As most of you know, when there is an intriguing retail product that may induce hours of enjoyment and $100’s in commitment… I’m usually all-in. 2017-18 Panini Prizm Basketball is no exception. I’m taking you on a short journey to explore what a $1,000 investment into this extremely hot basketball product will produce. I’ll give you the honest workings of the product and help you understand if it’s worth a chase of your own.
The Product
2017-18 Panini Prizm Basketball
Product Page is HERE.
The Journey
On 12/21 & 12/22 (Week+ after retail has hit stores) we managed to hit up 10 different Target’s & Wal-Mart’s across KS/MO. It took about 4 hours and produced some surprisingly good results. We were able to acquire the following goods:
- Blaster Boxes: 15
- Cello/Rack Packs: 25
- Retail Packs: 119 (4 fresh boxes)
- Subway Sandwiches: 2x
Total Cost = $970.09
I essentially purchased whatever was available at each of the WM/Targets. I was 2-4 @ Wal-Mart….and 5-6 at Target’s. I found 2 Target’s that has brand new retail boxes of Prizm out for display. There seems to be the most availability @ Target.
The Results:
Initial Thoughts:
I love, love, love the retail experience from Prizm Basketball. Honestly I haven’t enjoyed chasing non-auto / “hits” in a long time. It’s a joy opening a pack and getting excited when you see a refractor (or “prizm”). That is obviously driven by the value you receive from premier silver rc’s… but darn, it’s fun. 🙂
Setting the Silver aside, I thought there was a decent balance between color + autos. In blasters I only hit relics… but I also hit a /42 or /25 every 3 blasters. You get an auto in every retail box (24pcs)…
If I’m going back in to buy new retail Prizm, I’m ranking in this order:
- Retail Box Packs
- Buy a fresh box if possible. If not, there is a lot of good value in all packs. Auto’s were scattered across whole box. You’ll likely get Pink Pulsar refractor /42 and a few green refractors in each box. In over half I was grabbing the /25 Pulsar Refractors.
- Rack Packs
- Red / Blue Prizm’s come in an extra 3-card pack. These alone make it worth the $10. Hard to pull autos…. but you aren’t buying for the autos.
- Blaster Boxes
- Unfortunately I didn’t pull a single auto in my blasters (15!!), but I had 2 or 3 blasters that had some nice green #’d refractors. I also nailed 2x Fultz Silver Prizm’s in the blasters.
- Relic’s = extremely weak.
In terms of the checklist / player variance… it was interesting. I was obviously looking for Tatum + Ball for ROI purposes…. but had absolutely horrible luck in pulling them. Pulled only 2x base chrome of Lonzo Ball…and ZERO base rookies of Jayson Tatum. But, I made it up for with 6 Fultz, 5 Mitchell, and 5+ of almost every other rookie. I was very surprised to see the lack of Ball / Tatum in the splurge.
The Sales:
I’ll start looking at ROI once sales start coming in… but I’m guessing I’ll end somewhere around 80-90% ROI. This will be after I keep a complete base set, most of the inserts (for kids), & some random Spurs cards for my collection. You don’t find that with many retail products (or hobby). This makes the chase much more exciting.
| Date | Sales | Running Total |
| 12/26/17 | $49.30 | $49.30 |
| 12/27/17 | $0 | $49.30 |
| 12/28/17 | $457.00 | $506.30 |
| 12/29/17 | 265.89 | $772.19 |
| 12/30/17 | $147.00 | $919.19 |
| 12/31/17 | ||
| 1/1/18 | ||
| 1/2/18 | ||
| CURRENT TOTAL | $919.19 | |
| CURRENT ROI |
94.75% |
Final Results
It’s really hard to complain about a 95% ROI for a a retail product. I got to keep 100’s of base cards, inserts, and a few extra parallels. Kids loved it…. and it was really easy to manage.
I’m not sure it’s worth another round, but this is absolutely a product I’d recommend you try if you have the “itch” (or “disease”) 😉
Stay tuned, updates and lessons learned will be posted throughout the week.
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