Will BO be effected by the new Panini "rules"?

[J-FIELDS23]

- 60% of business is done via in store traffic

- Not allowed to pre-sell or offer any Panini product before official street date

- Must adhere to pricing guidelines

Might of been discussed before and if so, sorry. I must of missed it.

Was told that distributors also have to watch who they sell too and to cater to brick and mortar shops and not just online sites only. He could be wrong, just wondering.

I like paying BO prices compared to shop prices, lol, so just trying to find out if prices will be raised whenever the new "rules" take effect.

My guess is it won't hurt BO any because they spend so much money, but again I could be wrong!

[MASNAR]

Where do these rules come from?

[J-FIELDS23]

A friend of mine owns a shop, he showed me the form he had to fill out and sign and all that other stuff. You can also find it on Panini's website. It is for Panini Direct accounts, but my friend told me that the distributors have to sign something too saying they will limit what they sell to online only sites and could be hurt in some way if selling all product to online sites only.

Panini is trying to do a lot of things to help cater to brick and mortar shops and to bring back the LCS and stop the crazy prices online sites offer (which we all love). I am just trying to find out if all of this is true and if BO will be hurt in anyway

[MASNAR]

Ahh

Interesting.....

[dreamweaver1984]

honestly, i hope they are restricted some, BRING BACK THE LCS!

[MASNAR]

I wish I had a LCS close to me.

[J-FIELDS23]

Originally Posted by dreamweaver1984

honestly, i hope they are restricted some, BRING BACK THE LCS!

I agree! Of course I love the BO prices, but what I love even more is going to the LCS and chillin with a bunch of other collectors so I can actually TALK and show off cards/trade/etc. Have live case breaks, pack wars, etc.

When I was younger going to the LCS was amazing, wish it was still that way and it COULD be that way. Hope the LCS comes storming back!

[phil]

a friend of mine who has a panini hobby account (long-standing carried over from playoff) but not a store said he is still getting order blanks, and has heard from Panini that they are re-thinking this and their plans are still up in the air.

[MASNAR]

I am thinking that Panini should put more efforts into delivering a better product.... Not worry so much about HOW its delivered.

[phil]

Originally Posted by J-FIELDS23

Hope the LCS comes storming back!

well that's not gonna happen no matter what panini does. the internet is just too powerful a draw for consumer dollars, and if panini products aren't available there most people will just buy something else.

even their leverage as an NBA exclusive is minimal with the impending lockout.

[J-FIELDS23]

Originally Posted by phil

a friend of mine who has a panini hobby account (long-standing carried over from playoff) but not a store said he is still getting order blanks, and has heard from Panini that they are re-thinking this and their plans are still up in the air.

Call me stupid but what do you mean "order blanks"? Like they aren't taking his orders or something?

[J-FIELDS23]

Originally Posted by phil

well that's not gonna happen no matter what panini does. the internet is just too powerful a draw for consumer dollars, and if panini products aren't available there most people will just buy something else.

So IF it were to happen, people would just stop buying NBA cards?

[phil]

Originally Posted by J-FIELDS23

Call me stupid but what do you mean "order blanks"? Like they aren't taking his orders or something?

i mean as of now they ARE still soliciting orders from him even though he doesn't have a store

[phil]

Originally Posted by J-FIELDS23

So IF it were to happen, people would just stop buying NBA cards?

there would be greatly reduced interest in new products and an uptake in sales of previous years, which is going to happen anyway with the lockout.

[J-FIELDS23]

True!

But even when/if the rules do happen, that doesn't mean online sites still cant sell. Just would mean they can't sell for as cheap as they currently are.

I highly doubt that the rule would hurt the hobby any. If true collectors/hobbyiest would stop all together instead of paying around $20 or more/box for new items then they aren't true hobbyiest, IMO.

Anyways, I hope they rules do go in effect but I doubt they do. Oh well!

[Tblades_17]

J-fields

You have to find a card shop that is open in Lexington to hang out in. The two he have SUCK!!! and are never open.

[guru]

Originally Posted by J-FIELDS23

True!

But even when/if the rules do happen, that doesn't mean online sites still cant sell. Just would mean they can't sell for as cheap as they currently are.

I highly doubt that the rule would hurt the hobby any. If true collectors/hobbyiest would stop all together instead of paying around $20 or more/box for new items then they aren't true hobbyiest, IMO.

Anyways, I hope they rules do go in effect but I doubt they do. Oh well!

what is wrong with the link to your ebay name?

[ld8759]

Originally Posted by phil

a friend of mine who has a panini hobby account (long-standing carried over from playoff) but not a store said he is still getting order blanks, and has heard from Panini that they are re-thinking this and their plans are still up in the air.

I think Panini needs to re-think ALOT of things!!!

[J-FIELDS23]

guru - changed my eBay name and forgot to update it on here, thanks for the heads up. Will do it now. Same account as before, just different name. it is now "j-fields"

[phil]

Originally Posted by J-FIELDS23

But even when/if the rules do happen, that doesn't mean online sites still cant sell.

effectively it does. if panini strictly adhered to their new rules places like blowout would have no means to obtain product in quantity, let alone at a price that they would have any chance to profit from.

of course if panini strictly adhered to their new rules they would be out of business in 3 months (unless they are planning on downsizing 70%+).

I highly doubt that the rule would hurt the hobby any. If true collectors/hobbyiest would stop all together instead of paying around $20 or more/box for new items then they aren't true hobbyiest, IMO.

no disrespect but that is not how the market works. people of all kinds - collectors, gamblers looking for a big hit, single sellers etc who open boxes want value. if they don't think panini products are a good value now, restricting their availability and raising the price isn't going to suddenly make everyone want to open them more.

[Andrew Jones]

Originally Posted by MASNAR

I am thinking that Panini should put more efforts into delivering a better product.... Not worry so much about HOW its delivered.

Completely agree. I haven't purchased any Panini basketball products (packs, boxes, or cases) since they purchased Donruss and began flooding the market with their cookie-cutter products. Quality companies make quality products that command quality prices. Panini has a lot of work to do in house before they worry about, er, never mind.

[phil]

Originally Posted by Andrew Jones

Completely agree. I haven't purchased any Panini basketball products (packs, boxes, or cases) since they purchased Donruss and began flooding the market with their cookie-cutter products. Quality companies make quality products that command quality prices. Panini has a lot of work to do in house before they worry about, er, never mind.

they did break away from the cookie cutter a little bit with regular 2010 donruss NBA, which has more content than many of their higher-end products at a much lower price, and is doing (comparatively) well in the secondary market because of that. this shows they are capable of making a successful product without forcing people to buy it through B&Ms.

[cruiserdaddy7]

Nobody remembers when UD tried to do this as well? They even had bar codes on the bottom of the boxes that could track them to the shop or distributor they were initially allocated to. What UD didnt account for was that just because they had a fixed price, it didnt mean consumers would buy it at that price. Shops were getting stuck with product and eventually UD sales went down because the product wasnt selling. Quickly, UD pulled the plan and it was business as usual. Prices indeed will go up, and none of us will like it. Panini makes the same product with 4 hits per box time after time, and are you going to want to pay $100 a box instead of 75-80? I doubt it. You wont be saying bring back the LCS when you are losing even more money breaking products.

[BAMBAM]

Was hoping this stupid idea would get scrapped when they first had this going into effect starting with 2010 National Treasures. That would have been a total douche move considering all their other 2010 releases were already bought by the same people who would be cut off from their top tier release. That didn't happen and my supplier was solicited (thank God) but then he was told it was going into effect starting with 2011 Prestige FB. I think Panini is smart enough to know it's a foolish move that really doesn't need to be done the way they proposed. The internet dealers are the biggest culprits when it comes to dumping, if they wanted to clean things up they should start with them and also their credit hold accounts. Why screw with the direct accounts who aren't dumping product and pay their tabs ?

[J-FIELDS23]

They aren't "screwing the direct accounts" at all from what I hear. Shops that have direct accounts with Panini will not be hurt by the rules IF they to into effect. Only websites that buy from distributors like Magazine-Exchange, Peach State Sports, etc. You have to have a brick and mortar shop to get direct account with Panini anways.

I could be wrong though and probably am, lol.