Not one of my better purchases

Before I get to the topic at hand, I wanted to quickly mention that even though I don't expect much to come from it, I have begun the process of finally putting up some want lists. And by "begun the process", I mean I have at least created the pages for them at the top of the blog. I figure if I add a little bit each day, it might take me a month or so to complete, but since it's taken me a year plus to even get this far, what's another month. Now back to your regularly scheduled post:

A couple of weeks ago, while checking the card aisle at Walmart, I saw something new on the shelves in the form of a blaster called "Buzzer Beater". With the box advertising six hobby packs, plus one exclusive pack of the -oh so pretty- 2013-14 Prizm blue, white, and red wave Prizms, I was very tempted, but ultimately was able to walk away without lessening any of my paper folding money ...

...at least until another trip to Walmart last week, where unfortunately for me, those brightly colored Prizms pictured on the front were speaking, they were saying "Forget the night, live with us in forests of azure". And since your reading this post, titled as it is, it should be fairly obvious by now that after this second encounter, I was no longer able to resist their siren song.

So let's take a look at the contents of this box that bewitched me so:

And here was the rub! The box promises six hobby packs (plus the bonus pack), which as you can see, is true. The problem is that you get five packs of 2013-14 Panini (no cutting edge name?) and one pack of 2013-14 Panini Prizm. Maybe it's just me, but I thought there would be a bit more variety. Had I known otherwise, this box would have stayed behind and I would be $20 richer.

Starting with my temptress:


I'm a bit surprised with the 2013-14 Prizm being as popular as it was, and still is, that Panini would still have any of these blue, white, and red wave prizms left to put in boxes three years after their release. With the ever increasing fervor to acquire all things Giannis from this set, I would imagine these boxes are selling pretty well. And if I were to be honest, that was part of my motivation in buying this box too. Howard and Lillard were showing on the front and back of the cellophane pack, and no offense to young Mr. Olynyk, but he doesn't make for a great mystery middle card. These three might not be the best possible cards to get, but it is nice to finally get a couple of these blue, white, and red's.

On the off chance someone out there has never seen the difference between these blue, white, and red wave prizms and the red, white, and blue mosaics that were exclusive to rack packs, here you go:

I realize this side-by-side comparison would have been better by using the same person, but since I didn't have a Howard, Lillard, or Olynyk in mosaic form, I figured this Kevin Martin was close enough in pose to use for this hastily constructed example.

I might as well start the actual packs with the lone offering of  Prizm:

This is one of those rare instances where it would have been better to have a retail pack instead of the hobby, as you have a much better chance for parallels in the retail. At least I needed five out of the six cards in this pack, including the Vince Carter Dominance insert.

As for the five packs of just regular old 2013 Panini, the design isn't bad, but overall it just doesn't really do anything for me. If I had to pick out a few personal highlights, I guess I would go with these:

It's always fun too, when two of the packs were almost identical in contents.

The five packs yielded the following four inserts:

Oh, and I managed to get an autograph as well:

Demarre Carroll, woo (wait for it) hoo!  I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that a mediocre player would possess such a mediocre signature. Still better than another base card I suppose.

So to sum up this box, I ended up with a whole three cards that I actually wanted, and those three cards could have been had for less than $5.

Unless you're suffering from a serious case of Giannis fever, I wouldn't recommend buying one of these boxes at full price. Heck, I might not even recommend purchasing one at half price, unless you're really fond of those 2013-14 Panini (seriously Panini, what's with the no name on those?) cards.

Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.