Panini offers glimpse of Marquee basketball

Posted Jan 19, 2013 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Mar 27, 2013 at 09:34 PM

Panini America previewed its new 2012-13 Marquee set, which the company says will include “wicked wonders” like laser-cutting, black holographic film board, more acetate and a “Swirlorama” effect.

A hobby box of Marquee will contain 20 packs, with eight cards to a pack. Panini is promising three autographs per hobby box, with a 150-card base set. There will be 35 rookie cards drawn from five different subsets, and five different autograph subsets that a collector can pull from a box. One of those inserts will feature coaches.

The feature that really grabbed my attention from the photographs Panini posted was the Election Night subset. I’m not sure why; the card features a giant head shot of the player on the right-hand side of the card, with an autograph at the bottom left under the “Election Night” notation. Maybe it was because the example used was Magic Johnson; regardless, it seemed just offbeat enough to be intriguing.

Other subsets include Rookie Signatures; Stars of the Night (which uses the black holographic film board); Slam Dunk Legends (using the Swirlorama format); a 20-card Champions set printed on acetate; Rookie Rivals; and All-Rookie Team. I have to confess that I honestly don’t know what the Swirlorama effect is, but I am sure Panini will bring me up to speed at a later date. If I had to guess, it looks like the swirls are part of the surface of the card (see Blake Griffin photo that accompanies this post).

It will be a big part of the Marquee set when it is released.