02/09/2026
‘One from the PC Wednesday’
So I’ve noticed lately a lot of discussion about NBA card collecting and the state of the hobby. People did seem rather sick of the endless parallels and ‘not associated’ bo****ks of the Panini era and that has flowed onto Topps having the licence and what they have achieved. I feel your pain, Topps has been quite underwhelming. And to further complicate things and confuse us all, we have somewhat of a 90s boom going on (MJ Electrified etc) which is sure to spread further throughout some 90s stuff, albeit only a few players.
One era of cards that I think is still underrated is the Panini ‘pre-Covid boom’ stuff. Particularly around the mid 2010s. There’s some nice releases amongst this stuff and a lot of it doesn’t seem to appear nearly as much which im guessing means there’s a lower print run than the more modern stuff? Add in the fact that most of the memorabilia pieces are actually game worn and not just random bits of jersey, a lot of the Autos are on-card and you can see this era has potential…
Anyway here’s a great example. I can’t remember what I paid for this Tim Duncan years ago but the last sold on eBay has this card at $19usd. So just over $30nz for a cleanly designed, game worn jersey card of a Top 10 all-time player. $30 well spent if you ask me!
IMO ‘The Big Fundamental’ is underrated within the hobby and this era of cards is equally underrated.
2013-14 Panini Prestige Basketball -
Tim Duncan ‘NBA Jersey Materials’
