[dsenart]

So when I used to collect there was loads of brands, Fleer, Flair, Topps, Upper Deck, etc... is it the case now that there's really only Panini? I'm not really able to find a lot of other brands when looking online.

[jplarson]

Fleer - May, 2005 Fllr suspending its trading card operations. Early July they liquidated asets to repay creditors. Upper Deck produced some baseball sets under the Fleer, Ultra, Tradition, Flair, and Skybox brands. Link - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleer

Flair - see above

Topps - Panini won an exclusive contract with the NBA in 2009, re-upped in 2012 and 2017. Currently they'll have it till 2022. Link - https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/nb...in-panini/

Upper Deck - see above

Panini - they acquired Donruss Playoff among other brands, which includes favorites like Donruss, Elite, Playoff, Absolute, etc. So if you see ANY officially licensed brands in NBA, it all goes back to Panini.

[dsenart]

Thank you!  I had no clue!  I blame EA for all of this when they signed their first exclusivity contract with the NFL!  It really stifles creativity and progression.

Guess I need to start learning now which panini makes are the ones worth looking at.

[jplarson]

I blame EA for all of this when they signed their first exclusivity contract with the NFL!  It really stifles creativity and progression.

You would think!  But according to a totally unbaised source Mark Warsop, CEO of Panini America, he had this to say in an ESPN article about acquiring the NFL exclusive license:

We have so many different brands within our brand that the consumer does have the choice.

Something tells me Mark forgot his classes in economics and business.  When there is 1 supplier, that is the definition of a monopoly.  That's like if Ford was the only car manufacturer in the world with a license to make cars and they are providing "competition" by offering consumers the Mustang, Ranger, Escape, and the F-150.  Yeah they are different choices, but you still gotta go to Ford for an automobile.


Here's what Peter Warsop, Panini's Group Licensing Director, had to say about the NBA exclusive (emphasis mine)

You will know better than most people that there has been a decline in the market. There has also been a decline in the amount of trading card series that are being published. However, given the state of the market at the moment, there probably is still some over publishing going on. What we were trying to determine really was, let’s evaluate all the card sets that are being produced and ask why. Why is this in the consumer’s best interest? Or why is it, perhaps, in the trade’s best interest? What we concluded, frankly, was that there was some publishing that was going on that was being done for competitive reasons rather than for good consumer or trade reasons. What that led us to conclude was that there was still a few too many card series going out.

The benefit of having a single licensee is that you only need consider the consumer and the trade and put out just what is required. We do feel that there’ll be a further reduction in the number of series launched but nevertheless, more than adequate to fulfill the needs of both the trade and the consumer.

What we also hope to do, frankly, is to clarify for the consumer and the trade the purpose of some of these collections. We were worried that if one was to look at the array of merchandise at offer, it would become quite difficult to a consumer to know where to enter the hobby. Where do you start? What is always fearful is that you make the wrong choice. This is the consumer’s nightmare. They obviously are very conscious of what the hobby is about; they know that it’s not just about buying a package of trading cards. You buy a package of trading cards with the full intention, of course, of buying then many more thereafter. You’re looking to build up your whole collection and that’s quite a commitment in terms of both expenditure and time as well.

People, when they’re doing that, want to make sure they get it right. If they’re fearful of making the wrong choice, some people will be brave enough to make the choice, but a lot of people will not. They’ll say “I won’t enter.”

What's in the consumers best interest?  The consumer wants to make sure they get it right and are fearful of making the wrong choice.  There's over publishing, why is that in the consumers best interest?  So Panini has come in to make sure the wrong choice can never be made and that there won't be "over publishing" from other manufacturers.