2009-10 Panini Studio Basketball Rack Pack

I grabbed a rack pack of this stuff at Wally World the other day just to check it out for myself. I'd seen what the base cards and some of the inserts look like and overall, it's a decent set. The rack pack contained the odd number of 31 cards. I will review the base cards only here because, guess what? That's right, that's all I got. Not 1 insert in the entire pack. Lame.


Since the set is called Studio, you would think that it would contain posed studio shots, but that doesn't appear to be the case. What we get ON EVERY SINGLE CARD, is a full color bust shot (at least they aren't cut of at the junk again in this set) on the left superimposed over a faded black & white photo on the right. The background shot then fades to white at the edge of the card. Does Panini actually make a set that doesn't have a white gradient on it somewhere? Man they overuse that design element.

One good aspect of this set is it proves that Panini does have access to decent action photography, if only in the backgrounds. My major gripe with Panini is their lack of action photography in ALL of their releases. Except for an occasional insert they like to stick with shots of guys shooting straight up jumpers, pulling uncontested rebounds or just dribbling up the court. Cut of at the junk, of course! Now they just need to take the background photos and make a set featuring them.

Another Panini complaint is they seem to design their base cards with autos & relics in mind, even though the majority of the cards will simply be base cards. This trend continues here. While the card design isn't terrible, to me it just screams, "Hey there should be an auto here on the right side! Or a relic." They need to stop this lazy design in my opinion. Make a nice base card set and design a TOTALLY DIFFERENT card to use for autos/relics. Preferably a different one for each. I don't want the same card 3 times: 1 blank, 1 auto & 1 relic. I WANT VARIETY!

Of course, I didn't get any variety here. Just a bunch of the same thing over and over again. Like I mentioned earlier, we didn't get one single insert. I know TJ is collecting the Skylines set and I've got a Dirk of one of the other sets. Too bad I can't show them to you here.

And, here's some more of the same. Like I said not terrible, but plenty of room for improvement. I really hope Panini steps up their game next year, there is too much sameness in their stuff right now. I need to drive over to their offices in Arlington and give them some tips, I guess! I'll be keeping the Kidd, Paul, Howard, Williams, Lopez & Garnett for myself and the boys. The rest are up for grabs. Let me know. Later.