Wow! This came out of left field.
Panini America, the world’s largest producer of trading cards, has agreed to terms with the MLBPA to start producing baseball trading cards. This makes Panini the only trading card manufacturer with licenses in all four of the main sports in the United States.
The first product set to release is 2011 Donruss Elite Extra Edition which will release in December which will be followed by 2011 Contenders baseball. This product will include new Panini autograph signer Josh Hamilton will who be signing for Panini as well as featuring him on product packaging.
Honestly, this comes at a great time and I am absolutely pumped. Competition really drives the market here in America and finally having a licensed company compete with Topps is something great for the hobby. (I’d be saying the same thing if someone else got an NBA license too!) I like what Panini brings to the table and this should make Topps step up their game a little bit.
Welcome back Donruss. We missed you.
This is awesome!
Note that their license does NOT include the right to use logos or uniforms, which is going to make it a bit more difficult for them to create appealing products.
I doubt Topps is too worried…
If they can create like ITG, I won’t see a problem.