Show #139 Seat At The Roundtable + UD Presses On

Panini’s Dealer Roundtable

I actually like the concept. Personally I don’t think it will accomplish much – similar to other efforts by Panini to help hobby store owners (ie MAAP pricing).

I think the 20 who get to call in each quarter will hear the same BS these “product managers” spew out in other “interviews” they do about once a quarter elsewhere. It will be filled with a bunch of BS. His job is to produce sets for Panini’s bottom line, not hobby shops or collectors.

Here’s how I would have worded and executed this:

Hobby Stores, we at Panini want to hear from you. We want to work closely with you to create sets that drive collectors to your store and to others around the country.

Some of the ideas we’ve heard in the past have been:

1- creating hobby blaster boxes, or creative packaging to hit more price points.
2- strengthening programs like Black Friday, Fathers Day and creating new ones.
3- Give hobby shops a 1 week exclusive on selling certain products to drive traffic.
4- distributing information & materials for you customers to learn about Panini.
5- Promoting shops via Panini’s marketing channels

We encourage you to contact us with any feedback you can provide. Hobby shops that participate will receive (free stuff) just simply provide us with your shops address.

The 20 best submissions each month will be selected to have further discussions about their suggestions with our staff each quarter. We look forward to hearing your ideas and putting them into action. If we all work together, we at Panini feel we can grow interest for sports trading cards at your store.

Thank you
Panini America

Upper Deck Press Releases
Upper Deck has a new online store. That actually looks nice, but Upper Decks had a nice looking site in the past so its not much of a change.

Renewed license with Hockey Canada to create national team sets.

Sent out a press release about Authorized group breakers. Redacted it, but then sent out basically the same one again. It’s open to Diamond Dealers (hobby stores).

Resigned Wayne Gretzky to an exclusive autograph deal.

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