Two years ago, Panini unveiled plans for 2012-13 Flawless Basketball and almost all collectors were skeptical that the hobby had enough demand for a NBA Basketball product with a $1500 price tag to insure product success. As it turns out, demand was such that Flawless quickly went up in price to the point that today, that same box of 2012-13 Flawless Basketball sells for over $2500.
Rookie Class stars play an important role in insuring product success for high-end products. The 2014 Rookie Class is just the right class to insure 2014-15 High End Basketball true success. 2014-15 National Treasures Basketball easily sells at a $600 price tag. Preorders for 2014-15 Flawless Basketball are currently at $1660 per box. And, 2014-15 LUXE Basketball is a four card product which released with a $280 price tag. Customer demand for this very limited product is yet to be decided; however, early indications are very positive.
While collectors know what they are getting with National Treasures and Flawless, LUXE being the new kid on the block, has to win over basketball collectors one day at a time. The measure of product success is demand resulting in price stability or price increase. 2014-15 LUXE Basketball is extremely limited with approximately 4643 boxes made. To put this in perspective, 2012-13 Flawless had about 2600 boxes produced and 2014-15 National Treasures Basketball had about 9900 boxes made.
No other product rightly demands a Flawless Basketball price tag. LUXE Basketball, however provides beautiful high-end collectible cards with an average price of $70 per card (2012-13 Flawless is $250 per card). Design, low production and card content quality of LUXE at $70 per card makes LUXE look like a bargain.
Chris just came back to the hobby four weeks ago and quickly learned the value of collecting high-end products. High-end products are not for everyone. While considered high-risk, high reward, 2014-15 LUXE basketball provides a higher average return on investment than just about every basketball product this year, except possibly 2014-15 Flawless. The LUXE checklist and low production will keep value high.
Chris opened one box of LUXE, checked eBay to estimate his return on investment then decided to try another. Soon Chris went through a case of LUXE and was happy with his decision. Here are some of Chris' favorite LUXE Basketball hits.
