Should We Buy Panini?

The rumors are swirling around the possible sale of Panini’s parent company, and the top name that keeps coming up as a potential buyer, of course, is Fanatics. Hey, who knows if Fanatics will ultimately buy Panini but I think one thing’s for sure; someone needs to buy them. 

Check out their latest teaser post on Instagram for their upcoming Absolute Football release which is home to one of the most highly sought after inserts: Kaboom!  

Cool, I love Kaboom!s as much as the next collector, but notice the Jalen Hurts special variation which includes the Super Bowl XL logo on the bottom left hand corner - ah, yes, the famous Super Bowl 40 matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Seattle Seahawks; a game that was played in 2006 when Jalen Hurts was just five years old. 

Very fun! 

Someone absolutely needs to buy Panini as they’ve basically phoned it in ever since they lost the licensing deals to Fanatics. That begs the question, of course, who should buy them. 

Well, lucky for you: I have some thoughts! 

• Upper Deck: This seems like an obvious alternative to Fanatics. President of the company, Jason Masherah, has an insightful perspective on the future of the hobby. Might be nice to have some of that insight driving the company forward. 

• eBay: A less-obvious obvious choice. With their massive platform, creating Panini Instant autograph cards and putting them up for auction… this feels like something that’s good for business. 

• Leaf: This is a fun one. Let’s see what Leaf can do with some licensing at its disposal. Also, would be nice to see a Chuck Norris sticker auto mistakenly placed on a Moochie Norris NBA card (does he still play?).

• Parkside Collectibles: They’re grinding away and making some great NWSL cards. Would love to see them more involved in the hobby. 

• McDonald’s: Hear me out - they’ve already worked together in the past on the 2024 Panini Happy Meal cards, so they have a working relationship. Imagine pulling up to the drive-in and ordering a Big Mac, some fries, and a WNBA Prizim hobby box for $1400 all from the comfort of your own car. 

• Sports Illustrated: You know where I’m going with this; they already have the iconic SI for Kids set which legitimately included the first ever American version of a Victor Wembanyama card. They’re pretty early to market on a lot of this stuff. Would be cool to get them putting out SI Kids style packs. 

• Philip Morris: Hey, let’s put cards back in cigarette packs!! Just kidding - except that those cards were super cool. Maybe the coolest? Maybe the most innovative? 3D cards in 1920?!

• Mantel: DO IT, GUYS!!!

Whoever buys them, hopefully the quality control can improve and the innovation and pricing have a thoughtful strategy behind it. That’s all we’re asking for! 

Let’s talk about the Victor Wembanyama market. It’s going bonkers. His card values are up nearly 20% in just the last seven days and up over 37% in the last 90 days, according to ALT, and the most wild indicator of how his market is pumping is found within the price of his Prizm base rookie cards. 

PSA 10 copies of his Prizm base rookie went on a run that saw its price top out at just over $200 this past weekend. This for a card, remember, that has over 26,000 copies in a PSA 10. And his PSA 9 base rookie, which has over 15,000 copies graded by PSA was topping out around $60. 

Look, I don’t think that it’s insane to think that if Victor Wembanyama can stay healthy that he’ll ultimately become the greatest to ever play the game. He might realistically win both the MVP and Defensive Player of the Year this season. However, with 50,000 copies graded just by PSA it seems like a price correction is imminent?

If you just look at what Shohei Ohtani’s 2018 Topps base (paper) rookie card is doing in terms of prices, it’s settling in around $350-$400 in his recent explosion, but that card “only” has a PSA 10 run of around 10,500 copies. That card hit a peak of $500 after his explosive 3-homer, 10-strikeout game, but pull back a little further, and a month ago you could have had it for around $200. 

It’s not an apples to apples comparison but this is a friendly reminder to take a beat and a breath when the card market starts to explode like it has for our friend Wemby. 

Speaking of, Trey Yesavage collectors and Cam Schlittler collectors are having quite the offseason. Congrats on that quick spike in value! 

Man I love this photo a lot. One of the coolest Topps Now cards, maybe, ever?

There was a lot of chatter on the old Internets about this fella who took a $3M+ loss on a sale of a Babe Ruth card that he bought just two years ago for over $7M. Obviously, not much is known about the seller and reasons why he or she sold the card, but definitely file this one under “things you shouldn’t do” in the card market. 

Also, while you’re at it, file this one under “see, I’m not so bad at this whole card collecting thing… I’m down, maybe, one kid’s college tuition but definitely not down a whole Bugatti.” 

If you haven’t heard, voting is open for the inaugural Hobby Awards and as the kids like to say: vote early and often. While, true, I didn’t get chosen to be part of the fancy celebrity voting panel I still am very, very excited for these awards. Get voting and help recognize the best-of-the-best in the hobby!