Panini Absolute · ~1 per case · Pop-art style · about a year
Kaboom is one of 75 card types scored in The Card Investor, filed under inserts.
Both of the upside numbers are strong here — appreciation 96, liquidity 80. That pairing is rare enough to be the reason this entry exists, and rare enough that the price normally reflects it.
Accessibility of 15 is the catch. That score tracks whether you can buy near MSRP or you're already paying a premium to someone else, and at 15 you are paying up. A card with real upside bought at double MSRP is a worse purchase than an ordinary one bought at retail.
Set against the 14 insert card types scored here, its appreciation of 96 ranks 1st of 14, liquidity 80 ranks 4th, accessibility 15 ranks 12th, and risk 40 is the 8th-lowest. The closest thing to it on the numbers is Downtown, which scores 84 and 85 on the same two axes — if you're weighing one against the other, the difference is in the reasoning rather than the scores.
A one-year horizon means you're betting on a single body of work — one season, essentially. That's a much narrower bet than a career, and it should be sized like one.
A risk score of 40 means ordinary risk — the failure modes are the boring ones, which is also why they're easy to talk yourself out of worrying about.
You can realistically find Kaboom at a card show and online.
A card show is worth the trip for this because you are buying a specific card rather than a sealed product: you can compare several copies side by side, check the centring and corners yourself, and negotiate — none of which a listing photo lets you do.
Every entry gets four separate scores instead of one grade, because a single grade hides the thing you needed. Full explanation in the guide: what Kabooms, Downtowns and Color Blasts are worth.
Or browse all card types · how these scores are built
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