I feel that every time a company does a giveaway, I have to support it. I feel like its an obligation, because I want it to continue. This weekend, the Panini Father’s Day promo goes live, and for the most part that is a very good thing. Some of the cards in the set are about as complete a disaster as they can be, but its free cards for buying some exceptionally bad product. Softens the blow, so to speak.
Somehow, a lot of cards have already ended up on eBay:
2013 Panini Fathers Day Clay Mathews Super Bowl Pylon Auto – These will be the best of the best this year.
2013 Panini Fathers Day Tavon Austin Hot Rookies Auto /35 – Let Panini’s obsession with these begin.
2013 Panini Fathers Day Cam Newton Pro Bowl Pylon Card
2013 Panini Fathers Day Andrew Luck Pinnacle Lava Flow Parallel – Not a fan of this.
2013 Panini Fathers Day Tim Tebow Collection Jumbo Swatch
I think Panini has the right idea in getting these cards into the forefront of our minds as we move into the months leading up to their biggest spectacle of the year in Chicago. They want as much buzz overtaking the convention, and loading up these initial promos is going to help them do it. The issue is that the products they are pushing behind the giveaway are all Basketball and Baseball, instead of the more usual suspects in Football
.
What is even worse, is that I have heard they are making the shops take on MORE of these products than they already have, rather than compensating for existing boxes on the shelf. Sure, its a great way to clean out the distributor’s enormous backlogs, but why the adding of that burden on the shops? They already have a ton of the boxes in their inventory to begin with. Its not even the good stuff like Select or Preferred, because those products are already selling well. Its the junk that no one wants, but Panini keeps putting out, one after the other to make up for last year
.
Here is the thing. Collectors love free cards, and that’s what this should be all about. Buy a Panini product, get a pack as a bonus. Oh mister shop owner, you bought a million of our boxes last year? Here is a reward for your customers, have these highly coveted packs. That would be the true way to make this beneficial for everyone, but making them take on extra product that they may not be able to sell isnt fair for the shops that DO want to participate, but DONT want to overstock their shelves with boxes.
Maybe this is an overreaction, and that this isnt as bad as it seems, but I think its worth mentioning here. I have gotten emails from a few different shops of varying size, as well as feedback from my own shop that they dont feel this is necessarily the ideal way to help them out. Im sure there is a counterpoint here, and I would love to invite them to comment.
As for the cards themselves, I think some of them are laughably terrible, but others are definitely awesome. Looks like we are going to get a bunch of stuff from all the different sports, but I am curious to find out what happens when they need to backfill a similarly large giveaway at the NSCC, as much of the content will likely be repeated.
Overall, this WILL be a successful giveaway, and I WILL be participating thanks to Panini taking orders for Prime Sigs (a good looking and cheap football product) on their website. Without that option, I would likely have to sit this one out and buy singles off eBay.
Adam,
I am a BIG FAN of this promotion and the “Panini Black Friday” promotion. The 2013 Panini Father’s Day Packs are loaded. Relic Cards are about 1 out of 7 packs, plus there are autos and parallels possible in the “Non-Relic Packs.” Overall, the “hits” are twice as easy to get as last year!
Sports Cards Plus of San Antonio has about 800 Father’s Day Packs to give to our customers who buy the products identified by Panini. This is about half the number of Father’s Day Packs we had last year because Panini is giving less packs to us for each box/case we are buying to participate. However, at the same time, the HITS are much easier to get than last year.
Sure, it would be better for us if we got credit for product already purchased prior to start of this “Father’s Day Promotion.” However, it is still a GREAT promotion.
All the products in this promotion have sold well at my store, but that may not be the case nationally. This is a way for Panini to ADD VALUE to products which did not meet anticipated sales figures. I don’t see this as a problem, but a WIN-WIN-WIN for customers, stores and Panini.
Two of the local shops have NEVER actually sold a Panini sealed box in their store so they have almost all of their Father day packs from last year.
They try and sell them at $7 and have never sold any. They both don’t know what to do with all the old packs and now will have the new packs to deal with.
Free doesn’t mean good.
These poor hobby owners who are struggling to stay in business keep get stuck with Panini products that nobody wants and taking up space on their shelves. they are very frustrated and Panini doesn’t seem to care, they just keep pumping out boring sticker laden products.
Oh ya, they are a sticker company.
Wait, since Panini is owned by an Italian company doesn’t that mean the profits go to Italy.
Buy American and lets send these Italian fools packing.
Charlie,
I know you are a big fan, but your statements are a bit contradictory.
You said that they cut their allocation of packs and DID make you order extra product. Even though there are more “thick packs” the overall promotion is smaller, it gives you LESS opportunity to engage your customers with the normal packs. Even though the people who end up getting the packs may have a better chance of pulling something nicer, there are LESS people that will get them. That doesnt seem to suggest that this is something that would actually account for a counterpoint to what was said above.
Here is the bottom line. In your statement you agreed it would be better to offer this program as a REWARD, “Sure, it would be better for us if we got credit for product already purchased prior to start of this “Father’s Day Promotion.” But its not. Its offered to the people who want to take on more product that they are unable to dump in the first place. You might be the exception to this rule about selling their boxes, but that is not the feedback I have received from other angry store owners.
Is this a nice thought? Yes. Its it a good idea? OF COURSE. Is it executed the way it should be? HELL AND NO.
Adam,
I agree improvements could have been made to make this better for card shops, but that does not change the fact that this is a great promotion for customers and card shops. For Sports Cards Plus of San Antonio, Fathers Day Packs and Black Friday Packs are the two best promotions in the hobby.
I understand that some products do not sell well, but that is not a problem that is limited to some Panini products. I believe it is a smart move for all manufacturers to offer packs like these as rewards to people who buy products still in their inventory. In this case, it is VALUE ADDED for products that did not preform as expected and makes these products NOW a GOOD BUY.
For those card shops that are complaining, I believe they need to relook at how they do business. We all could do better at pricing, promoting and making our customers happy. I will continue to look for ways to make my store better.
I am not in disagreement that this is value added, I think that is pretty obvious. What I am saying, is that the way they are forcing the shops to take on the burden of more product to offer the promotion is not a good practice.
If the products are not selling well, then promotions like this should be in place to HELP move the products off the shelf. It should not be contingent on the owners taking on MORE unsellable products. It doesnt add THAT much value in the long run, especially when you consider how difficult it is for stores to unload 20-30 products a calendar year as it is.
Should Panini continue doing this sort of thing? Of course, they should always look for ways to help move inventory in creative ways. However, I still think you are looking through your lens as a successful store owner, rather than someone who has had difficulties.
There is no question that the shops need to take on responsibility for the management of their stores, but they shouldnt be left out if they dont want to buy in further. Its giving the advantage to people who DONT need it. If Panini was truly about the hobby shops, they would be able to see that everyone needs a lift on moving their poor performing products, rather than just saying – Hey, we need you to do our dirty work, because we suck at delivering quality in many different areas of our game. Oh you dont have the ability to force more product because your base of customers wont see this as the value added we expect them to? Sorry, you are out of luck.
Its backwards.
Pingback: Around the Carding Blogosphere for June 14, 2013 : The Baseball Card Store | Hairline Crease
After seeing what’s coming out of the extra packs I can’t say I’m any more moved to buy a box of Panini. Looks pretty tough to pull anything other than two extra cards. Panini’s promotions always seem about as persuasive as the nice Target plastic bags that double as trash liners for my bathroom trash can. They’re a nice bonus, but don’t factor into my decision to buy anything at Target. Up the odds of a nice hit Panini. And don’t strong-arm card shops into taking on extra inventory.
I remember Leaf had a pretty good promotion going (don’t remember the occasion) where you get a bonus pack with an autographed card. Now, that’s added value.
Instead of adding value after a product is out and dropped like a stone, why not spend the time and money and just put the cards directly in the packs and improve the design and make an attempt to get on card autos…. or use these cards to make up for all the redemptions we wait months for and still end up with sticker autos… I just got a chrome redeem and a blue wave pack that was a total surprise. For me that is a better way to add value versus these promos…
What happens if I bought one of the promo products when they actually came out? I get to double down on junk or hope my hobby shop remembers I was the one that bought a box 9 months ago? I dont like the Topps player of the day and other programs they have either…. Instead of putting added value packs out after and putting all the “responsibility” on the shop owners, put them in as box toppers in hobby only product…..
and stop making products to sell directly from your site like Turkey Red or prizm one of ones…. do you want to support the hobby shops or do you want to cut out the middle man and sell directly to a customer???
This business gets more interesting every day..