BACKFlawless First Look: Panini America Sneaks a Peek at New High-End Basketball Set
In the span of three or four meaningful, myth-dispelling Tweets yesterday afternoon, Panini America sent shock waves throughout the collectibles industry that still are reverberating more than 24 hours later. Just like that, rumors buzzing all over about Panini America a) landing Damian Lillard autographs and b) releasing a mysterious high-end 2012-13 NBA-licensed product ceased being rumors and became cold, hard facts.
We let news of Lillard’s first NBA-licensed certified autograph trading cards — which first hit yesterday in 2012-13 Innovation Basketball and will follow in 2012-13 Intrigue, 2012-13 Immaculate and 2012-13 Flawless — carry the day yesterday. Today, we’re turning our focus to the mysterious Flawless and the fantastic first specimens from that product that have arrived back at Panini America HQ.
True story: The first on-card autographs signed for Flawless were penned by Lillard himself. Not a bad way to start building a product that will deliver seven autographs, two jumbo memorabilia cards and a diamond- or emerald-embedded card in every $1,250 pack. No card in the set will be numbered higher than 25 and there will be a maximum of 20 complete base sets available. Diamond-encrusted base cards will be numbered to 20, and will be paralleled by an emerald-embedded version numbered to five and a diamond-embedded 1/1 version. 2012-13 Flawless Basketball is slated to release in early October.
We’ll have plenty more to flaunt on Flawless in the coming weeks right here on The Knight’s Lance. But for now, enjoy this fascinating first look anchored by the first on-card-signed, NBA-licensed trading cards of Lillard, the 2013 NBA Rookie of the Year.
