I'm sure many of you remember the Panini sticker albums of old. Actually, Panini still produces these sticker albums, but they're not as popular as they once were here in the U.S. during the early 90's. I was one of those collectors who completed both the '91 and '92 NBA Panini albums. It was a lot of fun ripping open the little packages looking for the last few stickers to complete an entire album. Undoubtedly, I always needed one of the "insert" stickers. These were usually groups of ten or twelve stickers that featured NBA All-Stars or All-NBA performers. It was a savvy marketing scheme by the Panini brass. I bought a lot of little packs just to find those last one or two "insert" stickers, but it sure was fun.Besides the fun of opening those sticker packs and the thrill of completing an album, the stickers themselves were actually pretty cool looking. One could say they were even a bit ahead of their time. The "inserts" actually featured either a prism design in '93 or a foil design in '92. The designs are admittedly simple, but effective. The focus is on the player entirely with a full body silhouette action shot and cool backgrounds. I like the designs of the '93 Prism Mullin and '92 Foil Jordan so much that I think Panini should bring these them back.
('93 Prism C. Mullin) ('92 Foil M. Jordan)
It seems that the trading card industry is consumed with auto's and relic pieces these days and not as much on design. If Panini wants to make a short print auto'd parallel of these, that's fine. I just think it would be so cool for Panini to reuse these designs that I remember so fondly from my youth.
My proposal and subsequent question are simple:
- Proposal:
Bring the '92 foil and '93 prism designs back as trading card insert sets in upcoming Panini trading card products. The sets could feature a "Legends" set and "Rising Stars" set. There's no need to alter the designs other than to enlarge them to fit the standard trading card size (2.5 inches x 3.5 inches). On-card auto's would be cool too for a short print run. If I'm going to have cake, I mine as well eat it too.
- Question:
Ok collectors, is this a good idea/proposal? Would you buy/collect these cards? I think my opinion is obvious, but what's yours?
First things first... I love Panini's sticker albums... I remember building these in the early 80's... although I had the baseball albums, instead of the basketball.
ReplyDeleteOnto the Prisms... in 94/95... I bought a ton of Pacific Prism chasing the Jason Kidd, Grant Hill, and Glenn Robinson cards (at the time... I thought they were rookies). I even purchased their other prism products during the 90's, but I don't think I have any in my personal collection remaining. I might still have a Kidd or Hill somewhere... maybe even an Eddie Jones, but that's about it.
But... to answer your question... I probably wouldn't be into them. Now... if we're talking acetate, refractors, or mirrors... then that's another story.
I must say... the foil Jordan looks pretty sweet. If they created these, I'd be semi-interested... they'd need to add some text to the front though... and keep it a sticker.
Sticker albums are fun. The World Cup showed us how into stickers we can still be.
ReplyDeleteWould it sell? At the price point of the World Cup stuff, it would definetely sell.
I'd probably buy some.
I'm for stickers. Just not sticker autos on cardboard.