When Panini announced that they had acquired the WWE license, many collectors were excited at the potential massive growth that was going to come to wrestling cards. Others were not thrilled that prices for wax and certain singles would be jumping in price. Some collectors were concerned that Panini’s history of problems with customer service and QC would be a detriment to the brand. I want to focus on the problems today, because there are some big ones with Prizm that are hurting values and brand perception within the product.
Centering Issues
We all know the way that cards are made and how challenging it is for the manufacturers to avoid issues with collation, condition and overall quality. Prizm’s rush to the press and into packs seems to have caused some issues with a few aspects of the release.
Even though I have a horrifically negative view of the grading business and their intrinsic conflicts of interest, grading potential has a huge impact on the way the Prizm market functions. No matter how many times I stomp my feet over how much of a problem grading is for the hobby in general, it wont change the impact it has on the value of any given product.
One of the most easily identifiable challenges with Prizm is the centering on entire runs of the product, including the expensive White Sparkle variants that were offered in packs through dutch auctions. For almost every vertically oriented card, massive centering problems have drawn the ire of collectors all over social media. Panini has had problems with this in the past, and the ongoing issues with responses from customer service to everyday collectors makes getting compensation for factory defects even more of a problem.
The General Customer Service Problem
One could say that grading potential is not a part of the manufacturer’s commitment to delivering quality in their product, but when entire print runs have issues, Im not sure that argument has water. The rush job of Prizm WWE likely had huge impact on these things, and with other sets still pending from mid 2021, it could be impossible to reprint or correct without throwing a wrench in the rest of the calendar. Being that Panini sees that millions of dollars is on the line with delivering their backlog, certain aspects of the business are facing a “damned if you do and damned if you dont” scenario.
With that scenario in place, there remains a bunch of questions about how Panini could let it get to this point with so much growth in the market over the last few years. The answer likely hinges on a few levers, and one of them is profit margin, or the fact that these things sell out despite the issues. The second is that this has been their business model since the beginning. I have said a ton of horrible things about Panini over the years, and many of them are echoed by many other collectors who feel the same way. The fact of the matter is that to the customer – it seems as though the corporate policy is to only spend money on things that make money, instead of providing a better overall experience for their customer across all aspects of their engagement.
Given the resources that Panini has acquired through the boom, hiring more people to make the ship run should have been a huge focus in a very public way. If the business wants to keep that planning private, then the actions should speak for the plan. I have seen no indication on social media that any positive impact has been achieved, and because of the sales volume, they might not see a need to address it.
Many corporations use this model to success, but they are also the businesses with the lowest brand loyalty numbers, and lowest net promoter scores around. Comcast should come to mind immediately, as should EA games, and things like airlines. Businesses that only try to add profit by adding to sales, rather than loyalty and experience driving more sales per customer.
We have already seen heavy indicators that the hobby market trajectory has started to trend downwards, and Panini also knows that come 2026, everything goes away. Thanks to Fanatics, Panini has seen a bleak license-less future in the major sports, and could be doing everything in their power to build as much of a war chest as they can before they are forced to the curb. However, with downturns in process, they might see this approach come back to bite them.
Factory Blemishes
Usually when someone buys a couch and it has a tear in the fabric, the company will do something to help the customer get full value for their purchase. Here, that isnt and hasnt been the case. I have already heard of major pulls from the product not being able to make even a raw equivalent grade due to problems with dents, scratches, and other defects to the cards, and that is a huge problem.
Imagine pulling a five figure card, only to see it cant achieve its full value potential because it isnt able to hit the stupid grading standards set by the hobby’s secondary market. Its like buying a luxury car and seeing that there are paint defects all around it as you leave the lot.
This goes back to customer service, which I know many people have tried to engage with as they find these issues in the wild. It has caused a huge amount of anger and frustration, and so far nothing has come of it, because as described above, what can come of it with no ability to reprint or fix a card? Similarly, there is no guarantee of condition out of the pack, so no real responsibility to address the issue.
The funny thing is, Panini has offered graded cards in a packed out product before, and their relationship with the grading companies is deep rooted. Every person in their product development is quite aware of the importance here, but might be powerless to fix it. That situation, in itself, is a gigantic problem for their employees and their company.
Upside Down Stickers
I love autographs, and over the last 15 years, I have come to tolerate the need for stickers to make autographed trading cards. Production timelines are tight, flexibility is needed, and subjects are notoriously hard to deal with. If I have an opportunity to choose hard signed autographs over stickers, I always choose hard signed. Most people do.
Prizm was subject to a license that began 4 months before release, and a history of sticker autographs across its run. Similarly, Prizm has never been about the autos, so Panini rarely saw it as a focus area for improvement. What they didnt understand was how dependent on autograph cards the WWE market remains to be, and the lack of hard signed cards has been a problem for a landmark set like this.
Even more problematic is multiple examples of upside down stickers on cards, or autographs signed in a foreign language that requires a vertical reading path. If the autographs were truly meant to be a focus, these things wouldnt be a problem.
Examples include Asuka, Sheamus and Xia Li, all of whose stickers arent applied correctly, or cant be applied correctly. This takes away from the value of the card, and highlights the success Topps had building WWE products for decades. Since 2018, Topps has switched from a sticker focused autograph presentation to almost entirely on card, and the market has reacted kindly. We will have to see how this plays out in future WWE products, but right now, its a big question mark.
Impact of the Problem
Right now, Prizm WWE has shown to be one of the most top heavy products ever made. The biggest hits in the product are breaking sales records left and right, while the rest of the checklist holds onto its value with a flimsy disposition. Unfortunately, with challenges adding fuel to the fire around condition and other controllable mistakes, values have continued to come up short on cards that should be more expensive.
The impact is huge, because comp related dominoes fall differently according to sales done on the tentpole cards holding up a set, and these issues documented above can have long lasting impact for many cards that should be more valuable.
When wax is as expensive as it is, customers expect a certain delivery of value. Instead they are treated with factory problems, no customer service presence, and many mistakes that could have been avoided. Its not a good foot to start on.