First and foremost, special thanks to Don Williams from Upper Deck for providing us at Hobby Insider the chance to review one of there newest products. Please support the vendors that support HobbyInsider.

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Configuration: 12 boxes per case. 24 packs per box. 5 cards per pack.

CONTENT HIGHLIGHTS:
* Contains two autographs per box on average!
* Look for an average of one signed rookie card in every box!
* Find one autographed rookie patch card per case on average!
* Contains one memorabilia card per box on average!
* Featuring four different tiers of the popular Sign of the Times autographed insert – all #'D to 100 or less!
* Pull 1-of-1 Rookie Authentics signed patch cards featuring an authentic NBA logo patch!

PRODUCT BREAKDOWN

Signature Cards
* Chirography
* Sign of the Times Rookies - numbered to 100
* Sign of the Times Veterans - numbered to 75
* Sign of the Times All-Stars - numbered to 50
* Sign of the Times Dual - numbered to 25
* Sign of the Times Triple - numbered to 15
* Sign of the Times Quad - numbered to 5

Memorabilia Cards
* SP Authentic Fabric
* SP Authentic Dual Fabrics - numbered to 100
* SP Authentic Triple Fabrics - numbered to 50
* SP Authentic Quad Fabrics - numbered to 25
* SP Authentic Jersey Autograph - numbered to 100
* SP Authentic Dual Jersey Autograph - numbered to 50
* SP Authentic Triple Jersey Autograph - numbered to 25
* SP Authentic Quad Jersey Autograph - numbered to 5
* Rookie Exclusives Oversized Dual Sided Jersey Patch - #'d to 25
* Rookie Exclusives Jersey
* Rookie Exclusives Jersey Autographs - numbered to 60
* Rookie Exclusives Patch Autographs - numbered to 30

Parallel Cards and Inserts
* Gold Parallel Regular Cards - numbered to 25
* Gold Rookie Authentics (unsigned) - numbered to 25
* Gold Rookie Authentics (autographed) - numbered to 25
* Gold Chirography - numbered to 25

Regular Set
* 90 Regular Cards
* Rookie Authentics (unsigned) - numbered to 299
* Rookie Authentics (autographed) - numbered from 399 to 1,299

The SP Authentic basketball set features a nice action shot of the player on the front as well as player statistics and a small writeup on the backs. They utilize the same technology that's made SP Authentic a popular set with collectors. The player is coated in a special UV coating, while the rest of the card is in a more traditional card stock. Foil treatment enhances the card as well.

If you like SP Authentic, hopefully you enjoy the base set. With our break, that's mostly what we got. Sets should be fairly easy to build with only 100 cards in the set. You should have your fair share of duplicate cards after a break as well..

The one good thing about SP Authentic is it contains hard signed autographed cards. UD continued that tradition in this set. The rookie autographs are broken up into tiers that range in numbering from 399 to 1,299. There are also unsigned versions of some rookies with only 299 copies.

The bad thing is the rookie class from 06-07 isn't exactly stellar. So finding those higher end rookies could be a challenge. Especially since the better ones are shortprinted. Hopefully we see something similar next year with a much more talented rookie class getting ready to debut.

Comments:

You get one jersey card per box. There are single, double, triple and quad variations to hunt down. Also included are autographed versions of the Authentic Fabrics game jerseys. There is also a Rookie Exclusive jersey card set which also includes patch and autographed variations.

While autographs are the main draw to SP Authentic, I was glad they decided to add something else to the content of the box. I would probably prefer a third autograph or another rookie card, but a game jersey card beats a base card nearly every time.

Comments:

You get one non-rookie card autograph per box in SP Authentic basketball this year. There are four different subsets to the Sign of the Time set this go round. They're broken up into: Rookies, Veterans, All-Stars and Legends. Each one is serial numbered, with the highest tier (Rookies) #'d to 100 and the lowest tier (Legends) #'d to just 25 copies. There are also dual, triple and quad cards randomly inserted in the product with only five copies of each quad autograph card. UD also inserted One of One autograph NBA Logo Man patches for the rookies.

We were pretty lucky to hit Brandon Roy for our Sign of the Times autograph. It may not be a box saver, but it's better than a lot of the rookie autographs that are found on the checklist.

I rated this box a 3 1/2 of 5 HI Fives. SP Authentic is a favorite among hobby collectors. The quality of the cards is nearly unmatched, and the hard signed autographs are excellent. It's almost enought to get by on name alone now. However, for the price of the box, there just isn't enough content for me. When you look at what SP Authentic offers in other sports like Baseball, Football, and Hockey, it makes you wonder what happened to Basketball. I'd rather see a lower cost per box or more content for the current price. Maybe 3 to 4 autographs per box, with 2 rookie autographs and an additional insert autograph or two. Heck, a couple of limited or numbered inserts per box might even be enough. However, you could always get lucky and nail one of the limited autographs or multi-player autographs in your box and that would definitely make you smile.

The weaker rookie class also tends to hurt this product. We'll see how UD comes back next year with Oden and Durant sure to be on the top of many basketball collector's wantlists.