I love free stuff, and I dont think I am alone in that. I love giveaways, I love swag, I love anything that is given away free when purchasing other things. For the last few years, Panini has really taken their giveaways to a level above the production of their normal products.
The Black Friday pack giveaway joins the National, National VIP, and Father’s Day pack promotions as ways to pimp out the buying of low performing sets, and the cards have started to show up on eBay:
2012 Black Friday Victor Cruz Super Bowl Pylon Relic – Best cards in the promotion, 2 years running.
2012 Black Friday Robert Griffin III Auto Manupatch for BCA
2012 Black Friday Austin Rivers Cracked Ice RC Auto
2012 Black Friday Clay Matthews Cracked Ice Auto
2012 Black Friday Mike Trout Diamond Kings Cracked Ice
2012 Black Friday Andrew Luck Draft Day Relic
I would even go so far as saying their products have sold so poorly in some circumstances, that these giveaways were increased to this level to move said products off the shelf. Its no secret that Panini’s mid year blur of products that all look the same, and have the same content, drop like rocks when the next box comes out. Almost a direct result of the fact that there has been very little to differentiate one from another. This, combined with the illogical and inexcusable MAPP program, leads to boxes sitting forever on hobby store shelves, and a need to liquidate inventory.
More importantly, Panini has gotten pretty damn good at repackaging their leftovers into giveaways, even going as far as creating base sets and inserts that are unavailable anywhere else. For the first time, there will likely be an online component to this, as Panini is now selling boxes on their website as well.
Personally, im not as big a fan of a lot of the way these cards look, as it is pretty clear that they realized extensive work on these isnt always going to mean more sales. Collectors, myself included, just like getting some extra value when we buy wax, and we really dont care what it looks like. Even more, they have brought back some of the popular cards from last year, and I foresee this being just like all of their previous promotions in terms of success.
Again, I credit Panini for coming up with these ideas to help the shop owners cover the huge losses they report on taking with some of the awful mid year sets that Panini has become infamous for. This gets people into their stores, buying the boxes of sets that are collecting dust, and gives the store an opportunity to capitalize on business in other ways too. I say a lot of terrible and deserved things about Panini’s products, but this is something I support.
2011 Panini Black Friday Packs was THE BEST promotion in the 20 year history of Sports Cards Plus of San Antonio. 2012 Panini Black Friday looks to be even better. This year’s Black Friday cards look much better than last year and the Packs are loaded with auto and Jerseys/Relics. The Fat Packs with Relics are about 1:7 and then there are autos, low numbered cards and cracked ice cards in the skinny packs.
The local hobby shop still has every single fathers day packs from last year. The store has even been able to sell 1 single sealed box to give away the free packs. The shop even tried selling the packs for $5 each and not one has sold.
Do you know why Topps and Upper Deck don’t do these promotions? Cause they don’t have to. Their products(for the most part) sell themselves. The other 2 companies don’t need gimmicks or free packs just to help hobby shops attempt to move dust covered hobby boxes of Panini products off their shelves.
Can’t wait, Charlie! btw the Clay Matthews card is AWESOME imo
Im glad it worked in your store but for me locally I could buy Leaf R+S fb or Prestige hoop to get black packs. Im going to exaggerate a little but even if you told me Id get either a griffin or luck auto Id have a hard time buying either one of those products… and my LCS started giving them out on Wed as well…
Looks like most of the autos are stickers?
How about Panini takes all the time, $ and effort they put into these gimmicks and devotes it to regular product.
Make the cases and ability for LCS to buy what they think they can sell. Instead of offering a case of 24 boxes that are made up from 3 8 box inners, allow LCS to buy the 8 box inner with max of 3 8’s
Get rid of the MAPP and let the market decide. If you want price to stay high include better content and limit supply. Most of the LCS I visit buy Panini from wholesaler in an effort to limit their risk and inability to move product.
Tell me what Im going to hit in a box. A statement on the box “up to 4 jerseys and or autos” tells me there is only one auto at best.
Collecting in Colorado? My store – Mike’s Stadium Sportscards – brought in 2,000+ packs to give away. We will be open Thanksgiving night from 9:30PM-midnight and 9:00AM-8:00PM to help you load up.
This was our most successful manufacturer promotion last year and we are ready to beat last year’s totals. Please call 303 699 9808 with any questions and have a happy Thanksgiving with us or your own LCS.