The Drool Gallery: Panini America Explores the Rarest Gems Inside Kobe Anthology

With today's release of 2012-13 Threads Basketball, Panini America's stunning cross-brand Kobe Anthology tribute set is now three products old. By now, you've no doubt been able to appreciate many of the 200 base cards in the set that chronicle Bryant's record-setting career up to now.

With today’s release of 2012-13 Threads Basketball, Panini America’s stunning cross-brand Kobe Anthology tribute set is now three products old. By now, you’ve no doubt been able to appreciate many of the 200 base cards in the set that chronicles Bryant’s record-setting career up to now.

What you likely haven’t seen much of so far — if at all — are the rare (and quite spectacular) Kobe autograph and memorabilia cards punctuating the set. Well, that’s about to change in a big way. But first, grab a napkin. Trust us, you’ll need it.

In the drool-inducing gallery that follows, we’re going to bring you up close and personal with some of the coolest cards ever created honoring one of the most collected superstars in NBA history. Since many of these gems are just starting to trickle onto the market now, we figured the time was right for a proper unveiling.

The 200-card Kobe Anthology base set (distributed via special five-card bonus packs inserted one per hobby box into every 2012-13 product Panini America makes) is augmented by rare autograph, memorabilia and autographed memorabilia versions numbered to 24 or less. Many of those versions are shown for the first time below.

The 25-card Kobe Anthology Autograph insert features 25 cards numbered to 24 with a Gold version numbered to 8. Similarly, the 25-card Kobe Anthology Autograph Memorabilia insert includes base versions numbered to 24 and Gold prime-memorabilia versions numbered to 8. Finally, there is also a 50-card memorabilia-only set with base versions limited to 24 copies and prime versions limited to 8.

Of course, you likely don’t care as much about those details right now as you do peeking the breathtaking images that follow. Stay tuned to The Knight’s Lance for additional details on our season-long Kobe Anthology tribute.

But until then, feast your eyes on these beauties . . .

 

Share

37 Replies to “The Drool Gallery: Panini America Explores the Rarest Gems Inside Kobe Anthology”

  1. Omg that’s freaking crazy! Ahh man what I would do for a card with Kobe auto. I need to be extremely lucky! Kobe is my favorite player and it is great you guys are showing us these rates!

  2. This looks really awesome.
    They should come with penny sleeve once we pull them so we would not drop our drools while opening them…
    Kobe is the King.
    Would love to have this.
    Very nice indeed.

  3. Incredible memorabilia from one of the greatest ever and a clever way of packaging and promoting it. My only suggestion would of been to have the pictures correlate with the numbering of the cards–serial numbered #8 pictures of Kobe wearing his first jersey and the #24 cards Kobe wearing his current jersey. Also if Kobe would of added the #8 inscription to his cards numbered out of eight and the #24 inscription to his cards numbered to 24 that would of been even more amazing. I understand that’s like driving a Ferrari with a super model by your side but a guy can dream right. Great job Panini!

  4. Thanks for making my life hell, these cards are insane. Now my want list has becoming mission impossible great cards. Thanks for making this hobby collectable again panini.

  5. Those are just nasty cards, pictures are amazing, on card auto’s and the memorabilia in them is amazing. Very well done job.

  6. Never will like Kobe but I do like the card designs. Tracy one question though, why do some of the Kobe memorabilia cards have shiny sparkles on them? That sounded weird, but do you know what I mean?

  7. What jerseys or part of the jersey are the prime patch’s from I have the same meterial on a Chris Paul card? Is it all-star?

  8. WHAAAAAAT I never knew these were in there! I saw memorabilia pulled and I myself pulled a /24 base card, but I had no idea these pretty cards were in there o.o

    Now I kinda wish there was a Kobe anthology hobby box JUST so I could try to pull one of these lol

  9. So I was browsing eBay for Panini cards/packs/boxes, and I saw one of these cards on it from a seller. Kobe anthology jersey with signature /8. It was going for $3000. I almost fainted lol

  10. This is one of the best ideas anyone has ever had…including a pack of these in every box and giving us all a shot at some sweet Kobe Swag..wow!

  11. Very well designed cards, cool black and white photos and of course on-card autos makes these some soon-to-be very sought after insert cards. Thanks for the gallery Tracy!

  12. Just saw this when browsing the site and am incredibly happy to see it! Kobe was the first player I ever collected, back in 96 when I was 12 years old and it’s been amazing to grow with a player like that for the last 16 years. It’s very cool you guys are doing a set chronicling his career and he is definitely a worthy player for that kind of attention. Jordan had sets similar to that, and now Kobe does too and it’s perfectly fitting for one of the greatest of all time!

    Classic looking set Panini, you nailed it!

  13. Nice autograph…besides the path auto, i like the simple black background Kobe auto #/8. what are the odds of pulling these autos?

    1. I agree. I have 70% of the set due to the cards thus far released in various products. With other products yet to be released, there will be the remaining 30% of the set divvied out amongst the assorted releases. What drives me nuts as the insane number of dupes within the Kobe packs of any given product. From 10 packs of Kobe Anthology packs that have come out of Timeless Treasure, I got 125 (x6), 186 (x8) & 198 (x6)….. and only 1 of multiple other cards. Same things happens within other products as well. Huge numbers of dupes within Threads, Absolute, etc…… makes you wonder if some cards are shortprinted?

      Tracy, are any of the 200 cards shortprinted? Why the strange collation?

  14. My question is for the Kobe patches… why are the patches silver when the WEST all star jerseys had GOLD strips?

Leave a Reply to Tracy Hackler Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *