What You Need To Know About 2022

May 16, 2023

Panini Impeccable Basketball is back for the 2022-23 season. Hobby Boxes dropped on May 31st and are selling for around $1,700.

With the NBA Finals in full swing, this is perfect timing for one of the NBA's most anticipated releases. In this article, we’ve got everything you need to know about Impeccable, including a rundown of its autos, the results of its FOTL auction, and how its timely release could affect its investment outlook.

Shop for boxes of 2022-23 Impeccable Basketball on eBay

This release marks Impeccable 7th year in production, and in that time it's built a reputation as a mid-to-high-end product that puts a lot of focus on its autos. This year's product runs back many of the same elements we’ve seen in recent years, including the same number of autos and base cards, similar themes and designs, and most of the recurring inserts.

Each box comes with 5 autos (of its nine total cards) and has some pretty unique offerings such as Elegance Rookie Jersey Autos and Impeccable Jersey Number Autos.

The other 4 cards consist of 1 metal insert and 3 base cards or parallels.

Impeccable sold a "First Off The Line" box that included an exclusive Silver Logo bar in addition to the cards in the regular hobby box.

The auction was conducted in a descending style, where boxes were started at $3,750 and prices dropped every 15 minutes, until it hit it's floor ($1500) or it sold out. While the FOTL boxes didn't hit their floor, they did get pretty close. The last of the boxes sold at $1,687.

Shop for 2022-23 Impeccable basketball FOTL boxes on eBay

The results of these FOTL auctions are always an important metric for future pricing, as they give us an idea of just how in-demand the product is. Oftentimes the products that hit their floor end up seeing massive drops in price in the months following their release because the demand isn't very high.

In my view, the fact that it dropped down to $1,600 suggests that many buyers either aren't interested or (more likely) felt that the price was much too high to begin with. My guess is that we’ll see this price of 22-23 Impeccable drop quite a bit, just like we have with many other releases this year.

Impeccable has some of the hobby's favorite auto options. Here are a few of my favorites based on this year's mock-ups:

Shop for boxes of 2022-23 Impeccable Basketball on eBay

The Elegance Rookie Jersey auto is probably the most iconic card in Impeccable's release. It's a very solid RPA that looks pretty similar year over year, features an on-card auto, and holds its value well.

Last year we saw Elegance feature a pretty large checklist that included 40 players. This allows collectors who are high on less popular players buy a quality RPA while they’re still under the radar.

The base versions of these autos were numbered to /99. Parallels of silver (/25), gold (/10), and platinum (1/1) were also available.

This year's mock-up features Paolo Banchero, and has a sharp, clean look to it that should be popular among many collectors. Nobody's going to accuse it of being too flashy, but if you’re looking for a solid RPA that's going to stand the test of time, Elegance is a great pick-up.

Numbered autos are nothing unique. But what is unique is when that number is tied specifically to the player on the card.

That's exactly what Impeccable does in their stat and jersey card autos, where the number of cards printed corresponds to a number that is in some way important to the player. Sometimes it's their jersey number or a statistical feat that they’re known for.

Shop for boxes of 2022-23 Impeccable Basketball on eBay

Naturally, this creates a bit of variability in the number of cards that are available for each player — don't expect to see #99 Jae Crowder included in the jersey numbers set (or #0 Russell Westbrook for that matter.)

This year's mock-up previews a #12 Ja Morant card, and a #22 Steph Curry. The 12 is obviously Ja's number. I must admit, however, that I am struggling to understand the significance of #22 for Steph for the life of me.

It's not his jersey number, draft position, PPG… nothing. My best guess is that it has to do with his ‘22 title.

The 2022-23 Impeccable hobby box released on June 5th. Retail boxes have been listed at $1700.

Here's what each hobby box will contain:

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

Thinking about investing in Impeccable, either in singles or wax? Here's a rundown of some numbers that can help you make an informed decision before pulling the trigger on Impeccable.

To put it plainly and simply, the current selling price of Impeccable is much too high to justify any sort of wax investment. Across the board we are seeing slumps from last year's pricing; most products are down between 25-50% from the previous year's release.

So far, this Impeccable release hasn't seen that dip relative to the ’21-22 product. In my view, that isn't because it's particularly valuable relative to the other products that have come out this year. Instead, it's that we haven't seen the inevitable dip that's coming in the next few weeks.

Here's how the last four years of Impeccable releases have been selling on eBay over the past few weeks.

Plus, ‘22-23 is starting to form a reputation as the "calm before the storm" year in basketball, as phenom draftee Victor Wembanyama looks to turn the league, and by extension the entire sports card market, upside down next year. His presence alone could inject a Zion-like energy into next year's releases, making this ‘22-23 product that much more forgettable.

All that to say, I think Impeccable would need to drop closer to $1,300 before buying it as a wax hold would make much sense.

Impeccable has only been out for a few days, but we’ve already seen some pretty big cards hit the market. Here are the three non-FOTL cards that have verified sales on eBay so far.

Obviously, these are some heavy hitters — we have an on-card auto from the rookie of the year, a 1 of 1 from a Lakers rookie, and a rare Gold Bar SSP hit. While these cards don't necessarily represent realistic hits that you can expect to see in every box, the amount of interest they drew in their few days on the open market is a positive sign.

Each sold at a high price as the result of an active auction (25+ bidders). This suggests that despite the tepid response to the FOTL boxes in the auction, buyers do find value in investing in Impeccable cards on an individual basis.

With the release date of Impeccable coinciding with the NBA Finals, it's important to remember that now is the worst possible time to invest in any individual player who is having a great playoff run. Intrigue for that player is, in all likelihood, at an all-time peak. Trying to buy in now is most likely going to be an overpay.

Jordan Poole set this example last year when we saw his Prizm value skyrocket tenfold during his electric finals run with the Warriors, only to see it plummet back to its original value by the following season.

Of course, this doesn't apply as strictly to the stars like Jokic, whose value is already fairly established and is likely to crash. But those Max Struhs, Gabe Vincent, or Duncan Robinson cards? Now is not the time to go in on them.

The same goes for a rookie like Christian Braun, who could very well be playing in the biggest series he’ll ever play in, despite only being in his first season.

Impeccable Basketball has arrived just in time for the NBA finals. In its 7th year, Impeccable hasn't strayed much from its winning formula that features a hefty portion of autos with clear and crisp designs.

While the current pricing on the hobby box is probably still too high, there's a lot of value to be found on the resale market for singles. If you’re on the hunt for a high-quality RPA from your favorite prospect, or just even just a solid on-card vet auto, Impeccable has you covered.