Design: 
It definitely has an old school feel to it. That goes double for the Sportdiscs inserts. Not only did Panini revive that old brand from the 70’s, but they brought it back using lenticular technology. Panini included both on-card and sticker autographs. The on-card autographs came out well and some of the sticker ones look boxy. I really like the photo variations and all the attention some of the parallels are getting.
Price:
Boxes are currently selling for $84.00.
“Hit” Quality:
You should find at least (3) autographs per box. That’s in addition to all the parallels and inserts. It should be noted that this product is geared mainly towards set collectors.
I pulled the following:
Autos
- Gary Pettis Hometown Signatures
- Jesse Barfield Hometwon Signatures
- Mike Greenwell Hometown Signatures
- Mike Boddicker City Hall
Base Image Variation SP
- Yasiel Puig #261
Parallels
- Zack Wheeler – State #177
- Ruben Sierra – State #104
- Nolan Ryan – State #120
- Roy Halladay – State #158
- Lou Brock – State #162
- Reggie Jackson – State #200
- Jeff Conine – Zip Code #112
- Dave Stieb – Zip Code #154
- David Freese Curtain Call Gold #CC12
- Terry Francona Call The Shots Gold #CS8
- Andre Thornton City Hall Gold #CH15
- Orel Hershiser Nicknames Gold #N9
- Joe Mauer Homegrown Heroes Gold #HH2
- Shane Victorino Nicknames Black #N16
- Dale Murphy City Hall Black #CH9
Inserts
- John Kruk Sportdiscs #SD51
- Miguel Cabrera Sportdiscs #SD23
- Frank Thomas Sportdiscs #SD38
- Andrew McCutchen Sportdiscs #SD17
- Steve Stone Rivalry #R10
- Orel Hershiser Rivalry #R17
- Terry Francona Calling The Shots #CS8
- Nolan Ryan City Hall #CH13
- Tony Gwynn City Hall #CH12
- Jim Rice City Hall #CH4
- Craig Biggio Homegrown Heroes #HH9
- Edgar Martinez Defining Moments #DM10
- Yu Darvish Defining Moments #DM15
- Ken Griffey Jr Defining Moments #DM6
- Kerry Wood Curtain Call #CC3
- Luis Gonzalez Curtain Call #CC1
- Rickey Henderson Curtain Call #CC8
- Ryne Sandberg Curtain Call #CC13
- Shane Victorino Nicknames #N16
- Rickey Henderson Nicknames #N20
Rookies
- Yasiel Puig #14
- Gerrit Cole #137
- Shelby Miller #142
- Kevin Gausman #226
- Mike Zunino #111
- Manny Machado #195
- Zack Wheeler #177
- Jurickson Profar #39
- Evan Gattis #135
- Wil Myers #59
- Hyun-Jin Ryu #251
- Dylan Bundy #128
Overall:
Overall, I give 2013 Panini Hometown Heroes 3.5 baseballs out of 5 (1=poor & 5=perfect). Its probably Panini’s best job at an unlicensed MLB product made for set collectors. They included quite a few inserts, parallels, and SPs for collectors to chase. The Sportdiscs cards are cool and can easily be tossed around. Panini should take this same approach to their Past & Present basketball brand. This product is loaded with players that would normally be signing autographs during the VIP session of the National Sports Collectors Convention that first night. That’s all I could think about while busting open these packs.
Filed under: Reviews | Tagged: 2013, baseball, box, break, heroes, hometown, panini, review |
Sports Card Info 
Cool, thanks for review. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to the lack of team logo’s. I don’t understand why there is a monopoly on the licensing & why other card co’s were essentially shut out of the business. Assuming it is a $ thing. It seems the ones that can still hack it without logos the last few years have a good enough product to represent baseball & should get the licensing back.