I haven't seen too much noise about this set in the blogosphere, but that is typical for most higher end products. Several weeks back Panini released Immaculate Collection. Each box contains 6 cards with 1 base or parallel card and 5 hits. Every card is serial numbered to 99 or less. Boxes are going on line for about $160. Personally I never see myself buying a box of this stuff but I did go after some Giants from the set.
One of my goals in 2014 was to pick up all the Giants base cards and short of some SPs and a couple recent releases I am doing really nice on achieving this goal. I thought this set might stump me similar to 2013 Panini America's Pastime did last year. However I did a quick shopping spree a couple weeks back and was able to score all 3 Giants from the base set. Take a look:
Starting off is Buster Posey. I love the catcher poses on Panini products as the lack of a license really doesn't jump out at you. I think this is a great looking card.
Next up is World Series hero Madison Bumgarner. This card is aesthetically damaged a bit with the lack of Giants across his chest and the SF logo on the hat.
Finally to finish up the base team set is Free Agent Kung Fu Panda. After the shout outs to resign Pablo during the victory parade I have a new level of confidence that the Giants will step and and make a good enough offer to keep him in SF.
I was also able to pick up a Panda relic for a very reasonable price. It has a print run of 99 and has a plain black relic. I like how the picture is different from the base card and while a logo would greatly enhance the card, it still looks pretty solid.
I am going to keep my eyes open for some more hits to see if I can score some on the cheap. Also, Willie McCovey has some Padres themed cards in the set I need to try and track down. Wish me luck and let me know what you think of this set.
I appreciate that the Sandoval relic has a super-slightly different picture than the base card. I want to see these in person...
ReplyDeleteI like the set more than I thought I would. They feel appropriately high-end, and Panini seems to be doing a better job of selecting logoless photos than they have in the past. There are still plenty of players who wind up looking like they play for prison leagues, though.
ReplyDeletegood luck with the willie mac pursuit. i picked up a garvey auto from the set and was pleasantly surprised by panini's execution. very thick card.
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