The TriStar Houston Collectors Show had many different types of offerings for collectors this last weekend. The show was overwhelmingly targeting sports collectors. There were still non-sports collectibles being offered, and there was a big mix of modern sports and vintage sports collectibles. One set in particular that stands out above and beyond others in the modern era sports cards is the Panini KABOOM! set.

Collectors Dashboard may have located the ultimate Panini Kaboom! offering… and it was still missing a few key players because they had already sold!

Many collectors in the hobby have started to migrate away from the base cards issued by the tens of thousands per year. The new consensus is that most of the millions of base cards that flooded into the grading houses (PSA, SGC and BGS) in 2020 and 2021 are just going to have a hard time holding their value over time.

The metrics of supply and demand apply in collectibles just as they do in economics — if a good is in demand, then the available supply will have a major impact on the price. Let’s just say that the available supply of base cards greatly exceeds demand. And at the same time the supply in most Panini Kaboom cards is far short of the demand.

The base rookie cards that most collectors have chased in recent years all undeniably have demand by collectors and sports investors alike. The problems arise when some of these cards have 20,000 or 30,000 (or more) graded examples in their PSA and SGC populations. There are just so many players, so many parallels and so many card variations that the hobby can absorb — and every year a whole new batch of great rookies and young players emerge as “the next hot player” while some of last year’s top prospects are either injured or fail to live up to the hype.

Many Kaboom! cards have graded populations of less than 100. This means that they might as well be the prized serial number cards. And as we have tracked in January, you are unlikely to get too many Kaboom! cards for under $100. In fact, some stars and rookies in Kaboom! will cost $1,000 or $5,000 (or more!).

The first card that stood out was a 2020 Panini Absolute Tua Tagovailoa Kaboom! graded PSA 10 Gem Mint.

2020 Panini Absolute Justin Herbert Kaboom! graded PSA 9 Mint.

2014 Panini Excalibur Anfernee Hardaway Kaboom! graded PSA 9 Mint

2014-15 Panini Absolute Magic Johnson Kaboom!

2018 Panini Kaboom! Josh Allen PSA 10 Gem Mint

2020 Panini Absolute Rob Gronkowski Kaboom! graded PSA 10 Gem Mint

2020 Panini Absolute Kaboom! Kylian Mbappe graded PSA 9

2021 Panini Kaboom! Lamelo Ball graded BGS 9.5

2020 Crown Royal Anthony Edwards Kaboom! graded PSA 9 mint.

2018 Panini Kaboom! Cristiano Ronaldo PSA 10 Gem Mint

2018 Panini Kaboom! Jerry Rice graded BGS 9.5

2018 Panini Kaboom! Naymar Jr. PSA 10 Gem Mint

2015 Panini Excalibur Kobe Bryant Kaboom! PSA 9 Mint

2018 Panini Kaboom! Kevin Durant

2018 Panini Kaboom! Vladimir Guerrero Jr. graded PSA 10 Gem Mint

2018 Panini Kaboom! Fernando Tatis Jr. PSA 10

2015 Panini Excalibur Tim Duncan Kaboom! graded PSA 10 Gem Mint

2018 Panini Kaboom! Dirk Nowitzki graded PSA 9 Mint

The only ones that seem to be missing were Panini Kaboom! cards of Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow but that’s ok. This was already over $100,000 from what we could gather. It’s just not very common to find more than 20 Kaboom! cards in a single case.