Video: Panini America Takes Ryan Kesler’s Game-Used Stick from the Ice to the Insert

The journey began in late February with the short drive from Panini America HQ to Dallas' American Airlines Center, where Ryan Kesler's Canucks were taking on the Stars. Following Vancouver's tough 3-2 overtime loss during which Kesler scored the game's first goal, the Canucks' center, true to his word, emerged from the visiting locker room with game-used sticks in hand.

Seven months ago today, Panini America’s Alex Carbajal and Tracy Hackler embarked on a most fascinating voyage. The objective? Document every painstaking step required to transform one game-used hockey stick from Vancouver Canucks superstar Ryn Kesler into a rare handful of unique trading cards.

The journey began in late February with the short drive from Panini America HQ to Dallas’ American Airlines Center, where Kesler’s Canucks were taking on the Stars. Following Vancouver’s tough 3-2 overtime loss during which Kesler scored the game’s first goal, the Canucks’ center, true to his word, emerged from the visiting locker room with game-used stick in hand.

In the 213 days since, that stick has been de-taped, estimated, expedited, sliced, diced, embedded, autographed and, just last week, hand-inserted into random boxes of 2011-12 Dominion Hockey, which releases on Friday. The best part? We had a camera rolling every step of the way.

Now, for the first time anywhere, we present the video diary tracking one stick’s extraordinary expedition from the ice to the insert.

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32 Replies to “Video: Panini America Takes Ryan Kesler’s Game-Used Stick from the Ice to the Insert”

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  2. I loved this video and have always wondered how some of these cards were made. I also loved how Kesler got involved with the process! It’s Panini’s level of communication and sincere love for the hobby, along with continual improvements to their products that they are rapidly becoming my favorite company for sport cards. I can only hope that soon Panini will have a contract to produce MLB cards and I can see their passion carry forward in that sport too! Thanks again for the vid! Well done!

  3. Super job Panini-those cards look amazing!!!! Can’t wait for the Panini Unwrapped episode to see what you guys pull. Keep up the great work! Collecting cards just gets better and better:)

  4. Wow. That is such a cool job. Please send me an application so I can do some of your product acquisitions up here in the NJ/Philly/NY area. I would just love to be a part of this franchise and being able to see how it is done is just icing on the cake. Well done good and faithful Panini servants 🙂

  5. Great video. This is just another anecdote as to why the hobby as a whole has fallen in love with Panini. They continue to give us the inside view and use social media to expand the hobby. And that can only come from hobbyists who love the hobby (not executives and accountants), which Panini has smartly employed. I would guess there isn’t a lot of profit upside to do something like this, just something that Panini knows a collector would love to see. Again, great video and keep up the good work, guys.

  6. I really enjoy the videos you share with the hobby world. This one is by far my favorite.

    Would love to see one highlighting the designers of your products. The guys sitting in front of those computers coming up with some tremendous card concepts.

    Thanks again.

  7. That was great stuff, guys! I thoroughly enjoyed watching that video. It would be really cool if the person who gets any of those cards gets notified about the video and can finish it for you (assuming they didn’t watch it the first time).

  8. The Elite Laser cutting video was cool also. Panini should consider making a full-length video on the process. I think we’ve all seen cool videos on how things are made (like baseballs, etc). How much cooler for how trading cards are made?

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