If you have been a fan of this site for a while, you know that I have been preaching for a long time about more opportunities for collectors to buy directly from the manufacturers. I have often said that offering an online experience that is as easy and as positive as a retail one is something that cards have SORELY been missing.

For the last year or so, Panini has ventured into territory we really havent seen prior to this point. Not only offering a direct buy option on just about all of the products, but also offering a special program that provides incentives for people to utilize the service. I think this is a huge step for a lot of different reasons I have covered in previous posts. The question is, has this program really lived up to the hype it had upon creation, and how have those incentives held up?

Most of the FOTL products have specific special cards as part of the promotion, some of which have looked pretty cool:

2017 National Treasures Patrick Mahomes Stars and Stripes Auto Logo /13

2018 Origins Saquon Barkley Purple Auto RC /32

Overall, I think the program has been successful because of the direct sales idea in its own right. Regardless of the incentives and how they are perceived by the collecting public, we need more exploration of this space. The issue has been a few major things, both stemming from the ability to access low numbered cards on a guaranteed box hit.

Because such low numbered content is being offered in every FOTL box, they sell out very fast. Similarly, with the price not being more expensive to offer these cards, its a no brainer for many to at least try to chase down a box or two if they were already in the market. Therefore, we see website slowness, quick sell out times, and many collectors being left without access to the offer.

Funny enough, we have seen mixed reactions to the cards themselves, as for some reason, people dont think the guarantee works towards higher value, except in very specific circumstances. This hobby is generally filled with anal retentive rule mongers, who live their collecting lives chasing down “true RCs” and other garbage ideas like that. It seems like the arbitrary Beckett rules of 1980 still haunt us in 2018, and that is not a good thing for creating value in a set or subset that doesnt play along. Trust me, we should find ways to escalate value of every card, not try to exclude a huge portion from the limelight because it doesnt follow some ancient guideline that has no place anymore.

This also applies to the low numbered stuff, because collectors seem to value the cards more that arent guaranteed in packs. If you are guaranteed a hit /10 in a pack, it normally cant hold a candle to a similar /10 card pulled from product that doesnt guarantee a hit. Considering that each athlete in every sport signs no less than 10-15k cards in a year, I dont get why there is such a discrepancy.

I will say, the program hasnt been without hiccups, especially when boxes havent delivered the content that is promised. Prizm Football had issues with collation and lower numbered parallels being available in the FOTL boxes. 2018 Elite FB had a number of boxes that were missing the guaranteed exclusive content. Other runs were just not as good to open outside of the guaranteed hit. That being said, because of the limited runs, it almost doesnt matter, as box prices are frequently jumping in cost after it sells out online.

Bottom line, I want every card company to offer a program that gets to the heart of the sales process the way this one does – regardless of the success of the actual products themselves. Its time to offer a more convenient way for collectors to participate in the hobby, especially now that every other portion of buying cards has been online for decades. I dont get why online wax sales direct from the manufacturer has taken so long to catch on. I honestly dont.