Beckett Basketball Poll: Does a Pacific brands revival interest you?
By Chris Olds | Beckett Basketball Editor | Commentary
Panini America has begun teasing what’s to come in its first 2011-12 NBA products, and first on the radar is 2011 Preferred, which will include a few nods to the old Pacific brands that are part of the company’s portfolio of brands.
That means the likes of Crown Royale with its diecut crowns will be back inside Preferred (click here for the First Look story) as well as nods to cards such as Cramer’s Choice, another diecut favorite at times in the past. (Those seen here are on their way to be autographed.)
I’ve always felt that taste in cards is a bit like music — what was good when you started collecting (or listening) sticks with you as an appreciated era later on. (If we move on and our tastes change.) For me, though, when cards such as these came along I appreciated the creativity and the uniqueness found with the cards … but I never really cared for them. I think I understand why they’re coming back — there are a few reasons — but they still don’t resonate with me even all these years later.
But that’s just me. We want to know what you think with a couple of polls after the jump.
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Let us know what you think in the comments below. If you want to see more images from the brand, click here.
Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Basketball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.
I always enjoyed Pacific cards, especially the die-cuts. They were intriguing and different, from introducing the exotic die-cuts like the crowns to tobacco-sized minis (remember Private Stock?). Also, I always appreciated how they always identified the year, brand, and subset around the number of the card, which made sorting or looking at cards from different sets/years a breeze.
in basketball there is no real history in terms of pacific
football & hockey is fine the made cards for about a decade give or take
it is like making score basketball
I am not very familiar with the older Pacific stuff so this is kind of new material for me. However, I really did like Crown Royale when it came out (still want to bust a box). The top images say two things to me. 1. Too many parallels. 2. Those are quite oddly shaped. I’m not sure if I like or dislike the odd shape, but it’s different, so I’m willing to give it a try. I will say though, if those cards are going to be in a $200 dollar box with only four cards in it (three being autographs), those cards look too thin for my taste. I may, if I can get the funds up, try one box, but that’s very iffy at this time. One of the good things I think is that the autographs in this product shouldn’t be flooded with questionable rookie autographs since there won’t be any rookies in this product (if I remember correctly). So the odds of pulling a decent name (Blake, Kobe, Wall, Durant, etc.) are better than if there were 45 different rookie autographs. Another reason I might try one is because of the 6-8 patch booklet. I would hope to pull one with a Piston on there, not that there’s likely to be, but maybe if there isn’t, I can get something good in trade for it or sell it and get my money back. Let’s see if I can pre-order it. :)
PLEASE BRING BACK THE PACIFIC PRISMS!!!! They would be a great repalcement for the refractors that collectors lost when Topps lost their NBA license. They would be a heap better than the Mirror parallels that are attempting that now for Panini.
If the autos are on card, less parallels, and gu not your plain & basic one color ie over produced I’d like to see them as a stand alone design. Of course not in a 200$ box but a low-mid end price range.
I enjoyed collecting 1994 Pacific Prism Basketball cards.. Still need a few to complete the set. I was 14 yrs old back then.. I would like to see them come back with NBA logos & jerseys. I do not care too much for college uniforms, unless it is the years they are playing or old HOFers.. I hope they limit the autos more than Panini did in previous product releases. i.e. Court Kings, with autos print run over 600. Don’t care for the multi-die-cuts… mainly because there are too easy to get dinged during production, packaging, or when collectors are busting wax. I love the simple die-cut cards better… ones that don’t have a bunch of pointed edges like Crown Royal.
Sigh…..I miss Topps and their Refractors.
No matter how many “old” brands they rerelease it won’t get my money until panni and Topps figure out how customer service works, Bowman sterling with sticker auto’s was the straw that broke the camels back for me , I will continue to purchase Press Pass products and boycott the Big 3 , end of story
Shawn: Bowman Sterling has *always* had sticker autos … since 2004.
Id love to see the Pacific brand revived and for them to start producing die cut and laser cut baseball cards again. I miss the old 90’s style, you know when variations and insert cards were completely different from base cards (and not like some variations today where the font or border is a different color, or the picture has a slight different color tint.) I’d start buying boxes again if they brought back cards like Cramer’s Choice, Flame Thrower, Pacific Prism and Pacific Revolution Premiere Date. Also a 30 year anniversary Pacific chocolate bar featuring Ken Griffey Jr would be awesome to!
You have to admit that Pacific was very creative with their card designs. Really pushed the edge on inserts and such. I would love to see that creativity come back. Not saying what is out there now is not creative. It would be nice to get some added competition. I wouldn’t mind another Brand come back into the game in all sports but really limit the number of products they are allowed to produce to 1 or 2 price points (Low and Med-High) in each sport. I used to love the Collectors Edge, Wild Card and Pacific stuff of the 90’s, Over produced, yes, but some nice cards and ideas! If they do come back, keep it very affordable to allow the younger collectors to be able to buy on their own and get more involved and grow back this hobby! I think it is time to expand licenses and take away “exclusive” rights. Wouldn’t you think we can grow this hobby if McDonalds, Burger King, Seven-11, CircleK, Kellogs, etc would begin again to give away neat little sets not found anywhere else? Idea….If we do get Pacific back in to the mix, allow them to own that niche for distribution!!
@TheCardMan – Panini own’s the rights to Pacific’s brands. They wouldn’t be coming in as another Manufacturer, their designs would simply be coming back.
@XstreamINsanity – Correct, Donruss and Pacific are under Panini. I put it together wrong above. Meant to say I would like to see another manufacturer in the game to produce fun stuff and limit the sub-brands to 1 – 2 products and make sure they have a price that would attract more people to the hobby.
Ok, I got ya. I personally would like multiple manufacturers to go head to head ONLY if they limit the number of products and preferably the number of different cards in each set. I would hate, since I’m a team collector, to have to get 3-7 different parallels of each different base and insert for 20 different products. :) If they could limit that, I’d be much appreciative. lol.
My biggest concern when ordering Pacific for my shop was the number of damaged cards, it never seemed to fail there was always chipping and some corner dinging, I did like how somebody mentioned before about the labeling on the cards you always knew what insert they were from and the year and product, card companies could learn a thing or 2 from that. I like Crown Royale and Omega products Pacific Paramount was a great cheaper brand that always seemed to sell well, almost to many paralells and that goes for the old Pacific as well as any new sets like Topps how many versions of a base card do we really need?
Panini has done a nice job with the revival of Crown Royale !