2023-24 Panini Obsidian Soccer is here almost a full two months after 2022-23 Panini Obsidian Soccer came out last year. You may think this has to signal the end of the 2023-24 Panini soccer card release schedule. It does not, Impeccable and Immaculate are still yet to come. The latter of which may just sneak in the 2024 calendar year if we are lucky. Anyways let’s take a look at what you can expect from Obsidian this year.
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2023-24 Panini Obsidian Soccer Checklist and Review
Checklist – HERE
Box Makeup – 4 autographs or memorabilia cards, 1 parallel, 1 insert or insert parallel, and 1 base per box (Search On Ebay)
Print Run – ~2000 hobby cases in addition to TMall
SoccerCardsHQ Review – For the most part the makeup of 2023-24 Panini Obsidian Soccer is not all that much different than last year. The hobby print run is about the same while the International (Tmall) release print run is way up. There are 228 total base card parallels this year compared to 176 last year. The base card run is only up to 120 from 115. All the same color Floods are back and only the Neon Blue changes print run to 15 from 12. That means the total number of Floods plus Contra this year is 72 up from 69 last year. For as little the print run is on these, they seem to not get the respect they should for being great looking full bleed cards.
As has been the case with all 2023-24 soccer card releases, Lamine Yamal rookie cards (Search On Ebay) will carry this win. Fresh off becoming the youngest scorer in El Classico and winning the Kopa his hype train does not seem to be stopping anytime soon. He gets 395 new rookie autos in Obsidian to go along with his many many thousands he already has. He has over double the amount of rookie autos than Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland have numbered rookie cards combined and they aren’t done making them yet. He gets a Black Color Blast rookie card as well as plenty of patch cards. This long delay made Panini realize that Ethan Nwaneri (Search On Ebay) was a hot player so he gets his second set of rookie cards in here. Jhon Duran (Search On Ebay) has been scoring so much Panini had to get him in as well. The Palmeiras rookie duo of Endrick and Estevao (Search On Ebay) show up again. None of the four get any inserts which is a bit surprising. Endrick (Search On Ebay) is the only one to get autos.
There are two case hits this year. The aforementioned Black Color Blast (Search On Ebay) and the new White Night (Search On Ebay). The print run on the Color Blast is ~135 and the White Night ~200. I’ll never understand why Panini doesn’t expand case hit check lists to make them more rare, but at least they do a much better job with print runs than Topps. The Color Blast checklist does not have Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, but let’s be honest they both have plenty of Color Blasts so good on Panini for not forcing that. Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Diego Maradona do get their first Color Blasts in here. The rest of the Color Blast checklist is pretty solid with only Jaedyn Shaw being a name people may be unhappy to hit although it does have a RC despite her having plenty of Parkside rookies. The White Night checklist is also pretty solid with Lionel Messi making it as well as a Francesco Camarda rookie. The only questionable inclusion is Joao Neves. If you hit him that is just bad luck.
Outside of the case hits, Floods and some autos, Obsidian cards don’t usually have a ton of value for a mid end hobby set. The design is the problem. all of the non full bleed cards look too much alike. The designs are also an acquired taste which many people seem to not have acquired yet. Panini priced Obsidian hobby boxes at $300 which is reasonable compared to what they priced past Obsidian releases at. That said it is still sitting on the site available to buy. I think people would rather have Stadium Club Members Only which is all the rage right now over Obsidian. I can’t say I would disagree with that sentiment.
If you have any questions reach out via social media @SoccerCardsHQ on Twitter, IG and FB. Want to read more about Erling Haaland Rookie Auto Cards?