You havent seen a frenzy until you have seen people fighting over free packs of cards. On the Friday after Thanksgiving last year, Panini’s black friday packs created a mob scene unlike one I have ever seen. On the heels of the black friday promotion from last year, Panini is going to be rewarding collectors on Father’s day in a similar way. I couldnt be happier.

One of the biggest reason that the BF promotion was so successful was because of the content of the packs, and I have to give credit to Panini for coming up with a great scheme to get people to buy their products. Personally, I cannot STAND Panini’s awful design and content of their boxes, but even I bought stuff on BF just to get a few of the packs. That, my friends, is powerful.

The cards, especially the Super Bowl relics that Panini used, sold like hot cakes, and even the pro bowl relics had collectors trying to chase them down:

Aaron Rodgers Super Bowl Pylon Logo Auto /2

Justin Bieber 2.0 Black Friday Auto 1/2

Black Friday Kobe Bryant Auto /30

After seeing the cards that Panini is using, I think they did about as good a job as one would expect. Although the pictures on some of the cards are questionable, the design is simple and works well. Additionally, the Prestige Logo cards for Luck, RGIII and Richardson will be crazy expensive for the first ones to hit, and because of rarity may hold value longer than normal non-branded NFL cards.

Overall, the free card phenomenon is something that the companies are exploring to get people back into long term connection with buying product, and I have to believe its a great tactic based on feedback from shop owners. Forget MAPP and its horrid attempts to get shops back on their feet, do MORE like this. It might cost money, but when 75% of your products sell below cost at the end of the year, this can help the owners get some of that loss back. That is, unless Panini actually decides to put more quality into their work to sell the products in the first place.

Here are the previews: