On Panini’s blog, The Knight’s Lance, it is not unusual for them to generate buzz and hype for their (mostly) over-foiled, crummy cards. Nor is it uncommon for their hype-men, complete with Ed Hardy-type Panini shirts, goatees, spiky hair, and no real knowledge of sports, to post video breaks of their products, delivered with the same fervor and borderline insane intensity that Don West exhibited late at night during my adolescence:

(and awesomely parodied on SNL)

So, whatever. They are just trying to push product. I get that. I don’t generally agree with the way they do it, but it is not my business.

What I do  have a problem with is when they artificially try to drive up the price of their cards on the secondary market. Case in point, this:

There are no autographs on them, no massive swatches of multicolored memorabilia in them and no tell-tale sequential numbering behind them. Simply, they’re  nicely designed base inserts with cool photography and subtle foil touches. But after a few weeks of 2012-13 Contenders Basketball being on the market, it would appear that hoops collectors across the country are finally starting to realize the needle-in-a-haystack scarcity of the set’s Hall of Fame Contenders and Throwback Rookie inserts.

It’s a point not lost on those folks who’ve contacted Panini America recently in hopes of finding out just how tough these cards are to pull. For the record, they’re extremely rare. The Hall of Fame Contenders were inserted roughly one in every 409 packs; the Throwback Rookies fall one in every 273 packs.

Okay, this just looks like Panini telling collectors that there are SSPs in their product and what the odds are. But then they go on:

Those ratios have led to relatively substantial secondary-market prices being paid for the cards in these sets, prices rarely seen for base insert cards. A Vince Carter Hall of Fame Contenders recently sold for $100 while cards of Carmelo Anthony ($90), Shaquille O’Neal ($81) and Allen Iverson ($70.98) have all surpassed the $70 barrier. Throwback Rookies of Kobe Bryant ($80) and LeBron James($76.77) have sold at similar levels.

Now they are delving into the prices of their cards on the secondary market. This is just my opinion, but I feel like this it not their place and I find it slightly unethical. I mean, whatever their cards are bringing on eBay, that information or data is really for collectors to digest and talk about, not the manufacturer; they are a company whose main goal is to design (hopefully, but usually not) attractive, collectible cards and get them in the hands of the collector. If they decide to toss in SPs, SSPs, and other limited cards, fine. And if they want to look at prices on the secondary market to see what is and is not popular/selling, then that is fine. I mean, it is market research, essentially. But to post about it on your blog that is geared towards collectors seems…shady. They end with this:

But given how infrequently these cards are surfacing on the secondary (there are many from both sets that have yet to appear), those prices could pale in comparison to the sales to come.

Stay tuned.

And now they are just openly trying to drive up prices by calling to attention to the fact that a) certain cards are SSPs, b) they go for X dollars on eBay, and c) as more hit, the prices could go UP UP UP!

What it really sounds like to me is this:

1. No one is buying 2012-13 Contenders Basketball.
2. The few that are have noticed some unannounced short printed cards.
3. They contacted Panini and inquired.
4. Panini pulled data from recent ended auctions on eBay.
5. Panini posts about how there are, in fact, SSPs and show prices on eBay.
6. Panini then tries to drum up excitement about these rare cards and how much someone who could pull one might stand to make on the secondary market.
7. Panini pushes some more units.
8. The end.

Am I way off on this? Am I just picking on a card company that I not-so-secretly have zero love for? What do you think?

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