Review: 2012-2013 Panini Threads NBA Trading Cards

This was a rack pack from a year ago I really hadn't had the time to look at much.  It was a 32 card pack from the local Wal-Mart.  Basketball cards at a decent price are hard to come by and I'm assuming I paid $4.98 for these but I apologize I don't remember for sure.  The fronts are nice looking to me.  The left sides of the cards are a hazy dark color that correlates to the team color with a partial muted team logo at the bottom left.  The team name (mascot) is in white just above the logo going from bottom to top.  At the top left is the players name with the first name in smaller print than the last.  They run top to bottom with the font in white.  The Panini threads logo and year are in the bottom right hand corner in a copper color.  The border to the bottom is also in this color and seems wasted considering there are no other borders on the card.  I like the photos but there is still something about them that I'm not completely a fan of.  I think that it is how tight the photos are.  That is usually a good thing as you get to see all of the player.  I won't say this is a negative because I can't quite put my finger on it.  Again I like the design and don't even mind that the player's position isn't listed here. 

The back of the card has the players photo in color from the front cropped to only include the head at the top of the card.  The card number and NBA logo appear to the upper left and the player's name appears on the smoky colored background similar to the front at the upper right.  That all takes up about the top 45% of the card. The personal information comes next with birthdate, ht, wt, then the stats from the last season - Yr, Team, G, FG%, FT%, 3PM, RPG, APG, SPG, Blk, Pts, PPG.  Not a fan of stat totals in basketball when everything in basketball is expressed in a "per game" manner.  Then they throw in some quick information on the player on a colored background.  The bottom third of the card contains the players position, uniform number, team, logo, Panini logo, and Panini and NBA information.  I like the color on the background.  Not dull at all.  My only gripe here is the lack of personal information.  College, drafted, how acquired, and hometown are just a few options Panini could have gone with.  Also the bottom third has quite a bit of wasted space.  Could have thrown more stats up top to provide more key information.  Overall though a pretty nice background. 

I think overall this is a pretty nice batch of cards.  I didn't pull many stars and only one insert (Bobcats diecut jersey card for Kimba Walker).  I'd recommend everyone at the minimum check out this set.  I think they might like what they see.