Panini lost its hockey license get ready for more and more bask products

[pepsiporch]

Beckett News » Upper Deck, the NHL and NHLPA announce exclusive trading card deal (http://www.beckett.com/news/2014/02/upper-deck-the-nhl-and-nhlpa-announce-exclusive-trading-card-deal/)



Panini will probably come out with 60 products now in basketball

[byronscott4ever]

I'm guessing they have some kind of limit on the number of sets they can do by a sport when they are doing "official" sets. Hockey has to be the smallest of the four major sports when it comes to cards, so it would be the easiest one for UD to keep. Maybe Panini will go after the CEC license to get back at UD.

[ejs23]

this is fantastic news for hockey collectors who were generally tired of Panini pumping cheap junk into the market.

[smalltown]

this is fantastic news for hockey collectors who were generally tired of Panini pumping cheap junk into the market.

An exclusive license is never fantastic news. Now UD gets to go unchecked in hockey just as Panini does is basketball and Topps does in baseball. ANd we all know how happy everyone is about those situations.

[pepsiporch]

this is fantastic news for hockey collectors who were generally tired of Panini pumping cheap junk into the market.

No exclusive is good

[ejs23]

usually competition creates a better marketplace because companies drive each other to be more creative, innovative, affordable, etc. but that's not really the case here.

Panini has had an NBA exclusive and Topps a MLB exclusive while they both put out NFL cards. is there really any noticeable difference between the NFL market and the NBA or MLB?

prices are about the same. customer service is the same. there are still countless sticker autos, redemptions, parallels, etc. the competition supposedly created in the NFL market didn't change anything.

if you want real competition to drive the market in a better direction you'd have to open it up wider and to some new blood. like, for example, allowing ITG or Leaf or Press Pass in.

I predict that the only thing that will change in with hockey cards is there will be less of them... and that's not a bad thing to me.

[Jayhawkaholic]

Upper Deck's The Cup is an awesome product but Panini Prime will be missed, IMO. Well the lines have been drawn I guess, it's Topps for baseball, Panini for Basketball, Upper Deck for hockey, and Leaf for 'The Mortal Instruments' franchise...

[byronscott4ever]

If Panini wrestled the CEC license away from UD, that would be a funny revenge.

[patchgenie]

i dislike panini's basketball products. do you know when UD will have a chance to get the license back?

[yaoming]

I thought Panini is a much bigger and "richer" company than UD
how come they "lose" ?

[bmc398]

I thought Panini is a much bigger and "richer" company than UD
how come they "lose" ?

It's much more complex than that. At the base of it, one company has been the standard bearer in hockey for the past 10 years and one company has bad a license for 3 years and has left little to no mark on the hobby. Panini could have also just not renewed the license...they are a business and can't be making any money since nobody buys the garbage they churn out in that sport. In 3 years they have had 1 noteworthy release (Prime) And about every other one has struggled to maintain hobby value next to its UD counterpart. That, and the facts are that the sportscard market is contracting. Nobody wants to pay $100+ dollars for a box of cardboard any more. The market demand wasn't sustaining two vendors, so why have 2?

[SHowley2003]

It looks like the NHL/ NHLPA said thanks but no thanks. Panini has made a commitment to even further develop their basketball product in the wake of all this! Maybe they will replace all the hockey cards with photos of Lavoy Allen, Fab Melo and Quincy Acy for only 250.00 per box!

Panini America Issues Statement Regarding NHL/NHLPA Licensing Situation | The Official Panini America Blog (http://paniniamerica.wordpress.com/2014/02/27/panini-america-issues-statement-regarding-nhlnhlpa-licensing-situation/)

[bjho852]

i dislike panini's basketball products. do you know when UD will have a chance to get the license back?

Not until 2017 at the earliest, unless something dramatic happens that make NBA allow multiple card companies again.

[HoraceGrantHill]

Panini is the best!! Flawless is the best product ever made and ever to be made. Doesn't matter all the crap panini releases. Two words. Flaw less

[thor_rider08]

Panini pushed a bunch of crap hockey they could not sell. They did have some sweet hockey that was innovative like Prime and another good value fun product called Anthology. The Dominion was good but the secondary market for singles blew compared to UD CUP. Glad they lost it bc they would not be able to compete with ud.

[23bulls2014]

Panini are flooding the market Flawless only decent basketball they have bought out the rest you would use as window packers

[hquiz]

Flawless has the whole package! Simple white background (03 Exq), great looking patch windows, etc. But Immaculate and National Treasures are very decent as well. But other products flat out stink.. Gold Standard!!

[k13]

Basketball collectors love parallels, refractors, sticker auto's and junk overall so panini will be happy to provide more of it.

Hockey told them to get lost. Don't care for your /499 /99/25/10/5/1 parallel of every card.

Hockey only care about real rookies not the #@#@#@#@ everyone else collects and calls it a rookie card.

Dominion was ok, curious about playbook. Competition can be good.

Is this mean singles will tank even more now?
I think I only have 2 cards anyway.

[hawkfandan]

Very interesting. UD does a terrific job with hockey.

[thor_rider08]

Flawless has the whole package! Simple white background (03 Exq), great looking patch windows, etc. But Immaculate and National Treasures are very decent as well. But other products flat out stink.. Gold Standard!!

Flawless is a second tier product until they insert logoman. If they can insert logoman with the same style they did with the patch autos it would be a top tier product. That and when you say no stickers make sure you don't put any #@#@#@#@ing stickers in it.

[bustsomewax]

Basketball collectors love parallels, refractors, sticker auto's and junk overall so panini will be happy to provide more of it.

Hockey told them to get lost. Don't care for your /499 /99/25/10/5/1 parallel of every card.

Hockey only care about real rookies not the #@#@#@#@ everyone else collects and calls it a rookie card.

Dominion was ok, curious about playbook. Competition can be good.

Is this mean singles will tank even more now?
I think I only have 2 cards anyway.

If you really think "collectors" influenced this move, you're cluele$$.

[k13]

If you really think "collectors" influenced this move, you're cluele$$.

No but it don't help.

I'd rather have 5 companies doing 5 sets than one doing 25.
Never going to happen.

Should I start burning my panini hockey?