an NBA Hall of Famer.

So, the possibilities are there. The question is, do want to gamble and spend $100 to find out?

The choice is yours.