Panini America Brings Black Friday Magic to Special Father's Day Hobby Shop Promotion

Last November, Panini America officials brought -- for the first time ever -- the frenzy, excitement, energy and unbridled spending power of Black Friday to hobby shops across the country with a special in-store wrapper redemption program that included a promotion-exclusive card set and unparalleled buzz.


Last November, Panini America officials brought — for the first time ever — the frenzy, excitement, energy and unbridled spending power of Black Friday to hobby shops across the country with a special in-store wrapper-redemption program that included a promotion-exclusive card set and unparalleled buzz.
Next month, they will do it again with a similar program developed around Father’s Day.

With its Father’s Day promotion, Panini America will look to mimic a massively successful Black Friday initiative that The Magazine Exchange Owner Roger Barry called the industry’s “best single innovation or advancement” of the year and one that generated more than $1.5 million of incremental business according to Industry Summit Organizer Kevin Isaacson.
“[Panini America’s Black Friday promotion] brought people into hobby shops, it allowed us to engage with the shops, it promoted additional sales, and it delivered for the shops that participated,” Barry said. “We had tons of positive feedback; several stores reported their best sales day ever. It increased our sales on all Panini America products – not just those featured in the promotion.
“Could Panini improve on some elements of the promotion for future years? Of course. But it was a great promotion, and we believe the store traffic it created is something we should strive to repeat and increase in the future. The nature of our business demands that we create exciting in-store events, and this was a good example of what we can accomplish by working together and driving customers into stores for a great collecting experience.”
The key to the Father’s Day promotion’s success — just as it was for Black Friday’s — will be a promotion-exclusive, multisport set that includes unique autograph and memorabilia content that collectors simply can’t get anywhere else. Father’s Day packs will be distributed to local dealers based on their purchase of pre-selected products; dealers, in turn, will distribute those packs to their customers via a wrapper-redemption program.
“The Black Friday promotion was a phenomenal success for us and far exceeded our expectations,” said Jason Howarth, Panini America Vice President of Marketing. “We took the lead on this massive initiative in part because we wanted to bring the intense excitement of our wrapper-redemption programs at the National Sports Collectors Convention to local hobby shops across the country.
“But perhaps more importantly, we wanted to help hobby shops continue to be bona fide destination points for collectors. Father’s Day is the perfect time to introduce a new nationwide hobby initiative and it’s something we hope will become an annual event in the hobby. It’s fair to say we all remember the first time we got a pack of cards from our own fathers and gave that first pack to our own children. That shared excitement and experience of opening packs of Panini America cards between father and child is something we want to celebrate.”
Stay tuned to The Knight’s Lance for additional details on the Panini America Father’s Day promotion. Until then, enjoy this small sneak peek into some of the exclusive cards planned for the program.

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46 Replies to “Panini America Brings Black Friday Magic to Special Father's Day Hobby Shop Promotion”

  1. Pingback: Anonymous
  2. This is exciting news, no doubt. I’m hopeful, however, that Panini will include a way for those without access to LCS a way to snare some Father’s Day packs. Collectors such as myself, who wanted to share in the excitement, were left to purchase Black Packs through eBay. Perhaps Panini could institute a mail-in wrapper program? Just a thought.
    Black Friday shook the hobby up, I suspect Father’s Day will do the same 🙂

  3. What a super idea panini! I thought I had to wait until November for black Friday packs but now I only have to wait a month !!! Great job panini!

  4. Tracy, I really need your help on this one. Hopefully you guys already had planned to let us customers know what dealers this may be taking place at, but if not, could you give me the 5 closest dealers that will be participating near the 31098 zip code? The closest sports card shop period to me is Atlanta Sports Cards I think (I don’t even know if that’s it’s name). I’m trying to get some overtime in so on Father’s day I can take me and my two sons to a shop for the day. I want to pick up two boxes of Past & Present if they have it and get some of the promotion packs. I understand if you guys may not have the list right now, but if you could get it out as soon as possible, I’m more than likely going to have to drive 2+ hours to wherever it is. Thanks, and thanks for the awesome promotions.

  5. That 9-11 Tribute card looks AWESOME!!! Do you know is there will be any Aaron Rodgers stuff in this Father’s Day Promo?

  6. Alright Tracy, only once a year I get to visit a card shop. I know, its sad. I do online purchases usually due to no local shops. But I do go once a year on vacation. And while I am there, I visit their card shop. I know the owners well now. The funny thing is, my trip this year is on Father’s day weekend.
    If they don’t normally participate in this…how do I tell them about it or how do you guys get shops to participate? I missed out on Black Friday because of no local shops, but would love to participate in this one!!! And I know my wife will let me make purchases. its fathers day 🙂

      1. Yes on both. I was thinking about posting this link on their Facebook Page.
        OOB BASEBALL CARD AND SPORT SHOP in Old Orchard Beach, Maine
        Great people to talk to.

  7. I love the design of the Pro Bowl cards. I picked some of them up off from Ebay around Black Friday. Such an awesome card. And could be the last time you see pro bowl game worn jerseys if they cancel the Pro Bowl.

  8. Hey Tracy I have a question I order all my boxes from Dave and Adams Card World due to the fact that i dont have a single card store in my area within 100 mile radius!!! Will they be able to do the same on Fathers Day?

  9. Do you know if doc d’s trading cards (i believe thats their name) will be participating in this? They’re in new York

    1. Promotion solicitation materials just went out this week so we don’t have a complete list of participating dealers just yet. As soon as we do, we will post it here.

  10. Sweet cards Tracy!! Do you know if these distributor’s will be involved with this program? They are two shops in Pa. One Is SportsCardPlayground in Horsham Pa, they prolly are. Then LCS and another guy from Allentown Pa store owner Chris? Just wanted a heads up. Nice RG3 and Trent. One more question whats the print run on those sheilds?

    1. I have the same question. I contacted two local card shops in the West side of Toronto, but as of Friday they had not heard anything about it. I ran into the same situation with the Black Friday promotion too.

  11. WOW … Awesome.. I just hope one of the Hobby Shops participate!!! None of them did on Black Friday!!! I wonder why?? Tracy let me know please…

  12. I do not like this promotion. I am a shop owner and I buy products direct from Panini and from distributors. Why do I have to buy more of a product that is not selling well for me in order to get these packs that I then giveaway? I do not like being forced to buy certain products that are not sometimes wanted. Doing that makes the product even worse because there will be shops out there that buy the product just to get these packs and mark the product exactly what they paid for it just to get the bonus packs. I think these packs should be available to shops that bought these products already.

  13. Which LCS in San Diego area are going to contribute to Panin’s Black Friday’s Father’s Day promotion? Most of the shops are small & do not have much traffic when it comes to buying sports cards… MY favorite is PJ’s Sports Cards in Chula Vista, Ca (San Diego South Bay). Looking forward to Panini’s up coming Basketball Limited 2011-12. Can’t wait!!

  14. Good morning Tracy. Any updates on when we might hear what shops will be participating or what collector’s should do if they are not near a shop? Thanks.

    1. Ben, I’m a bit north of you, in Teaneck. You underscore a salient point when discussing the absence of LCS in our fair state.
      As I understand, there were between 25 card shops distributed throughout central and northern NJ. Over the last 10 years, all but 4 have closed. I have 1 shop near me (If one considers a 40 min 1-way drive “near.” His business is on life-support and he doesn’t anticipate making it through the Summer. I don’t know if other states are seeing quite that rate of die-off, but NY and CT have also seen their shops shuttered, coupled with a greatly diminished number of shows.
      The point of this is that quite a few collectors will be participating in such initiatives via the Internet. I appreciate Panini making certain that collectors such as us have a means of participation open to us!

  15. Tracy, is this strictly a wrapper redemption program or are dealers allowed to sell the packs? Just curious as I’ve been hearing of dealers selling the packs if you buy certain products.

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