Panini Blog Unannounced USA Baseball Content Leads to Surprise Pulls in 2011 Limited Baseball

[Panini Blog]

Premature product breakers in Taiwan on Tuesday night discovered something that many American collectors will find out for themselves firsthand today: 2011 Limited Baseball includes unannounced bonus content sure to receive a standing ovation from the passionate prospecting community.
Taking expeditious advantage of its new exclusive agreement with USA Baseball, Panini America officials worked behind the scenes with USA Baseball executives to acquire several game-worn jerseys to rush into Limited, which officially went live today. The result? Scarce, massively-majestic memorabilia cards, rare Letter Winners nameplate letter 1/1s and even a base insert set numbered to 199.
“We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to offer these scarce patches and letters taken from game-worn jerseys from the 2011 season,” said Mike Payne, Panini America Baseball Brand Manager. “They seemed like a perfect fit for Limited Baseball, and should be a nice surprise. And this is just the start for our partnership with USA Baseball. We also look forward to delivering the first cards of the 2012 USA Baseball National Team later in the year.”
The details of Panini America’s surprise USA Baseball content in 2011 Limited . . .

• There are 62 players in the USA Baseball National Teams insert, a set that features members of the 2011 USA Baseball Collegiate National Team, 2011 USA Baseball 18U National Team and 2011 USA Baseball 16U National Team. Each card in the insert is #’d/199.
• There are 61 players in the USA Baseball National Teams Prime Patches insert on cards numbered to 25 or less.
• There are seven players (and a total of 37 letters) incorporated into the USA Baseball Letter Winners insert that features full letters cut from the nameplates of jerseys worn during 2011 international play. Each player featured is from the 2011 USA Baseball 16U National Team (and every card is a 1/1): Bryson Brigman (seven letters), Zack Collins (seven letters), Joe DeMers (six letters), Keegan Thompson (eight letters) and Touki Toussaint (nine letters).

“Yesterday we received a small overnight delivery from Panini America and inside were two of the USA Baseball Prime Patch cards from Limited Baseball,” said USA Baseball COO David Perkins. “The card design and patches are stunning. As we have talked about with collectors, hobby store owners and distributors over the past couple of months, it’s clear the passion Panini America has for USA Baseball. That passion will be evident in its USA Baseball content and Limited Baseball is just the beginning of the exciting things what we will be bringing to the hobby in the months and years ahead.”
You can get an extensive sneak peek at just some of the USA Baseball surprises headed to hobby shops beginning today in the gallery that follows.

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