I picked up a 45 card rack pack of the 2013-2014 Hoops NBA trading cards at Wal-Mart for $4.98. Besides the base cards I received one blue border and one gold border card (George Hill seen above).
The front of the cards are appealing visually to me. The border is white. At the bottom is the NBA Hoops logo in silver against a background color of the player's team. The players name is found at the top on a background color which is associated with the player's team. The team logo is in the upper right on a parquet floor background. The photos themselves take up the rest of the space. No issues with pictures with the majority being action shots. It seems like the majority are pictures of the players at the rim. Not a big issue but seems different. Some rookies were pictured playing in the summer league or in posed shots. My only beef would be the lack of the player's position. Again a nice front which I can't find much fault with.
The back is a whole other story. It is vertical in design. An example is below though it isn't a card I received in my pack. My first impression was not negative. The back is completely black and white with Panini's logo in the upper left hand corner with the card's number. The year of the set and Panini's information is at the bottom of the card. The player's team logo is centered at the top. I think it is a bit too large and could have been shrunk to help out the font size. Below the logo is the player's position, name, a brief snippet on the player and then the player's specifics (Ht, Wt, Birthdate, Drafted - round only, school). Each section alternates the background color between black and white. Then come the stats (season, team, g, fg%, ft%, 3pm, rpg, apg, stl, blk, pts, ppg). Kudos as always for putting all the career stats of a player on the back. I really enjoy being able to look back at all the years of a player's career. I would rather see steals and blocks per game as opposed to totals but that isn't a huge point. What is is the size of the font. Without lots of squinting I'd never be able to read the back of the cards. I'm thinking they could have gone horizontal with the design and made the logo smaller to allow for a bigger font. I'm sure 20 years-olds don't have the same issue as someone my age but it seems this could be done better.
Good draw in the 45 cards. I grabbed a Stephen Curry who is a big star in the league today whom I really like. Other cards of note were the gold bordered George Hill who is also making a big name for himself. The Dwayne Wade card has a cameo by Tim Duncan. Andrew Bynum's pic is a good one of him holding his new Cavalier's jersey. Just looking at that you actually have hope he may play well again someday. Grabbed a Damian Lillard and George Teague card from each of my favorite teams which is always nice. The rookie Nerlens Noel card was also a nice pickup. It is a picture of a staged dunk. Manu Ginobili's picture is of him slamming one down and is one of the pictures that stood out to me. I think it might have been against Miami no less. The Pau Gasol card just made me laugh. Kind of an awkward position they caught him in.
I struggle on this one as the back really turns me off. At first I was ok but I just get more irritated the more I try to read anything on the back. Overall I'll say pick these up with the caveat that the back might be frustrating. I may put more importance on the back than most. The fronts are visually appealing and I think most would enjoy as well. The price is also a win and I'm sure they are available at most retailers.
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