Panini America Offers Detailed First Look at 2013-14 Flawless Basketball (Gallery)

While an international basketball collecting audience counts down these final white-knuckle days until Wednesday's celebrated release of 2013-14 National Treasures Basketball, NT release week also means we're that much closer to the launch of Panini America's final two ballyhooed releases of the 2013-14 NBA collecting season: 2013-14 Immaculate Basketball and 2013-14 Flawless Basketball. We brought you a detailed early examination of Immaculate in late July. Today, we're exploring the preliminary details surrounding Flawless.

While an international basketball collecting audience counts down these final white-knuckle days until Wednesday’s celebrated release of 2013-14 National Treasures Basketball, NT release week also means we’re that much closer to the launch of Panini America’s final two ballyhooed releases of the 2013-14 NBA collecting season: 2013-14 Immaculate Basketball and 2013-14 Flawless Basketball. We brought you a detailed early examination of Immaculate in late July. Today, we’re exploring the preliminary details surrounding Flawless.

Flawless, of course, made a meteoric splash on the collecting scene last season with its metal-briefcase packaging and the otherworldly contents inside, which included diamond-embedded base cards and some of the most staggering sales ever recorded on modern-era trading cards. For 2013-14, Panini America aims to do the unthinkable: Raise the bar on the highest of high-end products. How exactly can that be possible? Keep reading to find out.

One way to raise the bar is to acquire on-card autographs from selected NBA superstars who haven’t signed on-card autographs for Panini America products in a long time — or ever. You know, transcendent players such as Allen Iverson, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Manu Ginobili and more.

Another is to add even more precious gems (diamonds, emeralds and rubies), slab them and insert two of them into every 10-card briefcase. Oh, and the other eight cards in that briefcase will be comprised of six autographs and two jumbo prime memorabilia cards. And no card in the product will be numbered to more than 25.

Panini America officials have also added new inserts such as Retired Numbers Autographs and Top of the Class autograph memorabilia cards.

You can bet that we’ll have plenty more on 2013-14 Flawless Basketball right here on The Knight’s Lance between now and when the product releases on September 17. But until then, enjoy this spectacular preview gallery featuring many of the aforementioned new autographs and a few other previews. Oh, and for all you salivating at the prospects of 2013-14 National Treasures Basketball releasing Wednesday, stay tuned tomorrow for one final must-see pre-release preview. Trust us, you won’t want to miss it.