Panini set to become sole NBA card manufacturer

[alamo50]

By Chris Olds
1/27/2009 10:47:01 AM

Story Copyright 2009 Beckett Media


The NBA announced today that it has entered into an exclusive, multiyear agreement with Italian collectibles company Panini Group to become the sole manufacturer of NBA licensed trading cards and stickers beginning with the 2009-10 season, and running through at least 2011-12.

Panini is established in over 100 markets worldwide, but the US-market involvement has been modest by comparison. Panini plans to “re-create the domestic trading card market” and has announced that a new business will be set up immediately called “Panini America, Inc.,” with offices in the New York area.

The announcement follows weeks of industry speculation regarding the future of the NBA trading card market as manufacturers in every sport continue to struggle with harsh economic times.

“We’ve had a strong relationship with the NBA, but the deal they made with Panini does not make economic sense for Topps,” said Topps in a statement. “It may be great for the NBA, but the value wasn’t there for us and we’ve decided to invest elsewhere for the time being. We wish our colleagues at the NBA well and look forward to working with them in the future.”

The Panini Group, founded in 1961, recorded net revenues of 579 million Euros as recently as 2006 and employs more than 700 people worldwide. The company distributes its products – ranging from World Cup cards and NHL stickers to Disney entertainment products devoted to Hannah Montana and High School Musical.

“As we look to the future of our trading card business, there is general consensus, including with our current partners, Topps and Upper Deck, that moving forward with an exclusive partner is the best way for us to energize the category globally,” said Executive Vice President of NBA Global Merchandising Group Sal LaRocca in a news release.

“Our exclusive partnership with Panini provides us with the best opportunity to recreate the trading card market by developing the key retail channels with a variety of products and promotions geared towards all consumer segments.”

Said Beckett Senior Market Analyst Keith Hower: “It will be interesting to see what Panini can bring to the table regarding basketball cards. Known primarily for their sticker sets, it remains to be seen what sort of basketball card product they will be capable of producing. That said, the NBA has always had a strong global market, and Panini has a strong presence in markets previously untapped by basketball cards in both Europe and Asia. While it’s unclear how the domestic market will respond to Panini products, overseas markets should be pretty strong.”

“This is very big news for basketball collectors, perhaps the biggest since Fleer and the basketball card revival of the mid-’80s. Collectors will certainly be wondering what Panini will bring to the market. It’s exciting, but at the same time the ‘unknown’ is always scary, however, Panini has proven to be quite savvy in the card market with their soccer and non-sport products, so we can’t wait to see what 2009-10 will bring for basketball cards,” says Eric Jahnke, Beckett Basketball editor.


Officials from Upper Deck could not be reached for comment, but through a press release Upper Deck's VP of Sports, Bernd Becker, said, ""Our focus remains on delivering great products to the loyal collectors and consumers who have passionately supported Upper Deck basketball products. We are confident the remaining 2008-09 NBA sets will be some of the best our industry has ever seen."

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:wow

[alamo50]

The NBA talks about the new Panini deal

By Eric Jahnke
1/27/2009 3:23:42 PM



In this exclusive interview, Lisa Goldberg, the NBA’s Senior Director of Trading Cards, Collectibles and Memorabilia, discusses one of the biggest announcements in recent trading card history, the league’s four-year exclusive trading card agreement with Italian collectibles giant Panini.

The agreement, announced earlier today, begins with the 2009-10 NBA season and will include between 15-20 trading card products a year.


-->

Beckett Media: How long has this process been in the works?

Lisa Goldberg: Both Topps and Upper Deck are in their final year of their contracts with us so we have been in pretty much ongoing discussions with them for the last several months about what we felt was the right direction for trading cards with regards to the NBA. Both Topps and Upper Deck, as well as ourselves, we were all in agreement that going exclusive was probably the way to go with the market unfortunately continuously going in the wrong direction.

Panini had approached us back over the summer that they were interested in entering the U.S. market as well. So were certainly entertaining any thoughts that any companies had in an effort to try to help the business and get going in the right direction.


BM: What did you see, if anything, in the Upper Deck hockey exclusive that made you think the model works?

LG: When you have an exclusive partner I think it enables you to better manage your brand, our distribution and our marketing partners with one partner. Clearly, the NHL seems to have had a lot of success with Upper Deck in doing that model. We’ve done it in other categories for ourselves as well. We have an exclusive in our apparel footwear category with adidas and in our sporting goods category with Spalding. So it was certainly not unheard of to go in this direction. We’ve done it with other categories and it’s a better way to manage our brand, our distribution and our marketing.


BM: How would you characterize the current NBA trading card market? We’ve had the sense for the last few years that perhaps the NBA market has been struggling more than some of the other sports.

LG: I don’t think that’s necessarily true. Every year, every sport sort of has their shining glory depending on their rookie class. As we all know, rookies really drive this business and I think every sport sort of tends to alternate. One year it’s the NFL’s year, one year it’s the NBA’s year. MLB has their ups and downs, although they don’t really have the same rookie situation.

We certainly jockey positions in the marketplace with everybody from year to year and I think those factors vary from year to year as to why one is better or worse than the other.


BM: This might not be a question for you, but how will exclusive agreements like the ones Upper Deck has with LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and others impact this new deal?

LG: Obviously we know that Upper Deck and Topps have some exclusive deals with some of our current players. We’re going to work all of that out. All of those players are part of our group licensing agreement so they will certainly be included in Panini’s releases and we will certainly work out the details of any exclusives that are still out there.


BM: What excites you the most from a product perspective on what Panini can bring to the market?

LG: What excites us the most is that we’re looking at somebody completely fresh and new. There are no preconceived notions of what this one has done in the past and what that one has done in the past and hasn’t worked. There’s no “this brand usually does well then all of a sudden it tanked for varying reasons” or “this brand did great in one sport but it did terrible in another sport.” It’s all fresh and new and it gives us the opportunity to really get the hobby involved at the ground level; to get their ideas as to what they think works in products and what doesn’t work in products, timing of releases, what kind of content goes into it. It just gives us an opportunity to really start from scratch, gather everybody’s thoughts and hopefully roll them all into a good product mix.

It’s going to be unique and hopefully different than what other people have put out there. We’re obviously working on product development now. Panini has had a lot of success globally, which is one of the reasons we also ended up going with them. The NBA as a sport has a huge global reach so it made sense for us to partner with someone who also had big brand recognition globally for us. They’ve had a lot of success in their sticker business and in their trading card business overseas. We’re really just going to look to them to give us some great ideas that they’ve had that have been successful and bring them here.

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[Ed Helicopter Jones]

I once had a dream about a Chopper, Shelly and SW panini. It was delicious.

[I Love Me Some Me]

I had a Panini for lunch at Carino's yesterday. Tilapia...wasn't too bad.

[BacktoBasics]

I'm not sure if this is good or bad.

[TDMVPDPOY]

punani i like that too

[S_A_Longhorn]

People still collect basketball cards?

[Pistons < Spurs]

------------------

As for Panini, most collectors probably remember them from their late-80s sticker books, or from their European soccer cards. So what can NBA collectors expect? Their primary business is still in stickers and collectible card games (both sports-related and non-sports). It should be a given that they'll try to import both into basketball. What they've never done before is an "American" style sports card set. Panini has never made an autographed card; nor have they made a game used card; and most of their existing products sell for less than $1/pack.

Can Panini adapt to the tastes of the American collector with more upscale products? Or will they stick (no pun intended) with what works in Europe? We won't know until the first sell-sheets come out, but judging from this quote from Sal LaRocca, Executive Vice President of the NBA's Global Merchandising Group, we can expect basketball cards to go down-market.

“Our exclusive partnership with Panini provides us with the best opportunity to recreate the trading card market by developing the key retail channels with a variety of products and promotions geared towards all consumer segments.”



"Recreate the trading card market." That's a interesting choice of words, eh? And Mr. LaRocca may have a point. Over the past decade-and-a-half, as the price of a pack of cards has skyrocketed past the $5, $10, $20, $100, and $500 price-points, total revenues have plummeted, and that is no coincidence. It's a trend that started in the mid-90s across all sports, and despite the best efforts of the existing manufacturers (or perhaps, because of them), shows no sign of letting up. So maybe the NBA giving an exclusive license to a company with a track-record of affordable and collectible products, might not be so bad for basketball collectors.

"A variety of products ... geared towards all consumer segments." Again, an interesting choice of words. The NBA has given Panini the right to produce anywhere from 15-20 card sets per year, so variety should not be an issue. With that many products, there ought to be something for every collector. However given Panini's efforts in European Soccer cards, I have a feeling that the era of the $100/pack product may be coming to an end -- at least in basketball.

Here's one thing that should give basketball collectors pause. Although an established company in Europe, Panini hasn't had a US presence since the early-90s. They are, for all intents and purposes, a start-up company. The first basketball sets are traditionally released in the late Summer/early Fall, which is six to eight months from now. Will Panini be able to get a product out the door by then? And will it be any good? Or will they half-ass it like 2001 Donruss baseball?


http://www.stalegum.com/2009/01/what-did-we-learn-today.html

[BacktoBasics]

I don't mind a more affordable card,pack or box but if its one sole issuer of cards they're going to have to put some emphasis on limited numbered inserts if they expect to keep the interest of the existing collector.

[alamo50]

Damn, my collection's value is gonna sky rocket like Kobe in a Denver spa!

[Chief]

Ah, the good old day's of collecting Basketball Cards.

When i used to, there was Fleer, Topps, Upper Deck and different variations of them.

What does the NBA gain by just letting Panini have rights to sell the cards ?

[Vinnie_Johnson]

Ah, the good old day's of collecting Basketball Cards.

When i used to, there was Fleer, Topps, Upper Deck and different variations of them.

What does the NBA gain by just letting Panini have rights to sell the cards ?

I am sure a lot of Jack.

[alamo50]

An Exclusive Interview with Panini Senior Executive Peter Warsop

By Chris Olds
2/8/2009 11:51:56 AM

Story copyright 2009 Beckett Media

Say this about The Panini Company senior executive Peter Warsop: He’s a man who knows exactly what he wants out of his company’s headline-making foray into the U.S. trading card market, knows how to get it and really seems to enjoy talking about it.

Warsop, Panini’s Group Licensing Director, took time from his hectic schedule late last week for an exclusive interview with Beckett.com’s Tracy Hackler. During an action-packed 25 minutes that seemed more like five, Warsop discussed Panini’s NBA plans, why gaining the support of the United States hobby community is of the utmost importance and, oh yeah, those pesky Donruss rumors.

---
Beckett: What can you say about the rumors going around that Panini could potentially purchase Donruss?
PW: The Panini Company is intent on doing the very best job on the NBA, first of all. This is how we prove ourselves to the trade and to our principals that we are capable of taking on this important job. We are aware that to be successful in the United States we will need to grow the business. There are a number of ways in which we can do that. We could be patient and buy in other licenses when they become available or when we can win them from our competitors or generate new business. Other ways would be to acquire other businesses.

Panini in the past has done both. We’ve grown our business by working hard within new territories, fighting hard for licenses and we’ve made some acquisitions along the way. Our philosophy in the United States will be no different. We would deal with whatever opportunities existed and if we felt that there was another business out there in a facet or with an infrastructure that will be helpful to our growth, then it would be natural that we would want to look at it.

---

Beckett: What was so attractive about the NBA exclusive for Panini?
PW: You will know better than most people that there has been a decline in the market. There has also been a decline in the amount of trading card series that are being published. However, given the state of the market at the moment, there probably is still some over publishing going on. What we were trying to determine really was, let’s evaluate all the card sets that are being produced and ask why. Why is this in the consumer’s best interest? Or why is it, perhaps, in the trade’s best interest? What we concluded, frankly, was that there was some publishing that was going on that was being done for competitive reasons rather than for good consumer or trade reasons. What that led us to conclude was that there was still a few too many card series going out.

The benefit of having a single licensee is that you only need consider the consumer and the trade and put out just what is required. We do feel that there’ll be a further reduction in the number of series launched but nevertheless, more than adequate to fulfill the needs of both the trade and the consumer.

What we also hope to do, frankly, is to clarify for the consumer and the trade the purpose of some of these collections. We were worried that if one was to look at the array of merchandise at offer, it would become quite difficult to a consumer to know where to enter the hobby. Where do you start? What is always fearful is that you make the wrong choice. This is the consumer’s nightmare. They obviously are very conscious of what the hobby is about; they know that it’s not just about buying a package of trading cards. You buy a package of trading cards with the full intention, of course, of buying then many more thereafter. You’re looking to build up your whole collection and that’s quite a commitment in terms of both expenditure and time as well.

People, when they’re doing that, want to make sure they get it right. If they’re fearful of making the wrong choice, some people will be brave enough to make the choice, but a lot of people will not. They’ll say “I won’t enter.”

There’s an opportunity for us to clarify the way in for a lot of new collectors. This is one of the things we want to try to accomplish as well.

---

Beckett: Talk about the international appeal of a sport like basketball and how that ties in with the international strengths that Panini has established over the last five decades or so.
PW: I think it would be fair to say that basketball is probably the most international of the American sports. The NBA has done a sterling job in terms of gaining recognition abroad and that’s still growing very quickly. [The NBA] sees that as very important to their own future. So having partners on board that could mirror their own activities and their own direction is important to them. And of course, for us, it’s wonderful to be able to pick up an international license and exploit it around the world in so many of the territories that we’re working in anyway. I think you probably are aware that a lot of things we do are on an international basis; a lot of the licenses we buy are international ones. Our FIFA World Cup rights that we’ve had for many, many, many years now, and that we’ve already secured for the next two World Cups, we’ve put that product into about a hundred countries around the world.

We’ve just finished this year with the UEFA for Euro tournament, Europe 2008, which was had in Austria and Switzerland. Again, that’s a European tournament but nevertheless Panini sold products – trading cards, trading card games, sticker album collections – in 75 countries. So it wasn’t just a European event for us; it was an international event. We were selling in Latin America, we were selling in Asia. We will exploit things internationally wherever there is an appeal and there is a growing appeal for the NBA. They’re growing some very substantial markets. We would certainly hope to be able to follow into these markets.

Frankly, we only notified some of our territory managers and our managing directors of the NBA news last week. I was able to send them out some fact sheets on the various happenings on the NBA within the territories. Immediately I was getting e-mails back from our managing directors saying ‘Wow, this is fantastic.” We had one from Brazil, for example, say the timing just could not be better in Brazil because the TV has just been strengthened enormously, there’s a buzz going around about basketball and it’s a great time. I had a similar one from Turkey, where the managing director there said “this is great. I’m already talking to the local NBA people and I’m looking to see when would be the right time to get involved and start publishing.” So it’s certainly created a buzz amongst our own people.

---

Beckett: So it’s safe to say that you guys are excited about this opportunity?
PW: It really is exciting. It’s always good to have something that has a got lot of good potential in a lot of different markets. But as you can imagine, the main focus will be the United States. Obviously, it’s the domestic scene that is the most important to us at the moment. We are preparing to get that right and I think a lot of what we do over here can be taken into these other territories. On the other hand, as far as some of these other territories that are not quite so sophisticated in terms of their NBA appeal, we’ll develop special merchandise and collectibles for them.

---

Beckett: You mentioned being sure to get it right here in the states. Have you built a sense of what getting it right means to American card collectors yet?
PW: We do intend to get it right. We’ll do things very carefully. The true collectors out there that have enjoyed collecting NBA cards for a long time are an immediate concentration. I started off [last week] by talking to a number of hobby shops because we will be appointing a number of hobby shops to form an advisory panel. We had our very first call through to them. We had six of them on the line and it was the first call so there was the matter of making our introductions and just starting to talk about some of the things that would be important. They’re a very vocal group of people that know an awful lot about the business and they will be invaluable, I think, moving forward. So we will listen to people like that as well as listening to collectors and we’ll be reaching out to as many of them as we possibly can as well.

This will help us to define the publishing program. We’re working on that now and doing a lot of analysis on what has been happening over the years, going back over the last five years, in fact, looking to see what had been done and asking the question “why would that have been sold?” “Who would have that been targeted to?” “Who enjoyed collecting that series and what was it about it that made it a special collection for them?” With all of that sort of information gathered or being gathered, I think, between us all, we’ll be able to make some important decisions but make them with some clear idea of what they might achieve. So all of this process is going on and it will continue to go on over these coming weeks.

Panini is still not absolutely sure when we will be launching our first NBA series. Our contract starts on Oct. 1 and I understand that there is a desire on the part of the NBA to have us launch some collections on the new season before then. But that’s still to be decided and it’s still being worked out by the NBA.

---

Beckett: You might not know what you’re going to put in every product in terms of content, but what are some of the hallmarks of a Panini product that you might be able to share with potential new collectors?
PW: First of all, we understand the importance of card content. We know that the market has grown accustomed to exceptionally good quality and the inclusion of some really good memorabilia and autographs; this sort of thing plays a very heavy part of most card companies’ products and Panini will be no different in that respect. We have to say we admire the quality that has gone before and, of course, we will make sure we deliver nothing any less quality orientated. We will try to cater to all tastes, so we will be catering to all those collectors out there that value the memorabilia, value the signatures.

We’ll be looking to see exactly what memorabilia and signatures we can bring in the short term to ensure the first sets that go out are nicely laden with all of those juicy bits of collectibility.

Hopefully we can bring some new ideas to the fray as well. We’ll continue our tradition of producing exceptionally good quality cards and I think mixing with that a little bit more clarity in terms of why things are being launched and who within the marketplace might be the consumer of them. I think the trade will appreciate that as well.

One of he biggest tasks, really, will be enticing into the hobby a lot of new collectors. We will be working out ways to entice new collectors in and we will be concentrating a lot of our marketing effort into what we do. I think that’s good for the trading card business. I think if we can add some new colleagues for the collectors out there they will appreciate that. They will be hopefully part of a bigger family and I think it will make their hobby more meaningful. I think they’ll feel that they have more support and more people to trade with.

The more people that become interested, the more people will appreciate the value of trading cards. As a consequence, I think the value of trading cards will start to increase again. There’s an awful lot to be done and there’s an awful lot to be considered. I assure you that we’ve already started work to ensure that we do this right.

---

Beckett: You’re in the process of starting a New York-based office, is that right?
PW: We’re in the process of developing a team of people and an office in America with a whole bunch of people that are very well qualified in doing what we need to do.


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[EricB]

Ah, the good old day's of collecting Basketball Cards.

When i used to, there was Fleer, Topps, Upper Deck and different variations of them.

What does the NBA gain by just letting Panini have rights to sell the cards ?


I remember when Fleer came out with those "Skybox" cards.

With the different designs, and then they became REALLY BIG. Pissed me off :lol

[lefty]

Panini makes good cards

[koriwhat]

I remember when Fleer came out with those "Skybox" cards.

With the different designs, and then they became REALLY BIG. Pissed me off :lol

i had 2 boxes of skybox cards from like 95-96 or some shit... bunch of funny looking designs on them, some cool and some not so cool. i liked the set of painted superstars though, those were cool.