I stumbled upon Thomas Wisniewski’s impressive array of Aaron Rodgers autographed cards earlier this summer and just knew his collection and the story behind it would be welcomed attractions on The Knight’s Lance. Rodgers — the Green Bay Packers superstar QB and the Super Bowl XLV MVP — seems to be  the collecting target of quite a few collectors these days. But Wisniewski has been cheering ever…

Through a new feel-good insert in the October release of 2011 Certified Football, Panini America will pay tribute to the countless charitable efforts of NFL teams and their superstar players. The 34-card Hometown Heroes insert — featuring such headliners as Aaron Rodgers, Larry Fitzgerald and Drew Brees, to name three — includes compelling player photography on the front. But it’s the even-more-compelling card backs, which…

In an effort to keep collectors updated on the status of those Panini America redemption cards that are currently being processed, we’ll frequently post a list, like the one below, detailing the most recent cards being fulfilled. The following list is by no means complete, but it does let collectors know which redemption cards from which products are being processed this week. We’ll update this…

How’s this for cool: At this very moment, some of the most coveted and valuable Rookie Cards of the entire 2011 NFL season are stacked discreetly along an otherwise nondescript hallway at Panini America HQ, cataloged neatly inside a heaping mound of white storage boxes. Over the course of the next several weeks, Joe White, the man tasked with procuring all of Panini America’s NFL autographs, will ensure…

Since I’m a positive guy by nature, I’ll begin with the good news: The hand-packout process for the highly anticipated juggernaut that is 2010-11 Dominion Hockey begins a week from tomorrow. (As an aside, we’ll be there with video camera in hand documenting the process.) The bad news? The gallery that follows showcasing some of the sweetest, most-recent autograph arrivals for the product…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucgJ9fzFCNE&w=585&h=359] In another must-see edition of the award-worthy Panini Unwrapped series, watch as Panini America’s Tracy Hackler and Carlos Torrez shred a particularly hot box of 2011 Panini Threads Football. Not only can you win their hits from this box, but you can also win a sweet new Panini America T-shirt available nowhere else but here. Stay tuned to the…

  Larry Bird. Kobe Bryant. Blake Griffin. Derrick Rose. And that’s just the list of hoops headliners whose autographed cards have arrived at Panini America headquarters in the last two days. It’s enough to make even collecting’s most hardened observers get weak in the knees (I know, I’ve seen it). It’s also two more days worth of positive signs — pun intended — for the…

When you work on the manufacturer side of the NHL trading card business, you tend to pick up tons of behind-the-scenes skinny and invaluable insight into the daily dealings with the game’s superstars and their agents. For example, Panini America NHL acquisitions specialist Alex Carbajal was one of the first people on the planet to know that Boston Bruins winger Milan Lucic earlier this year had expressed an interest…

Between the National Sports Collectors Convention a few weeks ago and the upcoming NHLPA Rookie Showcase next week, we’ve been burning the candle at both ends inside the Panini America marketing department recently. As a result, we’re a little behind in selecting winners from some our recent contests here on The Knight’s Lance. Today, we finally made it a point to get…

Outside of perhaps Kobe Bryant’s own family and closest business associates, there’s likely not a person on the planet who spends more time with the “Black Mamba” than Panini America’s Brian Bayne. Bayne, the company’s Memorabilia Business Manager who runs Panini Authentic, is the go-to guy when it comes to autograph acquisition for Panini America’s top-notch exclusive NBA spokesmen: Kobe Bryant, Blake Griffin, Kevin Durant and…