Panini Back in Hockey? Or just Kakko Autos.....

[30ranfordfan]

I'm willing to bet that Panini will push at least one full hockey product for next year, doing what Leaf and ITG(rip) did. They probably still have left overs and who knows what they have been collecting the last few years, also they did make a push to get the license back or shared, they could have been gearing up expecting to be back.

2 Part response:
They also have exclusives with Michael Jordan and Lebron James, those names are bigger than any recent rookie in hockey that was poached. I'm also impressed that they were able to get unlicensed Luka and Ohtani autos into products.

With the Anthology product in 2016, do they truly have anything left? I would have assumed they blew it all away in that product.

Jordan & James were already exclusive to UD prior to the Panini Exclusive (and on long term deals) and while I agree (obviously) they're two of the biggest names in sport, making it a huge deal - because of the exact circumstance, I don't consider it the same kind of "poaching" as Simmons, or what Leaf (and now Panini) have done in hockey.

The Anthology product, no doubt, blew out most of their hockey stock.

I can use an easy example from my own PC to tell me they have NOT used all of it: They had a Bill Ranford game used stick. They used small piece of it on a card from 2011-12 (only 10 copies of it) and again on a booklet card in 2013-14... 80 copies total (various parallels) but incredibly small pieces.

They never used any more of that stick in Anthology.


Now, maybe I'm underestimating how much of that stick the other 90 cards used, but I think they still have some left. They used 230 auto'd stickers of his in the product... why wouldn't they get rid of the stick too? I have ZERO idea.

Anyway, I'm betting Panini is not 100% out of their autos & GU from the hockey days, but the stock is very depleted. Do they have any multi-sport products? Are there many hockey players in them, if they do ?

[creasecollector]

Jordan & James were already exclusive to UD prior to the Panini Exclusive (and on long term deals) and while I agree (obviously) they're two of the biggest names in sport, making it a huge deal - because of the exact circumstance, I don't consider it the same kind of "poaching" as Simmons, or what Leaf (and now Panini) have done in hockey.

The Anthology product, no doubt, blew out most of their hockey stock.

I can use an easy example from my own PC to tell me they have NOT used all of it: They had a Bill Ranford game used stick. They used small piece of it on a card from 2011-12 (only 10 copies of it) and again on a booklet card in 2013-14... 80 copies total (various parallels) but incredibly small pieces.

They never used any more of that stick in Anthology.


Now, maybe I'm underestimating how much of that stick the other 90 cards used, but I think they still have some left. They used 230 auto'd stickers of his in the product... why wouldn't they get rid of the stick too? I have ZERO idea.

Anyway, I'm betting Panini is not 100% out of their autos & GU from the hockey days, but the stock is very depleted. Do they have any multi-sport products? Are there many hockey players in them, if they do ?

To your point about Panini having some stock left, I believe this is true. Same thing happened with Enroth.

I know they have at least 2 jerseys of his, but he got nothing in Anthology, which I was surprised by. I don't think that material will ever make it into another Panini hockey product again, but only time will tell I guess. I would bet Panini does still have hockey memorabilia, but is it enough to make a product out of (be it hockey or multi-sport), along with the newly acquired Kakko autographs? That's the question.

[30ranfordfan]

To your point about Panini having some stock left, I believe this is true. Same thing happened with Enroth.

I know they have at least 2 jerseys of his, but he got nothing in Anthology, which I was surprised by. I don't think that material will ever make it into another Panini hockey product again, but only time will tell I guess. I would bet Panini does still have hockey memorabilia, but is it enough to make a product out of (be it hockey or multi-sport), along with the newly acquired Kakko autographs? That's the question.

^^^^

I doubt it. Seriously doubt it.

I'm thinking what they will do is include him in multi-sport sets (which might feature other hockey players) and also there will be cards under the "Panini Instant" line.

[creasecollector]

^^^^

I doubt it. Seriously doubt it.

I'm thinking what they will do is include him in multi-sport sets (which might feature other hockey players) and also there will be cards under the "Panini Instant" line.

For sure, makes sense.

I'm also curious as to why Panini did a multi-year deal in the first place. No doubt Kakko's representatives pushed a multi-year deal @ the chosen dollar amount (Which was high than Upper Deck's, presumably) in order to maximize his earning potential in this deal, but I still can't figure out why Panini would want Kakko autographs past his first year, which would be likely the only year of autographs which would grab anyone's attention. After his first year, I could see only some hardcore Rangers fans & Kakko player collectors going after his stuff, so I wouldn't expect him to be a driving force in their products' after that, hence the odd Panini swoop in on a Kakko multi-year exclusive trading card autograph deal.

Maybe this move by Panini was strictly a move to "get back" at Upper Deck, but of course there is no real way to know for sure.

Oh well, I guess we'll see how this all plays out. I'm sure Upper Deck is already planning "throwback" Kakko Future Watch Autographs #/999 in a few years.