Not Quite Kings

Group break time from @CrackinWax with a #CrackinWaxMailDay look at the new Diamond Kings set. 

 

It's either underrated or under the radar, but I haven't seen or heard much about the latest Panini Diamond Kings set. For better or for worse, some of the design choices made with this year's set should make this one stand out. I bought into a couple of box breaks over at Crackin' Wax to see if we were going to get stuck with the same Stan Musial pose for about the seventh year in a row.

The base cards look interesting, I suppose. I can barely tell the difference between the 2020 and 2021 designs, so at least these will stand out in a binder. There's sort of a double border thing going on that leaves very little room for the player, though.

We see the same group of legends in this set year after year. I am guessing that Panini just has a small pool of players to choose from with whose estates or corporate interests they have deals with.

Kudos to Panini for finally breaking the streak and not using the same photo for Stan The Man. Some version of this photo has been used in every set since 2017, so it's good to see something different here.

 Yadi finally gets a DK base card for the first time since 2019.

Panini switched it up with their rookie cards this year, more closely resembling what they do with the Court Kings set for basketball. Rookies are split up into several denominations, which are usually based on rarity. Each has their own design. Nootbaar is a Rookies III card.

Juan Yepez is featured on the Rookies I design. This has more of a Topps Fire feel to it.

I ended up with a single insert from these breaks for my team binders. Panini likes to use these color splashes in backgrounds a lot.

I think it's been awhile since I've traded with a Phillies collector, let alone a Bryce Harper fan. This one heads to the trade box, of course.

I remember getting a Cedric Mullins autograph in a CW break a couple of years ago before I had any idea who he was. (This happened to a lot of people.) He ended up having a breakout season last year, although this year has been less than stellar for him. I always like the framed parallels, so this should make some Orioles fan happy.