Ein Deutscher Regenbogen (A German Rainbow)

Seeing the skyrocketing prices of some cards, especially key unopened products, it feels good to remind yourself of the times you got in on the ground floor.  I have been holding back part of my collection for some time now, waiting for just the right moment to show it off.  Today might be the best opportunity.

I have a close friend who, in the past, tagged me in a lot of pictures and news stories about now-retired German defender Philipp Lahm.  Lahm was both a mainstay on the German national team and Bayern Munich, two teams he captained for quite some time.  Yesterday was Lahm's 37th birthday, so naturally I was inundated with Facebook memories from long ago.  The reason for these memories is that my friend, also a huge soccer fan, would always claim that he was my double.  I would never remotely be mistaken for him, but we are both of German descent, play soccer well (Philipp is a little bit better than me), and are usually the smallest player on the field.

When 2014 Panini Prizm World Cup came out, I jumped in with both feet.  It was the first quality international soccer release that had been on the market during this era.  I picked up a few boxes and decided to complete as much of the set as possible.  Around the time of release, I also made the decision to get my hands on as many of the Lahm parallel cards as possible.  Within a few months, I had collected a good portion of the available parallels, and for a very reasonable price.  It helped that I chose a player who I personally liked, but whose cards were affordable, unlike the Messis and Ronaldos of the world.

Aside from Lahm's base set card, there were also two inserts, Cup Captains and World Cup Stars, that featured the superstar right back.  So it was settled that I would try for all three and their colored parallels.  There was an other insert featuring Lahm with Dutch striker Arjen Robben, but I decided against chasing these, going for solo Lahm only.  Here are the results.

Base Card and Base Inserts

Prizm Parallel

Yellow & Red Pulsar

Red, White & Blue Power Plaid

Blue & Red Wave

Blue Prizm (#/199)

Red Prizm (#/149)

Purple Prizm (#/99)

Green Crystal (#/25)

There were also gold (#/10) and black (1/1) parallels for each, but I can't recall having seen any that were affordable.  No real desire to drive myself crazy looking for them, either.  The green ones were tough enough, but I lucked out and didn't have to lay out too much cash for any of them.  Today the greens, if you can find them, go north of $500 each.  A couple of special cards also exist that I've been able to acquire.

Autograph Card

NSCC Blue Pulsar (base only, unnumbered but limited to 55 copies)

Well, that's the whole rainbow for me.  I'd consider hunting down the parallel that came out of Panini Father's Day packs later that year, but there are only seven of those, and the one on eBay right now is asking for well over $500.  It doesn't look much different from the normal base card, so I'm not about to spend that kind of money on it.

Overall, it was a fun rainbow to chase, and has definitely appreciated in value over the years.  Would I do it again?  Maybe.