Dropping April 16th, 2025, 2024-25 Optic Basketball is the latest installment of Panini’s chrome-finished fan favorite.
Known for its crisp design, Rated Rookies, and parallels that dazzle without overwhelming, Optic continues to ride the line between collectability and affordability—just a step behind Prizm on the hobby hierarchy.
But with a $325 release day price, is this a good buy or a stay away?
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Since debuting in 2016, Optic Basketball has built a loyal following by offering a blend of flash and simplicity. It doesn’t aim to compete with ultra-high-end products like Flawless or National Treasures.
Instead, it thrives in the accessible mid-tier zone, offering hobbyists clean designs, vibrant parallels, and the beloved Rated Rookie lineup.
Collectors often weigh Optic against Prizm and Select. While Prizm remains king, many believe Optic is catching up—and for good reason. The chrome finish, bold Rated Rookie branding, and on-card rookie autos continue to set the tone for the brand’s identity.
Shop for 2024-25 Optic Basketball boxes on eBay
While the base product remains Donruss Optic, it’s popularly known simply as “Optic.” This release is distinguished for its Rated Rookie cards and on-card rookie autographs, which are highly prized each season.
New this year are the Rookie Dual Signatures and the debut of Slammy inserts, which add a fun and unique element to the collecting experience.
Optic basketball is best known for its Rated Rookie cards and on-card rookie autos, which are some of the most iconic rookie cards every season. Much like Silver Prizm rookies, Optic has a Silver parallel as well (which is called the “holo,” to add an extra layer of confusion.).
The Optic holos are rare, valuable, and amazing looking and always have a lower population than Silver Prizms on the PSA pop reports.
Shop for 2024-25 Optic Basketball boxes on eBay
The fan-favorite Donruss Optic Basketball returns for the 2024-25 season with a sleek 300-card base set, featuring 225 veterans, 50 Rated Rookies, and 25 Legends.
Each Hobby Box delivers 1 autograph, with top rookies featured in the Rated Rookies Signatures lineup—chase low-numbered versions all the way down to 1-of-1 Gold Vinyl parallels!
Collectors can hunt for Hobby-exclusive parallels of the base cards, including Holo, Aqua (/225), Orange (/175), Lime Green (/149), Jazz, Red (/99), Pink Velocity (/79), Blue (/49), Black Velocity (/39), Gold (/10), Green (/5), Gold Vinyl (1/1), and the ever-popular Photon SP. New this year: Cracked Ice (/25) and Black Pandora (/15) add even more chase potential.
The insert lineup includes returning favorites like Elite Dominators, The Rookies, Lights Out, Red Hot Rookies, and Rising Suns, plus the exciting debut of Net Marvels. Many inserts feature parallels numbered from /99 to 1.
Hobby Boxes also contain super short print (SSP) inserts such as Slammy!
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This year’s Optic Basketball doesn’t mess with success. The classic hobby configuration returns:
As mentioned above, also returning are Photon SPs and the same stunning lineup of parallels. You’ll find dragons and nebulas in the Choice boxes, and new this year are:
Here’s a breakdown of the parallel lineup for Base and Rated Rookies:
Thankfully, Panini hasn’t overloaded Optic with dozens of new parallels like Select. The restraint here makes pulling color feel special—and valuable.
Alter Ego, and the all-new Downtown, with ultra-rare Gold (/10) and Gold Vinyl (1/1) versions.
With a pre-order price of $325, Optic 2024-25 has promising potential, but does that make it a sure-fire buy? To help, we’ve done some of the research for you.
One good thing about Optic and the rest of the opti-chrome brands is that you at least get quite a few cards. With a product like Optic that has 80 cards, at least you’ll get something.
So let’s look at Optic as an investment, but first, I want to dust off something I wrote last year: here’s why Optic could be a better long-term investment than the current golden boy, Prizm.
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While Prizm is the favorite child in both basketball and football cards, Optic is the next best bet for a long-term investment… and many collectors think it can overtake Prizm.
Here are three reasons to choose it:
Silver Prizms are significantly more common than Optic’s Holo. For example, Luka Doncic has 2,142 Silver Prizms in a PSA 10 and only 296 Optic holos. That’s nearly 8X more silvers than holos. Collectors will eventually become more perceptive of this large discrepancy.
Again, this is subjective, but many collectors (including members of the CardLines team) will argue that the Rated Rookies and optic design look far superior to Prizm’s design. In a hobby based on eye appeal, this will have long-term impacts.
The other Prizm rival is Select, but with three different tiers of cards (Concourse, Premier, Courtside), Select takes a bit of work to understand year-to-year. For busy collectors who work and have families, it’s too much trouble to mess with. Optic’s checklist is a lot cleaner and simpler.
If you’re investing in sealed boxes with the intent of holding them, here are some numbers to consider.
Shop for 2024-25 Optic Basketball boxes on eBay
Most importantly, it looks like, based on the assumed release cost of $325, that investment cost will be very hard to recoup — last year’s releases are selling for half of that. The older boxes sell for more, but the rookies are more established from those seasons, including Luka, Shai, Trae, Tatum, Ja, Zion and more.
As we’ve written before, the rookie class always matters when investing in sealed boxes. And this year’s rookie class is… fine. But just fine. No Wemby-like prospects.
So, how should you invest?
Optic rookie cards are one of the blue-chip investments of modern Panini rookies – perhaps second to only Prizm. If you’re going to invest in just one card of anybody, Optic is a great way to go.
Your best bet of making a guaranteed profit on this product is finding a few holos of players you believe in, buying them raw (after asking the seller for more pictures), then getting them graded. Optic Holos are particularly strong since they can have 6x – 10x as low of a population as silver Prizms.
If you can scoop up silvers of the rookies you like and grade, then you’ll be set for a long-term hold. Collectors go nuts for Optic PSA 10s.
But caution: as with all new releases, don’t buy the first Optic cards that appear on eBay for this year. The price will inevitably drop as the supply meets the demand.
Shop for 2024-25 Optic Basketball boxes on eBay
Optic is my personal favorite brand (particularly basketball), and it keeps getting even better year after year while still capturing the magic of what makes the product special. While this year doesn’t change much, that’s not a complaint.
With more scarcity than Prizm and still strong appeal, it has good investment potential or a fun rip, but you have to get it at a good price. As noted, buying sealed Optic to hold could be risky at release-day pricing.
What do you think of this product? What will it be worth in 5 years? Let us know on Twitter @card_lines.
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