2018-19 Chronicles Purchase

Listening:  To the classical music played by Owen's swing

I found myself out by Target after work yesterday so I dropped in to see what they had in stock and I was pleasantly surprised to see fat packs ($4.99) and hanger boxers ($9.99) of the new Chronicles release.  (No blasters in stock)  I picked up one of each:


The fat pack contains 15 cards while the hanger box holds 30.  I opened the two and put the 45 total cards together.  Let's see what my $15 got me...

13 veteran base to begin:

Not overly impressed with the vet base.  Not bad, not good.  Unfortunately, I did not pull a Giannis.

The remainder of the set is devoted to various rookie subsets.  The first is Panini, of which I pulled seven:

I pulled a Luka!  The Sexton could be nice, provided he develops his game a bit more.  The design is fairly ho hum.

Luminance follows and I pulled five:

Another Luka!  We're on a roll.  Ayton and WCJ could be decent in time.  I really like the Luminance design, although some can be a tad dark.

The next subset is Playoffs and I pulled five:

Nothing interesting here, both in terms of players or design.

I pulled two from the Essentials subset:

A Trae!  Nice.  I have a love-hate relationship with last year's Essentials release.  Sometimes I look at them and like them, while there are days I think they look like old SkyBox rejects.  I think this new Essentials look is an improvement.

I pulled just one Marquee:

But it's an Ayton, so not bad.  I really like the 2012-13 Marquee set, which was home to a number of different rookie subsets... much like this year's Chronicles.  Every now and then I even kick the idea around of trying to complete that set but that would require a fairly decent investment.

Elite is up next and again just a single pull:

Mo Bamba - decent.  I don't love the design, I don't hate the design.

A pair of Optichrome pulls up next:

Nothing too exciting here.  We move on...

A single Phoenix pull:

Doesn't do much for me.

The final subset for me is Classics, of which I pulled three:

I kind of like the "classic" pennant design.

If you've been keeping a tally you might say, "But Pete, that's only 40 cards.  You said there would be 45."  Parallels.  There are always parallels.  We start with three Green parallels; one vet base and two rookies:

The Essentials Sexton could be nice.

The final two cards are Bronze parallels; both rookies:

A Luka!  Sweet!

I did not pull any cards from the Studio, Elite Black Box, Majestic, Plates & Patches, Gala, Titanium, Vanguard, Crusade, Obsidian, Rookies & Stars, or Score subsets.

All-in-all, not too bad.  Three Luka's, a Trae, two Ayton's, two Sexton's, and a Bamba.  I rarely ever say this when buying a Panini basketball product, but I think I got my money's worth.  And I like the majority of the subset designs.  This may well be may favorite product for 2018-19.