2014-15 Paramount Penmanship - Gold parallel arrivals

Magic Johnson

Kyle Korver

My second delivery from the USA arrived today with some additions to my fledgling 2014-15 Paramount Penmanship collection. Included within the package, were a couple of cards from the low numbered parallel gold version of the set.

In terms of the players featured on the cards, first up — serial numbered three of ten — is a card from Laker great Magic Johnson. There is little that I can write about the greatest point guard to have ever have laced up a pair of basketball sneakers, that has not already been written before.

So I will move onto the second card which features a journeyman guard who — ten years after entering the league became as the 51st pick — this season became an All-Star. Aged 34, Korver has emerged as a key part of the the Atlanta Hawks, that entered the playoffs as the Eastern Conference's No. 1 seed, with a record of 60-22. As I type, the Hawks have a 3-2 lead over the Wizards and Korver has possibly his best ever shot at playing in the NBA Finals for the first time.

Korver's Penmanship Gold that today entered my personal collection, is serial numbered nine of ten.

When compared to seeing the cards in person, the above scans simply do not do justice to the cards. The gold colouring really does 'pop' superbly on the white background of the card. Whilst my budget is going to prevent me from ever putting together a complete set of the gold parallel version of the Penmanship set, having now seen the cards in hand, I would like to add a few more reasonably priced versions to my collection.

The trick is going to be finding the right players at the right price!

A new chase: 2014-15 Paramount Penmanship

Front

Back

With the mid-afternoon call for prayer echoing ringing around the Amman valley, I took delivery of my first trading card purchases in just under three years. After giving it some thought, I had recently decided that whilst I would pick-up some of the existing chases that I had put on hold for a few years, I also wanted to add some recently issued cards to my collection. I have always enjoyed picked up cards of active players and there are a whole raft of  NBA players that I do not own cards of.

Preferring own complete (be it base or insert) sets, as opposed to purchasing random cards; this meant picking a new chase set or two from the 2014-15 Panini releases. After a bit of research, for the first chase, I settled on the 2014-15 Panini Paramount Penmanship insert set.

The decision was based on a number of factors:

— As a recently released set, singles are readily available to purchase on eBay.

— It is a sticker & memorabilia free autograph only set. As I have previously stated, I am not a fan of memorabilia cards and can not abide sticker autograph cards.

— The design is a clear and simple one and not a million miles from the 2007-09 Ultimate Collection Signatures set that I already own.

— Finally, the 71 card set contains a good selection of current all-stars and rookies; alongside a number of cards from retired players. Most at a price point that suit my budget.

Consequently, the cards that arrived today all come from the above set. In addition to the three cards show of Iman Shumpert (now featuring in the playoffs for the Cavaliers) and HOF legends Alex English & Cazzie Russell, were a few others that I will blog about over the coming days.

Alex English

Cazzie Russell