Story on Sports Collectors Daily on Panini signing deal with Mantle family

[callou2131]

IMO Topps has made its own bed and now they can Lay in it. They have screwed customers over time and time again. I think their real downfall is redemptions. If a redemption is 1 day expired they do nothing for you. I purchase packs of cards, not redemptions that are worthless. Not to mention, many times they dont fullfill the redemptions with the right card, and lowball you with a replacement. Many redemptions are outstanding 4 or 5 years. Maybe the card was $1000 when you redeemed it, now it worth $500 several years later, and they offer you a $250 replacement for it and say take it or get nothing. I HOPE they lose the Mlb License.

[Rich Klein]

Panini already has a license with the MLBPA so they can legally produce any baseball sets they wish. As noted, what they do not have is the MLB properties license.

And this is not the 1st time Mantle (or his family) has signed with a company other than Topps. In the early 1990's, Mantle signed autographs and did other promotional usages for Upper Deck. He was in their card sets in that era.

Rich

[clydepepper]

I would think that all this bodes well for vintage cards.

'Life was so much simpler back then...'

[bn2cardz]

Originally Posted by clydepepper

I would think that all this bodes well for vintage cards.

'Life was so much simpler back then...'

Simpler? There is a reason Musial doesn't have a Topps card until 1958 even though his rookie year was in 1942. Or Ted Williams in 1954 even with his RC year in 1939.

There were licensing issues back then just as there are today.