In our newest installment of Better Than a Box, we show you a quartet of great cards of back-to-back NBA MVP Nikola Jokic you can snag for the price of a new 2022-23 Panini Origins Basketball hobby box.
To say Jokic is having a historic season for Denver is really saying a lot, considering he is coming off those two MVP honors but being just tenth of an assist shy of averaging a triple double for the season, and with the Nuggets being one of the top teams in the west, the Joker is doing just that. You’d have to think that a deep run into the playoffs and anything more would take his collectibles to an entirely new level.
What is no joke is the price of ultra modern basketball hobby boxes, many offering little return. The 2022-23 Panini Origins basketball product in question hit the court within the last week and you would be hard pressed to find them anywhere for less than $330.
For about that price–and maybe less– here are some pretty nice cards of a future Hall of Famer that you could own.
The Rookie Card
With a little bit of money in our pockets we can purchase a Prizm RC of the Denver Nuggets do-it-all center. Prizm is the cornerstone rookie card these days and at least for now, we can grab one in a very respectable PSA 9 holder for right around $150. This will be the big cornerstone piece to our new Nikola collection.
The Autograph Card
The next big chunk out of the budget is a nice 2021 Optic Dominators autographed card of the back to back MVP numbered to 99. Autos of the Serbian star aren’t exactly easy to come by, so to get anything signed by our guy is going to cost over $100–but not THAT much more if recent sales are any indication.
This one comes from a nice Donruss Optic set and a really cool subset in Dominators, which is exactly what he does. It is a sticker auto but that’s what you’re going to get at the lower end price point.
After these two big boys, our budget is all but blown so we have to skimp on the memorabilia and the numbered cards. That’s okay because we got two stunners to start off with.
The Memorabilia Card
Our memorabilia card comes from the 2019-20 Prizm Sensational Swatches set. The card back mentions that it is game worn/used, so there’s that. For $10-$20 at most, this is a fun little addition to the collection.
The Serial Numbered Card
The number card we decided to add to our collection is a really cool 2021 Donriss Optic lime green parallel numbered to 149 copies. Again, it’s a really sharp card out of a nice mid-to-higher end product that can usually be had for under $10.
Clearly, we blew a good chunk of the budget on the two early cards, but adding those to a Jokic PC sets it off just right. The mem and the numbered card are just added bonuses. I don’t know about you, but I would rather have this Joker lot than what I’m bound to find in a box of Origins Basketball. Trust me, we’ve opened a few.