2016-17 Panini Select #287 Field Level Christian Pulisic

 

The 2016-17 Panini Select Soccer product was only the second year Panini issued a Select Soccer product and as is typical of Panini Select products, the base set is split into multiple tiers of rarity with a player sometimes having a base card in multiple tiers.  In this case, there were three levels of rarity in the set, the rarest two of which contain Christian Pulisic rookie cards.  The three total levels in the set are Terrace Level (least rare, and this level does not contain a Christian Pulisic rookie card), Mezzanine Level (short print cards that are much rarer  – sometimes referred to as “SPs” – and this level contained Christian Pulisic’s first pack-based USMNT rookie card), and Field Level (super short print cards – also known as a “SSP” – and this level contained a Christian Pulisic rookie card in his Borussia Dortmund kit that we calculate at only 865 total base copies). 

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The 2016-17 Panini Select Soccer product contained five total Christian Pulisic rookie year cards inclusive of three insert cards.  In addition to the 2016-17 Panini Select Mezzanine Level #150 Christian Pulisic USMNT short print rookie card (with its eleven parallels, including the base card) and Panini Select Field Level #287 Christian Pulisic Borussia Dortmund super short print rookie card (with ten different parallels, including the base card), the 2016-17 Panini Select Soccer product contained three different Christian Pulisic autographed insert cards, each featuring Pulisic in his USMNT jersey and each with their own parallel rainbow.  These three different autographed insert cards consist of the Select Signatures #S-CP (with eight total parallels), the Jersey Autographs #JA-CP (with seven total parallels) and the Emerging Star Signatures #ES-CP (with eight total parallels).   These were Christian Pulisic’s first autographed cards of any type (these three USMNT autographed cards were followed six days later by his first Dortmund autographed rookie issued in the Panini Black Gold set).

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The 2016-17 Panini Select Soccer product was issued only one way: in twelve-box hobby cases with a stipulation of “at least one autograph and two memorabilia cards in each box on average” (indeed, what makes this product an intriguing pack chase is hobby boxes were the only means of distribution, so any pack may contain any of the five Christian Pulisic rookie year cards or their respective parallels).  Fortunately, all the autograph cards are serial numbered, which allows us to determine the overall production run of this product.  Between all three autograph insert sets and including the parallels of each, there are 43,240 total autographed cards in the product.  This means there are no more than 43,240 boxes of this product.  We opened a fair amount of these hobby cases and would agree with Panini’s assertion of at least one autograph per box on average as we did find twelve-box cases containing 13 autographed cards.  Based on Panini’s language and our pull rate experience, we believe the number of autographed cards per box may be as high as 1.05 and have used that estimate to help calculate the print runs for any unnumbered cards for Christian Pulisic.

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We also note that in any given hobby box, you can expect to pull approximately 36 total Terrace Level base cards (which are cards #1-100), ten total Mezzanine Level base cards (which are cards #101-200) and only two total Field Level base cards (which are cards #201-300).  The remaining cards in the box will be parallels, the autograph card, memorabilia cards and insert set cards.

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To calculate the print run of the 2016-17 Panini Select Field Level #287 Christian Pulisic, we have used the 43,240 box number of this product based on Panini’s assertion of at least one autograph per box on average, even though the true print run of this short printed rookie card is likely 1%-2% lower as our experience showed a pull rate of approximately 1.05 autographs per box rather than one per box.  With each box containing only two base version Field Level cards and a series of exactly 100 cards, that means production of 43,240 boxes will produce only 865 copies of the base version of the 2016-17 Panini Select Field Level #287 Christian Pulisic rookie card.  We believe the relative rarity of this card is not recognized by most collectors. 

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The 2016-17 Panini Select Field Level #287 Christian Pulisic rookie card is tied for the second biggest rainbow of any Christian Pulisic rookie card, a total of ten different versions (one less than the Mezzanine version, which has the biggest rainbow).  The ten total parallels of this card include the base, Silver Prizm, Multi-Color Prizm, White Prizm /99, Copper Prizm /49, Tie-Dye Prizm /30, Camo Prizm /20, Gold Prizm /10, Green Prizm /5, and Black Prizm 1/1.

 

For the Silver Prizm version, Panini has stated a pull rate of 1:36 to pull a Silver Prizm Field Level card.  Thus, to calculate the print run we just need to complete the math of 43,240 boxes of 12 packs, 100-card set and a 1:36 pull rate to determine there are only 144 copies of the 2016-17 Panini Select Field Level #287 Silver Prizm Christian Pulisic rookie card parallel.  The calculation for the Multi-Color Prizm version of this card follows the same methodology with a stated pull rate of 1:48 packs, which generates a print run of only 108 copies of the 2016-17 Panini Select Field Level #287 Multi-Color Prizm Christian Pulisic rookie card parallel.  All other parallels of this card are serial numbered.

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To summarize, here is a table showing all ten versions of the 2016-17 Panini Select Field Level #287 Christian Pulisic rookie card and what we believe to be the full print runs of each, from least rare to most rare: