Prizm Becomes Panini’s Flagship Chrome NBA Product

 Triple SSS Sports Cards is a Detroit, Michigan, company that offers a full range of graded cards spanning the NHL, NBA, NFL, and MLB. With the Triple SSS Sports Cards team regularly traveling to card shows across the country, they stock cards from in-demand sets such as Prizm.

One of Panini's established chromium stock basketball brands, Prizm, followed in Topps Chrome's footsteps, introduced in the late 1990s as a companion to traditional cardboard stock issues with the same design. It ultimately became the most sought-after rookie issue of stars such as Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, LeBron James, and Kevin Durant.

Following the 2009-10 season, which featured Topps Chrome rookies of Steph Curry and James Harden, Topps lost its license to produce NBA cards. Its successor Panini released the first Prizm set in 2012 and brought back the iconic chrome look with an updated format. Also introduced was the concept of “silver” short-printed cards (similar to chrome refractors of the Topps era) and other short-printed variations, such as gold issues serial numbered to 10.

Today, with dozens of sets produced by Panini throughout a single season, Prizm retains its status as the must-have product for hobby collectors. Examples of high-end Prizm sales on eBay in late 2022 include a 2017-18 Jayson Tatum Orange Prizm rookie /49, graded PSA 10, for $19,999, and a 2013-14 Green Prizm rookie Giannis Antetokounmpo, graded BGS 10, for $15,600.

Wagner Cards Reach Record Prices

Triple SSS Sports Cards has an extensive online inventory and focuses on graded cards featuring legends across the major sports. Triple SSS Sports Cards maintains a close watch on the baseball auction marketplace, which has reached record valuations in recent years.

No card is more revered in baseball history than the ultra-rare T206 Honus Wagner, which was produced in 1909 and inserted into boxes of cigarettes. Because Wagner was against smoking, he reputedly stopped distribution of the American Tobacco Co. card. No more than a couple hundred are believed to have been printed.

The sale of a T206 Wagner for nearly half a million dollars at auction in early 2022 would not normally make news, as this is on the low end for the issue. However, this price was attained on a card that was torn nearly in half, with much of the uniform and part of the face missing. The card, assessed by PSA as “genuine” and left without a grade, received 19 bids and ended at $475,960. While this outpaces 99 percent of vintage cards on the market, this is actually far less than the record. A T206 Honus Wagner earned $6.6 million in 2021, which was the highest amount ever paid for a sports card.