Come for Connaughton's hair, stay for classic photo-shoot poses (Set Collecting)

[hopalong]

2015-16 Revolution - Rookie Autos
Insert - 17/17 Cards

I was a big fan of the first year of revolution. I loved the focus on the base and parallels. The on-card auto checklist was short and full of quality (even if the rookie class turned out to be a mixed bag). One of the best auto sets Panini have done in my opinion.

Card #4 in this set is missing from the Panini checklist. Not clear who that was meant to be or what happened to it (potentially Stanley Johnson?).

If I'm nitpicking, I wish Bobby Portis hadn't used some weird pen/texter when signing his cards.



Edit: Reduced size

[hopalong]

2014-15 Hoops - Dreams
Insert - 10/10 Cards

I opened a lot of 2014-15 Hoops so I have most of the inserts completed I think. I bought boxes for about $40 USD. There's nothing particularly special about this one, except it might highlight the lack of star power the draft class had (considering Wiggins and Parker didn't live up to the hype). I think there's only one NBA champion in this set at the moment, Thanasis Antetokounmpo won with the Bucks in 2021.

[hopalong]

2016-17 Grand Reserve - Unbreakable
Insert - 10/10 Cards

'Unbreakable' is a little awkward here considering the injuries that changed the careers of IT, John Wall and Demarcus Cousins. Obviously, hindsight is 20/20 and all that.

Grand Reserve only lasted for a year. It was mainly a vehicle for the Cornerstones cards which got moved to the standalone product 'Cornerstones' the following year (generally nice by the way, check them out).

The cards in this insert are quite nice, they have a little bit of texture, giving them a feeling of being chiseled from something maybe.

[hopalong]

2012-2013 Past & Present - Base
Base Variation - 50/50 Cards

Beautiful retro set which includes rookie cards of Lillard, AD, Beal and Kyrie.

Fairly certain these were 1 per box (I opened quite a few boxes back in the day). Not super-rare, but values have been slowly increasing for the rookies and superstars (Lebron and Kobe are probably the only vets that will cost you). Cheaper cards in this set are about $1-2.

[hopalong]

2018-19 Contenders Optic - Class Acts Prizms
Insert - 25/28 Cards

Shiny. Luka and Trae rookies. I have 2 more on the way, which just leaves Lebron. Typical.

This is the silver prizm version (although there was no base version, just Silver, Gold, Gold Vinyl and Blue and Red Cracked Ice). It shows a bunch of superstars on draft day in the team cap, the year they were drafted and a nice team logo. Larry Johnson looked like a father of five.

[hopalong]

2014-15 Hoops - Class Action
Insert - 15/15 Cards

Another historic draft-focused insert, this time super cheap from Hoops.

[hopalong]

2017-18 Court Kings - Rookie Level 1
Subset - 33/33 Cards

I bought Harry Giles.
Bought another Harry Giles by accident.
Sold the first Harry Giles.
Couldn't find the second Harry Giles.
Bought a third Harry Giles.
6 months later, found the second Harry Giles stuck to the back of another random card.
Sold the third Harry Giles.

[hopalong]

2014-15 Court Kings - Base
Base - 100/100 Cards

There was something funky with the first few cards in this set. There's a 1.1 and a 1.2 etc (Jared Sullinger and Lebron James). Not sure what was going on there.

Quite a nice base set and one where the biggest names are no longer easily available to buy (or at least not cheaply).

[hopalong]

2015-16 Prizm - 2015 All-Star Team Purple Prizm /99
Subset - 24/24 Cards

Prizm can look really nice in hand, and I love 2015-16. Purples and Light Blues are particularly nice if you haven't checked them out. Photographing them though, that's something I haven't figured out how to do well yet.

Not necessarily the biggest fan of Prizm in general (19-20 rookie base hurt my eyes), but love the action shots in 15-16.

15-16_Prizm_AllStars_Purple_Combined by Holen, on Flickr

Edit: Updated photo

[hopalong]

2019-20 Hoops - Arriving Now Holo
Insert - 18/20 Cards

It's unfortunate that the price point of Hoops became what it did. There are some great cards in those products and it's always fun to open lots of packs. Good to see some the lower end sets get some love in the last couple of years (Net Marvels, My House, High Voltage etc.). Still some gems hidden in Hoops that aren't talked about IMO. Get out the Way Holo looks good, some of the old Courtside photos are amazing...plenty to love, if the price point was lower.

UPDATED PHOTO LATER ON IN THIS THREAD

[hopalong]

2016-17 Donruss Optic - Court Kings
Insert - 40/40 Cards

These are pretty ordinary to be honest (the coloured parallels look quite a bit nicer). It's always a bit of fun to look back at who were the stars and up and comers at the time (at least in Panini's view). Jahlil Okafor snuck in this one, maybe they just needed a Sixer representative and the 76rs were still not out of their process at the time.

[boxbuster7]

Awesome thread. Love seeing people collect sets!

[hopalong]

2014-15 Court Kings - Ruby Portraits /99
Insert - 99/100 Cards

Second year (I think) of the Court Kings portraits. They've been a mainstay in the product but was removed from 19-20 and 20-21.

The real keepers here, not surprisingly, are Lebron, Kobe and Curry among the vets. The rookie class was not amazing, with a couple of much-hyped disappointments in Wiggins and Parker. Embiid portrait is jersey numbered.

I'm missing Markel Brown /99 and cannot for the life of me find it. Have the /25 as a placeholder.

[hopalong]

2018-19 Hoops - Faces of the Future
Insert - 20/20 Cards

I needed a set with a Luka rookie. This is (relatively) cheap and has that over-the-top feel and design that is just a bit of fun.

[hopalong]

2013-14 Fleer Retro - Scoring Kings
Insert - 11/20 Cards


Won't share anything that's not halfway, so this one just sneaks in. The prices of these have been increasing quite a bit. Lebron is about $1k (BGS 9). Fairly condition sensitive set.

Excuse the odd angles as these look kind of dull in certain light/angles.

[hopalong]

2019-20 Mosaic - Hall of Fame Pink Prizm
Subset - 15/15 Cards

These look really nice for something that costs so little. I don't know Mosaic very well and have never opened any packs or boxes. I think it's becoming a regular thing now with the 2020-21 release around the corner.

[hopalong]

2014-15 Court Kings - Rookie 1
Subset - 32/33 Cards

There were 5 levels back in 2014 and levels 2-5 were numbered. Level 1s were pretty nice.

[hopalong]

2017-18 Chronicles - Limited Blue /149
Subset - 20/25 Cards

This chase came about because I happened to get one of these from a group break (Justin Patton I think). It looked really nice so I decided I'd get them all.

[hopalong]

2010-11 Classics - Rookie Signatures
Subset - 39/39 Cards

This was meant to be a 40 card set. Card #177 was Sherron Collins, he never signed/returned or Panini messed it up in some way.

Nice on-card autos in any case. Decent rookie class with Wall, Paul George, Gordon Hayward, Derrick Favors, Jeremy Lin, Eric Bledsoe, Demarcus Cousins, Greg Monroe and others. I like the retro look of these (as well as the base cards).

There wasn't many products released at this time, I think Panini was just at the beginning of their license deal? I bought several of these boxes when I got back into collecting (~2014) for about the $50 USD mark from memory. They're harder to find now. I've seen boxes at around $475 USD recently (September 2021). Pretty sure there are live Kobe autos in this, so that'd be one reason (and just generally low supply and box-prices exploding in 2019-2020.

[hopalong]

2014-15 Hoops - Rookie Base
Subset - 40/40 Cards

Short on superstars, but some solid role-players emerged (Smart, Nurkic, Dinwiddie, Harris etc.)

[hopalong]

2016-17 Totally Certified - Return to Sender Orange /60
Insert - 14/14 Cards

Poor Damian Lillard is featured here twice, and not in a flattering way.

The orange looks really nice, and a couple of these have some particularly great action shots.

I should explore more these types of numbered insert sets from low to mid-end products. I bet you could put together some cool numbered sets for a decent price.

2016-17_TotallyCertified_ReturntoSender_Orange by Holen, on Flickr

Edit: Updated Photo

[Donkaylove]

liking the return to sender and fleer ultra scoring kings-good stuff

[hopalong]

Originally Posted by boxbuster7

Awesome thread. Love seeing people collect sets!

Originally Posted by molly1984

this is a neat set! i want that Jason Kidd/Michael Finley card now.


Enjoyed looking through your sets!

Originally Posted by Donkaylove

liking the return to sender and fleer ultra scoring kings-good stuff

Thanks all!

[hopalong]

2013-14 Crusade - Hardwood Homage
Insert - 17/25 Cards

One of several sets where I've pretty much admitted defeat. There are two reasons in this case

1) Kobe on-card auto /25
2) The low numbering on most of the cards I'm missing means they almost never surface (most of the ones I'm missing are to /10, or less in parallel versions).

It's a really nice on-card auto set which feature some fantastic autographs (Tripucka must be one of the all time greats in that regard).

[hopalong]

2012-13 Past & Present - Treads
Insert - 35/35 Cards