Panini Offering $1,500+ Bounty for One Special $20 Card

You can add 44 to the list of the most meaningful serial numbers in the sports card universe.

Panini is offering a substantial reward to the one collector either already holding or pulling the 2009 Limited Pro Bowl Combo Materials card featuring Super Bowl XLIV passers Peyton Manning and Drew Brees and, most importantly, also bearing sequential number 44/100.

The lucky collector holding that card and revealing it to Panini officials prior to the kickoff of Super Bowl XLIV on Feb. 7 will have the chance to trade that card for an exclusive Manning-Brees card sequentially numbered 1/1 and one box of every 2010 NFL product Panini produces.

Based on the company’s current 2010 production schedule, that prize haul amounts to between 10 and 15 unopened boxes with a combined suggested retail value of more than $1,500. For those wondering, the current Beckett value for the card is $20.

“Even though Limited was one of our most popular NFL releases this season, there is a good chance that this card is waiting to be opened in a pack on the shelf of a hobby store somewhere in America,” says Scott Prusha, Panini Marketing Manager. “We look forward to rewarding the lucky collector who finds this card and encourage all NFL card collectors to look through their collections to see if they have this unique card.”

To swap the winning card, Panini is asking the lucky collector to email the company a scan of the back of the card with the sequential number clearly visible to marketing@paniniamerica.net with “Manning-Brees Redemption” in the subject line of the email prior to 6:28 p.m. EST on Feb. 7.

Stay tuned to Beckett.com for updates to this story.

— Tracy Hackler