Panini Blog A Small Dust-Up: Panini America Addresses Powder Mystery in Prizm and Crusade

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With 2014 Prizm Baseball and 2013-14 Crusade Basketball releasing this week, many collectors opening those products are discovering what it must feel like when NBA superstar LeBron James tosses talcum powder into the air at the scorer’s table just before tip-off. Indeed, there’s a distinct powdery residue adhering to many of the Prizm-technology cards in both of those products that has collectors talking. Today, Panini America officials addressed the issue.

The dust in question is actually harmless organic press powder that’s been used by trading card manufacturers in the past. To find out why it was used on these two products, keep reading.


In an effort to make the cards more signature friendly for autograph-seekers, Panini America officials altered the construction of their Optichrome cards by adding a signable UV coating to the card fronts. Although the company conducted extensive research and development on the process to perfect it, the cards weren’t feeding into the machine feeders properly during packout as they were in preliminary tests.

To ensure that the cards weren’t damaged and weren’t double-feeding, and to avoid delaying packout of both products by several weeks, company officials made the decision to incorporate organic press powder — commonly made of corn starch or potato starch.

Company officials have continued testing to ensure complete compatibility with machine feeders.

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