Exciting Panini News: Your feedback please!

[Matt26]

Hi everyone,

We have some very exciting news!

Over the past few weeks the Ozcard admin team have been speaking with the Marketing guys from Panini about their plans for the upcoming NBA trading card releases.

While no details have been announced at this stage regarding specific releases, Panini have indicated to us that they are really keen to get our feedback about the state of the hobby both in Australia and in general, and also what ideas you would like to see incorporated into their upcoming NBA releases.

This is a great chance for you to have a say in what it is you would like to see released in the future!

We must stress that this isn't a thread to bag out the previous NBA trading card license holders but an opportunity to provide valuable information to a company that is working hard to produce quality NBA trading cards!

The guys from Panini will be sent a link to this thread so we really hope you take this opportunity to provide some quality feedback!

If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to send me a PM.

Cheers
Matt

C/O The Ozcard Admin Team

 

[jimboiitmac]

Well I might kick it off guys.
Hi, my names James - I'm 17 and from Sydney, Australia.
I've collected NBA cards since I was a little kid, and recently got back into them.

I think overall Topps and Upper Deck did a pretty decent job of helping boost popularity and sales of the hobby. However feedback is what you've asked for, so here are the things that plain and simply, I haven't liked -

- Topps SO MANY parallels, it's all good to have a card #ed /500, a parallel /100, /50, /25 and a 1/1 or so - but a white 1/1, a blue 1/1, a red 1/1? That kind of defeats the purpose of a 1/1 doesn't it!

- Sticker autographs. Sometimes they are okay if the design permits, but overall on-card autographs are far better, of course you won't be able to get all on card autographs because you won't be with the athletes personally all the time, but the larger the ratio the better!

Things I would like to see more of in the future?

- Past & Present autograph cards - ie Glen Rice/Daequan Cook from the Miami Heat or Mitch Richmond/Kevin Martin of the Kings (just as examples). I know some sets already have some like these but more would be great.

And lastly - a greater variety of old and retired players? I understand it's hard to get them to sign cards, but it's always cool when you incorporate stars from the past into autograph sets, for me particularly the 90's, cards of GP, Mullin, Richmond, Kemp etc are all pretty cool.

Anyway if anything I've said is naieve or amateur please disregard it, but this is just my opinion after a few minutes of considering what has been asked here..

EDIT -

QUALITY CONTROL - we all know UD was famous for putting the wrong patches in places, sometimes placing sticker autographs upside down. of course this will happen every once in a while, but quality control is a real issue sometimes.

 

[Matt26]

Great feedback will certainly pass it on!

Cheers
Matt

 

[Billyhoyle]

2 threads firstly come to mind:
http://www.ozcardtrader.com.au/forum/card-discussions/9503-new-card-subset-ideas-ud.html

http://www.ozcardtrader.com.au/forum/general-forum/15110-have-ud-topps-run-out-ideas.html

1. We all know Panini is famous for stickers - please avoid them. we are CARD collectors
2. Where possible avoid redemptions or at least make sure you are able to deliver what is promised. Also a good online redemption service is a godsend to International collectors
3. Look at ways to encourage set collecting, currently the market is flooded with game used and people have lost interest in base and are only interested in "hits"
4. Look at retired players - they may be able to auto more and faster than current players with their commitments.
5. Game dated jerseys. Collectors have no faith anymore that a jersey is game used. Look at your process of obtaining jerseys.
6. Scans of every card,surely there is a way as they come off the printing press they can be scanned/photo'd this will stop the proliferation of fake patches being inserted into cards and sold to unsuspecting buyers.
7. Michael Jordan - enough said
8. pull back the number of 1/1s

A couple of other threads that are probably worth pointing out: (Mainly linked to point 3)
http://www.ozcardtrader.com.au/forum/card-discussions/34207-placing-back-value-into-hobby.html
http://www.ozcardtrader.com.au/forum/card-discussions/103-gu-dead-we-oblivous-us-trends.html
http://www.ozcardtrader.com.au/forum/card-discussions/21897-boycott-upper-deck-new-products.html

I'm sure there are heaps more, but that's all for now.

 

[Matt26]

Great stuff, thanks for the feedback!

 

[graham]

My biggest thing I think , is the lottery currently undertaken when buying boxes. You always hear of people always receiving well under what they should have in boxes, but rarely get more.

I say, make the box have a minimum per box of something (say 1 auto, 3 game used), and make sure that happens. If extras slip through into a box after that, then that is a bonus. Make sure that the boxes are never under on the stated minimum.

I'm sure i'll have more - good start though

 

[Cobretti]

My biggest thing I think , is the lottery currently undertaken when buying boxes. You always hear of people always receiving well under what they should have in boxes, but rarely get more.

I say, make the box have a minimum per box of something (say 1 auto, 3 game used), and make sure that happens. If extras slip through into a box after that, then that is a bonus. Make sure that the boxes are never under on the stated minimum.

I'm sure i'll have more - good start though

Totally agree, if anyone saw my case break of the fleer you would agree.


What I would like to add to this is, if someone buys a case. We don't want to see doubles and tripples of insert cards. It should be more spread out like say Stargate Case. Which pretty much gives you different inserts in each box, with the ODD double. They also guarantee 2 AUTO and 2 Cast Uniform per box, and guess what they deliver on that everytime.

So don't have on average you get this.... crap.

Other things that annoy me is if you have insert sets and they all have packet odds on them, but when you get a case of ****LOAD of packets you would think that you can get a decent variety of inserts, not constantly the same one. The packet odds should hold true for a case. So if an insert is 1:50 a box has 25 packets, if I buy a case of say 10 boxes, I would expect to see 4-6 of that insert (as it would be hard to get exact number), not 0.


What I would like to see in regards to card sets is not too many varieties of the same brand. Two or three would be alright not like 6 variations of a products. If you want more products give them different names.

eg. atm UD makes a few brands with too many off shoots under each name.

A budget set,
Mid range price stuff.
and High End Stuff.


Bring back 90s design inserts (whilst keeping the AUTOS AND GU stuffed)

So a insert product break down should be:

2 GU sets
1 auto set
7 90s style type inserts (past legends, rookies, some sort of game acheivers etc...

The above sets making them realistic to be able to complete for people like me who is a set collector.

some rare cards like 100/100 50/50 25/25 10/10 1/1.


my biggest problem as a international set collector there is too many box versions like retail and hobby and fat packs even, which you have to buy in order to get different insert sets from. I think it would be better to put all inserts into 1 box only, so If I buy a case it makes it far more enjoyable to bust.



In general my sumary
--------------------

- Glossy Cards, No cheap **** paper crap.
- Variety of inserts in a case.
- No on average crap, gurantee something
- No past legends in base sets (leave that for current players)
- It be cool to include a card of the coaches with the rest of the team player cards
- past legends in inserts = OK
- Keep AUTO and GU.
- SOME 90s style inserts.
- Have rare stuff.
- Hell brake it up into series 1 n 2, that gave us much more cards in the 90s and insert sets.


I may write more later, but I am rushing to work atm.

 

[ozballer23]

Presuming they will have autos and Gu cards, I'd like to see less of them out there. The value of an auto or gu is nothing nowadays. I'd like to see it become harder to pull either.

Stop the over production of MJ/Kobe/LeBron autos, make them rarer.

As everyone would've/has said, no sticker autos!

No redemptions.

Most importantly, a shop front/customer service team who will bewilling to help and listen when an issue arises eg. bent card in pack etc...

 

[nenjabin]

Thank you for the opportunity

As a collector of the 2007/08 SP Authentic Chirography Gold set, I can safely say that this set is a prime example for you of what NOT to do. This set is nominally 60 cards, however after having been released for a full year, only 47 of these have been seen by anyone, and 1 other was an actual redemption that has now been sitting on my redemption waiting to be fulfilled/signed list for 8 months. And to make matters worse with that redemption, the 2008/09 set has been released and the guy has signed in it and the cards are out on the market already!
The other 13 simply have not been made yet are still on all checklists. 1 of the 47 that have been found was only released as a replacement for other non-made redemptions that were on waiting and not actually inserted in any way into the SPA product release... And to cap it off, the Kobe Bryant card (perhaps the most sort after card in the set since he only just started to sign again) was serial #/5 instead of the usual #/25 that the rest of the set is.

Lessons here?
- If you make a checklist for a set, fulfill/make the entire set.
- Don't withhold any of the made cards, simply put them out in the product.
- Please do not do redemptions, particularly if they will not be made.
- And if you need to do redemptions, please fulfill them prior to getting the same guy to sign in the new release/next release of the same set!
- Continuity. Why would you make a set with a supposedly set serial number (25 print run in this case) and then make just 1 of the cards far rarer (5 Print run in this case).

Honestly, this set is probably exactly how NOT to do things, which is why I brought it to your attention.

Other tips might be to try and limit the number of releases each year. 10 different product releases is MORE than enough, and with less product, the demand will grow and suddenly cards will be worth something again.

As for the state of the hobby, everyone is sick of GU cards because the market is simply flooded. An example of which is a collector out there who has decided to go for all Marvin Williams SPX Winning Materials of 05/06...he now owns 440+ by himself, and still that's estimated at only maybe 1 quarter of the print run...that is far too many, especially since there are maybe 10 more products with jersey cards of the same player and likely the same print run! Does the world need say 5000 jersey cards of each player in a given year?

Autographs too are becoming less and less valuable. And this includes former players who don't sign much. Some of the new Chirography legends are selling for less than $5 each on eBay, for legendary players, on-card autographs...it's such a shame! But why? Because the cards are not numbered so there are likely some 1000 of them out there or something.

Parallels are now ridiculous. Topps particularly have released sets some years with 12 different coloured parallels, and then 6 different "1/1s" that are different colours. I believe UD Black has is right, in which they have the normal card, 1 gold parallel (or if you're doing a chrome set, refractor parallel) and a 1/1 version. 3 of each card is perfect. Refractors used to be worth soemthing...they're not anymore because of the abundance.

Good luck with your move into the US market and I look forward to seeing what product you produce

Ben

 

[rhysjsolomon]

Wow! This is pretty cool!!!

I've only got 1 thing at the moment on my mind!!

But how about...

-Sponsoring "Box Breakers Anonymous" as their official product reviewers and previewers! hahaha!

We can make videos of their products and promote on a worldly scale!!! Hell yeah

YouTube - BoxBreakersAnonymous's Channel

email: [email protected] (if interested) hehe

Now that would be awesome!

 

[Matt26]

Thanks for the feedback guys, keep it coming!

 

[LarryJohnson02]

My main suggestion would be the same as jimboiitmac, being a wider variety in legend autographs, again especially with the 90's stars.

Thanks
Jay

 

[chaddy42]

Well done Mods for setting up this direct feedback.

Agree with most of the above posts...but here is my slant (with about 18 years experience in the hobby):

- Have a range of products...from $2 packs of stickers (young kids love them!), middle range, to the more expensive cards for hardcore collectors.
- Mix up the photos...I'm sick of collecting Worthy UD cards with the same pic on them.
- Bring back interesting backs! I used to spend hours reading the backs of cards...now I just get a constant reminder that the co. is 'bringing me closer to the action'.
- Date stamped GU cards (if possible). I love the finals GU card because you know when they were (supposedly) worn.
- Make box buying more attractive...more hits required. Value for $$ just isnt' there anymore.
- If past players are to be used, give them their own set...just have current players in the 'normal' sets.
- Only have parallels if there is a different printing technique (and no, a different number does not count).
- Tight quality control - no typos, correct patch for the card, autoed stickers on the right way, no dinged cards straight out of packs!
- Continue with innovation. Autos are great...GU are fun...now come up with some new stuff to stamp your name on the hobby. LCD video cards....audio mp3 cards...dvd exclusive interview 'cards'...sky's the limit!
- 1/1's are killing the hobby for player collectors IMO...when I started I wanted every Worthy card...but that now is not possible.

Thanks all I have at the moment...looking forward to seeing some fresh designs.

 

[Billyhoyle]

My biggest thing I think , is the lottery currently undertaken when buying boxes. You always hear of people always receiving well under what they should have in boxes, but rarely get more.

I say, make the box have a minimum per box of something (say 1 auto, 3 game used), and make sure that happens. If extras slip through into a box after that, then that is a bonus. Make sure that the boxes are never under on the stated minimum.

I'm sure i'll have more - good start though

Funnily enough I just read this post, after I created this thread:
http://www.ozcardtrader.com.au/forum/card-discussions/43867-screw-you-upper-deck.html

 

[johnsmithysmithy]

hi

I would like to see game used patches and autos cards made rare. I have seen a lot of these cards out in the market. Having one of these inst it any good considering there is like 500 or more each of those players.

Can you please if you make game used products have the date and venue that the game used material came from. Keep autos cards and game used cards limited to under 50 or less . It will make having these cards worth something.

I would love to see like games used patches with the player actually signs on the patch itself and the patches made bigger and kept to like limited under 10 of them for that.

Also would like to see like a 1/1 card like all star players with there games used product and signature on the patch. So like have say five or six players on that one card.

Also make the cards look different so you can tell that the cards are limited to 10 or 100 and don't look exactly as each other.

Please don't bring out like twenty or thirty products cause the market was flooded with too many products and it made most people think twice about collecting.

This made products that cost people 200-300 US each box was like worth 50 US dollars at the most cause too many products out there.

 

[A_Iverson_I]

It's great news that your company is willing to listen to us collectors thoughts & ideas. I really hope you can produce a great product!

As for my feedback..

1. First up it would be great to see some awesome looking inserts again (like the ones Fleer/Skybox used to produce in the 90's).... all we have these days (apart from the odd sweet insert like Jambalaya's) is plain looking inserts that are inserted at easy to get rates & are worth diddly squat - drop the usage of so much GU's & autos & give us some sweet looking inserts again!!

2. As has been requested of UD many times (which they obviously never did) is the scanning of every patch card that is made..... fake patches is a HUGE problem at the moment in the hobby & whenever a nice patch appears on ebay you're always wondering if it is real or fake..... a online database where users could search by the set/serial number of the card which will then show the original picture of the card will eliminate this & let collectors bid on nice patches without worrying if it is fake or not!

3. I'm assuming only having one company produce cards will already help solve this issue a bit, but there are currently FAR FAR too many brands being produced..... this floods the market with product & cards become worthless.

4. As others have said..... parallels are another big issue. Topps were the big culprits of this.... we do not need 17 different parallels of the one card; plus if you're going to produce a parallel of a card at least make it look different..... not just different numbering & different color text or something simple like that is pretty poor as well.

5. Obviously.... as others have also pointed out. Please..... please cut down on the use of stickers & "cut" autographs...... if the amount of autos is cut down then the amount of using stickers should also be able to be cut down.

6. GU cards...... we do not need millions & millions of GU cards; they are worthless nowadays because of the flooding of them. Instead of making a cheap looking insert followed by a GU parallel version of the insert why not just concentrate on giving us a sweet looking insert with no GU version?

Thanks again & I look forward to your products!

 

[mrwhite11]

First Two main points:
just because a rookie is playing well doesn't mean that the regular version of an auto for the box or whatnot needs to be a case hit

Also make the 1/1s different use the same picture of the player or layout of the card except make something distinguishingly different so its more individual

 

[mrwhite11]

oh yeh also mix up redemptions... For an auto jersey not gu but a real jersey or a limited auto pick

 

[jordan23]

Great idea Lee42. Here a more suggestions.

1.Michael Jordan needs to be a spokeman for Panini to get collectors buying basketball cards.

2. I would like to see more interactive promo's run by your company. Rather than continous release of autograph cards perhaps run a promotion to meet the athlete's themselves eg. Jordan.

3.Marketing of the product needs to be improved. Products nowadays seem very vague to look at physically. More improvements need to made on product packaging. For example a good idea is showing Kobe holding up a autograph card rather than showing him in a game pose.

4.Player & coach autograph combo cards - ie.Raymond Felton/Roy Willams, Bobby Knight/Michael Jordan.

5.Some old inserts but they have to be at rare odds not 1 per pack.

6.More dedicated player & team box set's ie.2000 Masters lakers collection & 1999 Michael Jordan masters collection.

7.Cut down on stickers.

8.Perhaps hold a few card conventions or promotions here in Sydney to create consumer awareness of Panini products.

Thanks

 

[aussiemjfreak]

Great idea Lee42. Here a more suggestions.

1.Michael Jordan needs to be a spokeman for Panini to get collectors buying basketball cards.

2. I would like to see more interactive promo's run by your company. Rather than continous release of autograph cards perhaps run a promotion to meet the athlete's themselves eg. Jordan.

3.Marketing of the product needs to be improved. Products nowadays seem very vague to look at physically. More improvements need to made on product packaging. For example a good idea is showing Kobe holding up a autograph card rather than showing him in a game pose.

4.Player & coach autograph combo cards - ie.Raymond Felton/Roy Willams, Bobby Knight/Michael Jordan.

5.Some old inserts but they have to be at rare odds not 1 per pack.

6.More dedicated player & team box set's ie.2000 Masters lakers collection & 1999 Michael Jordan masters collection.

7.Cut down on stickers.

8.Perhaps hold a few card conventions or promotions here in Sydney to create consumer awareness of Panini products.

Thanks

I know your a massive fan, but I didnt realise you were actualy delusional.

On that note, Id put forward some ideas/feedback, but everything that I can think of has been cvered by previous posts.

Good Luck Pannani! Bring the Hobby back to how it should be!!