2012-13 Panini Totally Certified (2 boxes)

[KarlHungus]

Card dealer: “If you want to collect for real, you need to buy these sorts of boxes.”
Me, easy customer: “Give me two.”

Box 1 break:
Base set: 8 out of 209 cards. No doubles. Most noteworthy: Kevin Durant.

RCs: 6 out of 91. No doubles. Most noteworthy: Dion Waiters.

Parallels (10):
Red /499 (6): Jared Cunningham, Kendrick Perkins, Emeka Okafor, Brandon Jennings, Monta Ellis, Chase Budinger
Blue /299 (4): Chris Paul, Jeremy Tyler, Carlos Boozer, Jamal Crawford

Memorabilia (4):
Red Materials (4): Andrew Bynum, Jimmer Fredette, Kevin Durant, Leandro Barbosa

Autographs (3):
Rookie Roll Call Autographs: Josh Selby (on card)
Rookie Roll Call Autographs Blue /199: Jae Crowder (on card)
Private Signings: Glen Rice (on card)





Box 1 recap:
Quite a disappointing box. A few decent cards, but the one card that could have given me a good feeling was not there. I like the Glen Rice autograph. Nice card design, nice signature.

Most valuable card: Private Signings: Glen Rice
Happy with: Private Signings: Glen Rice
Got what I was promised? 31 cards, one extra Memorabilia card (4 while the box promises 3).

At this point I was a little bit worried about the second box.

Box 2 break:
Base set: 14 out of 209 cards. No doubles. Most noteworthy: Vince Carter.

RCs: 2 out of 91. No doubles. Most noteworthy: Damian Lillard.

Parallels (9):
Red /499 (6): Damian Lillard, Linas Kleiza, Andrew Goudelock, Kobe Bryant, David West, Festus Ezeli
Blue /299 (3): Kris Humphries, Matt Bonner, Nick Young

Memorabilia (4):
Red Materials (4): Iman Shumpert, John Salmons, Joe Johnson, Dwight Howard

Autographs (3):
Rookie Roll Call Autographs (2): Orlando Johnson and Anthony Davis (both on card)
Rookie Roll Call Autographs Red /199: Gustavo Ayon (on card)





Box 2 recap:
Box #2 was a whole lot better than the first one. The Anthony Davis in this box alone ways up to the rest of the two boxes together. But, with the Damian Lillard cards and the Kobe, this box felt much better than the first one anyway.

Review:
Personally, I am not a fan of this sort of set designs. Especially the cards with red background make my eyes hurt. After a while I find these cards boring. I understand though that many people do like this design. I would have liked to see a rookie denotation on the RCs.
If I get 30 cards from the base + RC set and 19 from the parallel sets, my idea is that there are either too little base cards in the boxes, or too many parallel cards. This makes the parallel cards less special. Why not put more base cards in the box and cut out the red parallel set? It would make it more feasible to collect the whole base set and it would make the blue, gold and green parallel sets more special.

Panini gave me an extra Memorabilia card in each box. I think these Red Material cards look very bad. I would have been more happy with an extra, decent base card.

Most valuable card: Rookie Roll Call Autographs: Anthony Davis
Most happy with: Rookie Roll Call Autographs: Anthony Davis
Trying to complete sets? Seriously? No, seriously, I like to open boxes, so this would cost me too much money.
Got what I was promised? 32 cards, also here one extra Memorabilia card (4 while the box promises 3).

Value for money: 4/10 (box 1) + 10/10 (box 2) = 7/10
Design of the cards: 2/10
Fun of breaking: 4/10
Would I buy a second box? After opening the first one most definitely I would have not. Fortunately I was stuck with a second one already.

[BigCity]

not too bad imo

[WilyWestbrook0]

Agreed with BigCity. First box may not have been ideal, but it wasn't awful given all the other autos/jerseys you could have gotten, and box two was very nice indeed.

[chakhae1]

People love the design of the set b/c people tend to like color and the precious metal gems that fall a couple per case. I like the Totally Signatures autos as well and have been able to pull a couple in my breaks. No one spectacular, but I think the design in that set is very nice. Plus every team has a multiple of hits and that makes it ideal for pc collectors which is always a plus. In my opinion it's one of the better products out there b/c of these reasons and the only downside for me is the price point and the # of no named rookies, but that's true for any product this year.