Panini Era Begins

I, like many others out there, got a press release from Panini today. It's a buncha lotta boring stuff about their upcoming products and their first football product under the new license. It's sort of tedious. The first thing you see in the e-mail are some pics of their Prestige rookies like this one:

Typical crummy Donruss design that puts more focus on where the sticker autograph or relic piece that you won't get on the cards you pull is supposed to go than if the thing actually looks decent or not. I ain't gonna lie, that card looks terrible. Tip for Panini designers: if you can cut the card in half and vastly improve the look of the card, you're doing it wrong.

(non-SP ugliness just for Canuck)

Enough with complaining, I haven't liked Prestige since the '90s and I didn't expect this year to be any different. Here's the text of the press release, you can read it if you like or scroll down below to see my take on the whole thing:

PANINI AMERICA ANNOUNCES MULTI-YEAR TRADING CARD DEAL WITH NFL AND NFL PLAYERS

2010 NFL Product Debuts Today With Panini Prestige Football

NEW YORK, NY (May 13, 2010) – Panini America (www.paniniamerica.net), a subsidiary of The Panini Group, the leading global publisher of sports and entertainment collectables, announced today that the National Football League and NFL PLAYERS (the marketing and licensing arm of the NFLPA) has awarded them a multi-year trading card licensing agreement and license for Stickers/Sticker albums. The 2010 NFL season marks the first year Panini will produce NFL Trading Cards under their new agreement.  Panini produced NFL Trading Cards after purchasing Donruss Playoff in 2009.

“Panini has been aggressive in the U.S market and done a phenomenal job,” said Leo Kane, Vice President of Consumer Products for the NFL. “We are pleased to make available new products to our collector fan base including Adrenalyn, and sticker and sticker albums.”

Panini kicks off its 2010 NFL Trading Cards with its 2010 Panini Prestige Football product, which will be released today.  It will be the first time the 2010 NFL Rookie class will be featured on NFL Trading Cards.  Prestige will include autographs of top NFL Rookies autographed to 100 or less including Sam Bradford, Tim Tebow, Ndamukong Suh, Gerald McCoy, Golden Tate and Colt McCoy to name a few. 

“We are excited to have been awarded an NFL and NFLPA license.  We are committed to introducing NFL Trading Cards to a whole new generation of NFL fans and building new collectors,” said Mark Warsop, CEO of Panini America.  “The NFL is one of sports premiere properties, and we are enthusiastic about introducing NFL trading cards on a global level.”

The Panini Prestige Football release will be followed by the release of other Panini Football products including: Donruss Elite, Score Football and Panini Classics Football – all before NFL Training Camps open.  Panini expects to announce several agreements with NFL Players as the face of its products in the coming weeks.

“We look forward to continuing our partnership with Panini America.  They’re focused on engaging kids, attracting new users and increasing brand awareness.  These elements, coupled with a strong rookie class, is a recipe for success,” said Karen Austin, Assistant Vice President, Trading Cards and Collectibles for NFL PLAYERS.

As a leading global publisher of sports and entertainment collectables, Panini has license agreements with three of the major U.S. sports, including the NFL/NFLPA, NHL/NHLPA and an Exclusive Trading Card and Sticker Partnership with the National Basketball Association (NBA).  Panini’s other partnerships include an exclusive license with FIFA for the 2010 and 2014 World Cup, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and with four-time NBA Champion Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers.  Panini also has a successful collectibles business with consumer brands including DreamWorks’ How to Train Your Dragon, Disney’s Toy Story 3, Hannah Montana and High School Musical, and Warner Brothers’ Harry Potter.

Did you read all that crap? I sure didn't. I was able to get this far:

and license for Stickers/Sticker albums.

Let me repeat:

LICENSE FOR STICKERS/STICKER ALBUMS

It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

YAAAAAAAAHHHHH STICKKEEEEERRRRRSSS!!!!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Topps, you're getting left behind. You'll probably have to bring back Topps Total to compete with this one.