What Will You Miss Most About Panini?

[RGM81]

With only two (super-premium high-end) releases left for Panini, it's as good a time as any to look back on the positives that they brought to the hobby for the past four years. What are some of the things that you think Panini did right? What releases jumped out at you for being particularly enjoyable/collectible? What are some of your favourite cards (to keep things from being too cluttery, please only post a couple pics - we can for sure do a giant S&T thread in that venue if someone wants!)?

For me, their coolest cards featured "outside the box" type memorabilia cards - subsets like Engravatures, the All Star Game locker room pieces in Prime, and non-standard jerseys being used in memorabilia sets. It's very cool to see the baby blue Penguins jersey pieces on a Crosby card, or the All-Star Game and Centennial game swatches on many of Carey Price's cards in the past few years. I'm sure that folks have their own examples too. Those types of things add an extra allure to the standard jersey card. Panini often went the extra mile to deliver fantastic memorabilia cards, and those contributions over the years are well-appreciated pieces in my collection that I will miss in the years ahead.

This is a more personal one than anything, but I am always going to be grateful to Panini for acquiring Josh Gorges memorabilia for inclusion in many of their products. They listened to my pleading and as a result there's just under 30 MEM cards in my PC from them alone--many of which are among the finest pieces in the entire collection: a "complete jersey" from Titanium, the ridiculous pieces from Prime, Centennial shoulder patch pieces, and more. And there's still a couple whales out there to chase. So even though Josh is gone from Montreal, there's a lot of great memories there thanks to Panini.

Share your fond memories!

[mikecole141]

Prime was probably the one product I will miss. The Prime Colors patches were quite an eye catcher. They also had a better selection of players overall in their base sets. My PC Players are not big name draws but for the most part if it is not Dan Cleary, Upper Deck has not really represented well outside of their rookie years, and even then very little game used and only occasional autos. Teddy Purcell has actual game used stuff in Panini and Ryane Clowe had new stuff as well.

That said as I found a lot of their products to be parallel hell, and I would rather trade for the stuff than take the chance of busting boxes. I also found there was too much similarity between the products and the carrying over of subsets from one product to another annoyed the hell out of me.

[JVW]

I really enjoyed Panini and it all started with the 2010-11 Certified set. (I just bought another card from that set this week.) I really liked the Freshman Fabrics. Sharp rookie cards with both memorabilia and autograph that you could get for a reasonable price. I collected the mirror red set of the base cards all three years. Almost completed two years of the mirror blue.

Score was also a favorite. I really liked the large set. I grew up with O-Pee-Chee. To me, Score was much better than O-Pee-Chee and at $1 a pack, affordable. Putting the glossy and then gold sets together was a nice challenge as well.

But I really like the introduction of Prism. Compared to regular cardboard cards, Prism is really sharp in my opinion. Some really nice shiny parallels as well! Really liked the purple rookie wrapper redemption set. Prizm is the direction I would like to see cards take instead of the regular stock. I have a feeling UD will not make a set similar to this.

To be honest, unless Upper Deck does something really interesting. (Like maybe an acetate set.) I am seriously thinking of quitting with new products. (I have a few wants from sets that I am trying to complete.)

So for me, the end of Panini, may be the end of collecting for me.

[EliasDevil]

Building the Score set

Player selection. Jacob Josefson has only had Panini hits since his rookie year ended. Guys like Zajac, Elias and Larsson also got a lot more love from Panini than UD.

[clvc0017]

I'm not sure what it is, but Panini seems to make cards that catch my eye from the other brands.
To be honest, other that SPA, almost everything I purchase is a Panini product, and I will be very upset when they are gone from the hockey game hobby.

[87sluggo]

I stopped collecting cards after 05/06 and didn't start up again until the 11/12 season, and because of that I didn't really understand how things were anymore. I remember winning a Certified Henrik Sedin /199 on eBay for like $3 and thinking it was a huge steal because it was such a low numbered card :D

Then I joined SCF and learned a few things, and then last May I started in on my Ryan Kesler PC and By God! the cards that were out there, Prime Namesakes autos, Certified Black 1/1s, Mirror Blue, Platinum Blue, Mirror Red, Platinum Red, Emerald, Silver, Gold etc. A 9-card page full of para-hells is a beautiful thing. The Prime All-Star locker nameplates, Dominion Stickside autos, Score Blacks, Private Signings, Peerless Patches, Showcase Swatches, Manufacturer's Mark 1/1 gahhhhhhhhhhhhh..........

Panini showed my PC guy a LOT of love, and the designs on most of the cards was outstanding.


I can't leave my Gordie Howe Engravatures out either. Best card I own hands down.

[Clippers00]

ill just say that i really liked the first year (10-11) dominion rookie auto/patches /99. i picked up the ekman larsson and its by far one of my favorite cards i own!

[Drewk86a]

I'm afraid what I'll miss most is the fact that Panini's mere existence in the Hockey market forced Upper Deck to work to keep market share by putting out better products. During the single license years it seemed like UD sat back on their laurels and said "Buy our stuff. What other choice do you have?"

Panini put pressure on UD because they were no longer the only game in town.

I also like Score and Certified.

[theboxbreaker96]

There are a lot of things from Panini that I will miss. They made some of the nicest cards that I have ever seen. I loved the Freshman Fabrics from Certified each year. The design of those cards were awesome. I love Dominion the price is a little steep but some of those cards were incredible. My favorite card that they made were the enormous 10-11 Dominion Rookie Patch Autos. Those cards were beautiful and my favorite card that they made.


They also made my favorite product ever in 11-12 Contenders. Each box had something nice in it and at $39.99 a box you just cant beat it. I was extremely disappointed in 13-14 Contenders though.

The thing I will miss the most is their Designs. I will definitely miss Prime. It is a product that nothing can compare to it. It is just an awesome unique Panini product that will be missed. In the end I think it will be better that only 1 company produces cards that's my opinion but I will never forget what Panini brought to the Hockey World.

[odjickfan]

I will miss their creativity and the fun factor of their products. Panini reminded me a lot of the Pacific days, that I enjoyed a lot.

The value of some Panini products was brutal at release, but when discounted, these products were really fun. I enjoyed Luxury Suite a lot.


I will take the 14-15 season easy. A few ITG boxes, probably the Habs MVP parallels and Ultra tickets, ...