While 2017-18 Panini Prestige Basketball continues an established hobby reputation, there are still a few things to keep NBA collectors on their toes.

Similar to the 2016-17 set, there are also several elements that look to be exclusive to certain retail formats. Perhaps most interesting, Cracked Ice technology, apparently referred to as Crystal in this release, is exclusive to Hobby boxes. Hobby boxes also average a pair of autographs.

Bypassing normal distribution, it is believed that Hobby boxes of 2017-18 Panini Prestige Basketball are reserved for brick and mortar stores as part of Panini's Roundtable program.

2017-18 Panini Prestige Basketball Base / Inserts

Displaying a fairly simple design, the 200-card base set includes 150 veterans grouped by team in the 2017-18 Panini Prestige Basketball checklist. Coming at least one per pack, the final 50 cards are all for rookie players. Parallels include Horizon, Mist and Rain, plus Hobby-only Crystal (#/199), Crystal Gold (#/10), Crystal Blue (1/1).

A variety of inserts combine with the parallels to average one per pack. Among the choices, there's All-Time Greats for the NBA legends, Hardcourt Heroes for the team leaders, and Stars of the NBA for the biggest current names. In addition, Highlight Reel offers impressive photography, Rookie Class centers on the first-year standouts, and Stat Stars celebrates those that really pile on the points, rebounds, assists and more. These options also have the same parallels as the base set, except the primary Crystal version is not numbered.

On the more rare side of 2017-18 Panini Prestige Basketball, the Playmakers insert is a case hit and the micro-etch Prestigious Picks cards average three per case.

There are also Micro-Etch Rookies inserts. These have Hobby-only Red versions, which average nine per box, and Pink parallels, numbered to 10 copies.

2017-18 Panini Prestige Basketball Autographs

As far as the two autographs per hobby box, collectors can look forward to the base Bonus Shots Signatures, Prestigious Signatures or Old School Signatures, each with Hobby-only Crystal parallels.

Estimated Release Date: 02/21/2018
Product Configuration: 6 cards per pack, 24 packs per box, 16 boxes per case

2017-18 Panini Prestige Basketball Hobby Box Break Average

• 2 Autographs
• 24 Inserts/Parallels