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Panini Flawless Basketball ‘21-22 Is Literally A Gem Of A Release, But Is It Worth It?

2021-22 panini flawless

One of the hobby’s most premium high-end products, ‘21-22 Flawless Basketball, is set to release on May 26th, 2023. This year’s product hits the market just in time for the NBA playoffs, and hobby boxes are currently listed at $10,000. 

In this article, I’ll cover everything you need to know about Flawless – what makes it unique among high-end offerings, the hobby box’s best inserts, how Flawless holds up a potential investment, and more!

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About Panini Flawless Basketball 2021-22

Flawless celebrates its tenth year as one of the hobby’s most anticipated high-end products. Flawless initially debuted alongside other industry heavyweights like Prizm as Panini was looking to make a splash in 2012.

It’s carved out a niche as the only product that offers embedded gems in its cards. The base cards use a diamond, but Flawless also offers gold, emerald, bronze, and platinum parallels. The cards are printed on thick cardstock and come in a sleek black case, giving it a truly elite feel.

Flawless is also known for being very exclusive, even among high-end offerings. Its base cards are numbered to just 20; compare that to other high-end releases like National Treasures and Immaculate whose base cards are numbered to 99.

Flawless skips the fluff, offering 10 high-quality cards (as it should, considering the price.) Each hobby box offers one of the aforementioned /20 diamond base cards or one of its parallels. The other nine cards will be either memorabilia cards or autos.

Shop for 2021-22 Panini Flawless basketball hobby boxes on eBay

Notable Inserts in 2022 Flawless Basketball

Panini has released a few of the mock-ups of inserts from this year’s product. Here are some of my favorites:

Flawless 10th Anniversary Card

Panini seems to be relying on many of its staple inserts from the 2022 set, with the exception of a new addition – the 10th-anniversary card. As the name suggests, this card celebrates Flawless’ decade of production.

On top of being a new insert, and one that will obviously only be available this year, it’s also a pretty great-looking card. This Zion card features the sleek, but not uninspired minimalism that has become trademark for the Flawless design. 

Triple Logoman

The Triple Logoman will likely be the star of the show in this year’s Flawless set. This card is the natural evolution of the jersey patch card. Collectors loved patch cards that used the NBA’s “jumping man” logo. So, Panini upped the game by creating an ultra-rare card that featured three of these patches.

The Triple Logoman took the world by storm and probably reached peak public intrigue last year when Drake purchased 14 boxes of flawless in hopes of pulling the elusive Lebron TL from the 2022 set. 

Last year there were only 5 Triple Logoman cards in the entire release, so even for those breaking Flawless, you shouldn’t count on landing one. Drake’s 14 boxes all came up empty, which goes to show just how scarce these cards are.

Star Swatch Signatures

The most valuable rookies from Flawless are bound to be the rookie patch autos, which have historically featured 20 of the top NBA debutants. Panini did not, however, release a mockup of the rookie collection. So which is the best of the other autos available in the Flawless set?

Well, I’m a huge fan of this year’s Star Swatch Signatures card. This card is everything that a patch auto card should be. It offers a huge swatch with a game-worn jersey with a subtle star-shaped outline, and a player image and auto in the top left and right corners.

Last year the cards were numbered between 10-25 depending on the player, with parallels that were as exclusive as one-of-one. It featured mostly active vets, with a few retired legends.

Check out this video of Drake’s breakers pulling a 1/1 Ja Morant Star Swatch Signature card from last year’s release:

Shop for 2021-22 Panini Flawless basketball hobby boxes on eBay

2021-22 Flawless Basketball Hobby Box Breakdown

2021-22 Flawless will only be available as a hobby box. The product is expected to release on March 31st and is preselling for $10,000. 

Here’s what each hobby box will contain:

  • 10 cards per pack
  • 1 pack per box
  • 2 boxes per case

And here’s what Panini has released about the card breakdown inside:

  • 9 inserts (autos or memorabilia cards)
  • 1 base diamond card or base parallel

Shop for 2021-22 Panini Flawless basketball hobby boxes on eBay

Investing in Flawless Basketball 2021-22

Investing in a product like Flawless comes with a pretty significant amount of risk given both its price and the recent market instability around ultra-modern high-end cards. 

It’s no secret that the card market has been mostly down across the board the past year, and recent research suggested that products like Flawless that are actually hurting the most

All of that doesn’t necessarily make Flawless a bad investment – just a risky one. It really depends on where you believe the bottom will be. If you can capitalize on the public’s weariness and get a good deal on a box of Flawless, or a high-quality rookie at a good price, Flawless still has a lot of potential on the investing side.

Shop for 2021-22 Panini Flawless basketball hobby boxes on eBay

Wax

Pricing history for the past five years of Flawless is high variance and doesn’t really paint a reliable picture of what we can expect for this year. 

For example, you could look at the fact that 2018-19 hobby boxes have still gone for $20,000 in the past month and think that $10,000 for this year’s set is a steal. The problem is, that set had Luka Doncic (as well as a few other keynote rookies) whose popularity massively inflates the value of the set. Same goes for 19-20 which features Ja Morant and Zion Williamson.

The best indicator of what we might expect out of this year’s set is probably the 2020-21 set, which has a similar rookie class and public intrigue as this year’s set. That hobby box has been selling for an average of $6,300 on eBay over the past month, which makes the $10,000 asking price on this year’s product much less appealing. 

Nevertheless, many pre-sales of Flawless 2021-22 on eBay have been going significantly lower than the $10,000 price tag.  One verified auction saw a case of Flawless go for as little as $10,500 (so $5,250 a box). I suspect that number could drop even lower in the coming months. 

If you can snag Flawless for $5-6,000, it’s not only a good deal, but a number that could rise significantly if the ultra-modern market bounces back in the next few years. 

Shop for 2021-22 Panini Flawless basketball hobby boxes on eBay

Singles

Judging the long-term trends of Flawless singles is nearly impossible. Because each card is so limited, sales data is way too sparse to draw any conclusions.

The best way to make an educated guess about the value of Flawless singles would be to compare it to some of the other high-end releases, such as National Treasures or Immaculate. A few bellwether cards for those releases (such as Luka Doncic rookies) are down over 100%. So, it’s safe to guess that Flawless singles are probably down in that same range. 

If you’re curious how some of the base cards from top players from previous Flawless releases have been selling recently, here are a few guys who have been sold in the past few weeks (as of 3/9/23):

CardSale Price in February 2023
’19-20 Darius Garland Base Gems RC #12/20 $565
’20-21 LaMelo Ball Base Gems RC #03/25 BGS 9$1,235
’20-21 Luka Doncic Draft Gems AUTO 24/25 PSA/DNA PSA 9$1,432
’15-16 Nikola Jokic Rookie AUto 25/25$3,561

Bottomline of the 2021-22 Panini Flawless Basketball release

Flawless is one of the hobby’s most high-end products, with base cards numbered to 20 that feature embedded diamonds. It’s sold exclusively as a hobby box that contains 10 cards; 1 base, 9 inserts.

It’s one of the most expensive products on the market, and ripping a hobby box is a huge risk, as many boxes’ values won’t even be close to what you paid for it. That said, Flawless still offers unique, great-looking cards, and interested buyers should look to capitalize on lower prices than we’ve seen in year’s past.

Shop for 2021-22 Panini Flawless basketball hobby boxes on eBay

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