What Will You Miss Most About Panini?

[30ranfordfan]

I'll prove it to you later this week..... maybe even tonight? With the end of Panini, I would also assume it's the end of additions for my Slap Shot PC, so a S&T thread might be warranted :)

It's not JUST Panini. ITG has done some nice Slap Shot (or related) cards over the years too.....

I got the Dunlop for a steal too! Well under what a particular Ranford 1/1 went for last night.

YOU own that cut auto????? Well isn't that nice.........

I'd completely forgotten about all of the Slap Shot stuff, that was uber-fun to chase!

[MattDMC]

As mentioned already I'm going to miss Panini's willingness to go outside the box. When has UD ever changed anything up and given us something new or something bold?

In the past 3 years lets take a look at some of the things Panini has given us that UD hasn't even come close to touching on:

Prime Ties: Full ties from the front of a players jersey, Enough Said.

Prime Jumbo Emblems: Has UD ever made a patch card with a jumbo patch like Prime or ITG has done?

Prime Authentics: Like Ed's Kesler up above, UD would have cut that tag into 10 little pieces before putting it in one sweet card like Panini Did.

National Treasures Skate Blades: Again, would be nice to see UD include something like this rather than the same patches of the same players. It would be nice to see UD try their hands at different types of Memorabilia like Panini and ITG are doing.

Prizm: Every other sport has chrome type products, it was nice to finally get one from Panini. 1000 X's better than UD's try at an insert based set (Fleer Retro lol)

National Treasures Burried Treasures and Dominion Engravatures: UD has never done anything remotely close.

Playbook: A set with a Booklet a box for the Booklet fans, only way you get a Booklet from UD is if you're lucky in the Cup.

Player Selection: UD uses the same players set after set after set after set, Panini changes it up and gives the forgotten players their 15 minutes of fame that UD wouldn't even think about using.

Customer Service: Granted the redemptions suck but they do with every company that has redemptions but its nice to see Vegaspuck on the boards here and elsewhere talking to the collectors and receiving input for future releases. Whens the last time UD ever had a Rep on a message board? Hint, They haven't.

And I'm sure there's even more that I'm going to miss but I can't think of right now as this was only a "Quick" reply off the top of my head.

[jjdicaprio]

I'm definitely going to miss Dominion. I don't care if it doesn't have the book value or resale value of the Cup, they were better looking cards with better looking patches most of the time in my opinion. And the Tape-to-Tape, Stickside Signatures, etc. were awesome subsets in it. I suppose as a Swan Song to Panini I'm putting together the 13-14 set.

I agree with most that having someone to challenge UD like Panini is a good thing for the hobby. Hoping to see them back sometime in the future.

[Cunnuc]

I will miss quite a few things from Panini. The biggest thing I will miss is the competition it gave Upper Deck. I felt as if they put more effort into their releases than Upper Deck.

Stringing along inserts through multiple sets was something I actually liked. It gave them time to acquire hard autos of I think the single best Autograph set in Private Signings. Social Signatures is also a very cool idea and I'm a huge fan of it.

Bringing back Titanium Jersey # Rookie Cards I think was great. I think overall I miss all the different things they seemed to do, kinda like Pacific. I will always miss some of those Pacific sets and I know a lot of you will too. In many years we will be talking about those Panini sets we still love to collect just as we talk about the old Pacific we still like to collect.

11-12 Private Signings is the best set to collect, hands down. Very well done.

[Mnum]

What am I going to miss about Panini. I am going to miss having a choice when it comes to licensed hockey product. But if I to choose something. I would say I am going to miss Dominion & Totally Certified. I will will miss the Jumbo Emblem style patches from Prime. I will miss how easy it is to call Panini Customer service and get what I needed fixed or sent out.

[Gibby]

I have never bought or opened a box of Pannini ever and have 5-6 cards which where given to me.

That being said I will miss them because as stated in another post "having someone to challenge UD like Panini is a good thing for the hobby"

I firmly belief competition breeds excellent.

[RGM81]

Prime Jumbo Emblems: Has UD ever made a patch card with a jumbo patch like Prime or ITG has done?

They have on occasion - SP Game Used last year had the Supreme Patches/Gloves/etc. Really nice.

[canucksfan007]

2 things I will miss:

1 - Prime Colors

2 - Luongo autos ..... he doesnt like UD too much =S


One thing that will actually change with Panini out of the game ..... the ability to actually complete rookie year collections. Panini just flooded the market with parallels, parallels of parallels, parallels of parallels of parallels ...... UD only does that with Artifacts. I can see people who wish to attempt to complete rookie year collections will be able to get in the 90%+ range now

[MW Connection]

I will miss Prizm as I like the refractors or Prizms in that product and design.

[sedinfan]

One thing I'll miss about Panini is a decent web site, while ITG's is the nicest IMO Panini does a decent job of keeping their site up to date. While I know Upper Deck does have their blog and Facebook posts, their actual website is about as good as your local takeout restaurant who had their 8-year-old kid make their website in an afternoon... UD's "Products" site has nothing newer than 2011-12, their "Hockey" section advertises the up and coming 2009-10 UD Series II release, their checklist search launches into impossible to scroll frames within scrolling frames, etc.

I would've hoped the competition from Panini would have driven UD to improve their site, and also bring a rep to these boards, sadly neither happened... I'll miss their site and Vegas being here to answer questions about Panini hockey products.