Some stupid questions to help me catch up in the hobby

Been out of the hobby for a few years so have some rather stupid questions to help me catch up.

1) 10 minutes ago I read that Panini is the only licensee for NBA since 2009. Does this mean that no products are being produced by UD and Topps.

2) How come the Topps website does not have basketball as a sports. I am looking for a checklist of all their products so that I can update my wishlist with sets produced by topps that catch my eye.

3) Are the Panini products any good.

Yeah, Panini holds exclusive rights to NBA since 09. Other companies can still produce college, but there isn't as much interest. UD have made and are still making some decent college sets!

Try 'tradingcarddatabase.com for your checklists!

As far as Panini, personally I like most of the stuff although they have gone overboard with parallels and inserted/sticker autos. I would suggest you assess them on a release by release basis and not as a whole!

And good luck with your collecting mate!

im new to it myself mate but as far as i know upper deck hasnt released new product not sure on topps but i havent seen anything from them either. very nice collection mate love the jordan, if you like the older players i have a rolando blackman jersey/auto /49

thanks for the link. will have a look later when I have a bit more free time.

@lbj - lol, haven't seen my photobucket in years. Totally forgot I had some of those cards. Will have to do a proper update when I finish transferring then to permanent cases. Although, I think I have lost a couple. Didn't see the Garnett Finest RC or Carter Bowman chrome ref RC in the shoe box with the other cards. Will have to go looking for them when I get some free time. Hope its not lost in the house transfer a couple of years ago.

Upper Deck and Topps have not produced any nba products since october 1st, 2009 - though they did sneak in some products for the 09/10 season before the deadline (Topps - Bowman 48, Topps w/topps Chrome; Upper Deck - Upper Deck, Upper Deck First edition, SP Gam Used, SP Signature Edition, Exquisite collection). Since then it's been panini all the way. As to overdoing the parallels and sticker auto's - topps and upper deck are just as guilty as panini of doing this. Panini has some products that have been consistently good to me (Rookies and Stars, Classics, Prestige, Playoff Contenders/Contenders Patches) and some not so good (Threads!!!!), but overall, they've done a fairly good job for a market that is very fickle. I remember when panini asked the major card collecting websites to poll the collector's on what they wanted and this is what they heard - more parallels/less parallels, more autos/less autos, more gu/less gu, back to the 1990's/ move forward etc.... i guess panini is just trying to keep everyone happy.