Pursuing Panini Prizm

I've received a couple of really awesome and unique card-related gifts and packages that I need to get to in the coming days.  With a stretch of time off work I hope to catch up on most of this, but in the meantime here's one I've had queued up for a couple of weeks...

When I picked up a few things from Dave and Adam's Card World on Cyber Monday, one of the items I added to my cart was a 24-pack retail box of 2013-14 Panini Prizm hockey:

I don't buy too much modern product, so I missed out on this set completely when it was initially released this past year.  I ran across one a few months back in a one dollar grab bag from my local hobby shop, and was impressed.  I'm a sucker for anything shiny, so at about a buck per pack I decided this would be a fun product to keep on my unopened wax shelf in my hobby room/office.

Four cards per pack, and I went ahead and opened up the first four packs for this post so that I'd have a decent variety of cards to scan and show.  Let's get started...

You've probably seen these 100 times by now, so I'll spare you the breakdown on the design.  I would imagine this is a set that you either love, or you hate.  I think the cards look fantastic.

In each pack that I've opened so far I've gotten three "base" cards from the standard short set (cards 1-200), and my fourth card has been either an insert, a short-printed rookie, or a parallel.  In this pack I got my first look at the Net Defenders inserts.  Not my favorite, but not a bad effort either.  I don't think I'll collect these though.

With half of the set (cards 201-400) comprised of short-printed rookies (half of whom I've never heard of), I don't think I'll bother trying to collect the entire set.  I like these cards enough that I'd love to complete the 200-card non-SP set and pick up a bunch of random inserts and parallels, though.  Pack 2...

Now this is an insert set I do plan to collect.  This card looks pretty stunning in person.  A keeper for sure, and with only 15 cards in this insert set I'd love to knock this one out at some point.  I believe I'm slated to pull something like 5 or 6 total inserts from this box, happy this was one of them!  If anyone has cards from this set available for trade let me know.

Pack 3...

My first rookie card.  These fall at 1:2 packs.  Fasth is now with the Edmonton Oilers (sorry Viktor).

Finally, pack 4...

Some solid goalie representation in all four packs so far.

Here's my first look at a colored parallel.  Of course I pulled probably one of the least desirable guys on the checklist in the form of Ladislav Smid, but these look great nonetheless.  What can I say, parallels are another collecting weakness of mine I guess.

My first Bruin!

Well, that was entertaining.  Got a nice representation of the set in those first packs with a rookie, a parallel, and a couple of inserts.  Best of all, I've still got 20 packs to go for a rainy day.  I see D & A's still has these 24-pack boxes for under $30, very tempted to pick up another...