In 1961, in Modena, Italy, Giuseppe and Benito Panini had a brilliant idea. The two brothers, kiosks, decide to sell small images that represent soccer players. They come with a tube of glue and an album to store them. The Panini collections were born.
In 1970, thanks to the appearance of the self-adhesive image, the market went global. And above all, very popular in playgrounds. Especially every four years, during the Soccer World Cup. The next one will start on November 20 in Qatar and all the fans of the little cartoons are already queuing up again to try to finish their album.
994 euros to finish the album?
One of the keys to the success of Panini’s images lies in the relative rarity of certain images. And that seems to require some financial ease. A few weeks ago, an English mathematician calculated that finishing the 2022 World Cup album would cost… 994 euros! Considering the rising cost of the five-sticker pack, which has almost doubled since the 2014 World Cup, and the scarcity of images found very randomly in the packs, the number makes sense. However, it is “a false rumor”, denounces Isabelle Fillon, Panini’s head of marketing and communication, who denies this calculation.
The value of the exchange
In his calculation, the mathematician forgot an essential element that makes Panini cards famous: the exchange. Greg Jousset, collector and creator of the “Potes cartes” podcast, like many, discovered his passion at a very young age: “It started with Paninis that we used to trade on the playground. We collected when we were kids, now we’re adults.” and we’re still collecting albums.”
Isabelle Fillon also recalls that the company has created “free tools for fans to get in touch with each other”, such as the Panini Collector application. There are also specialized Twitter accounts, Facebook groups with very specific themes where mutual aid reigns. But to enter “you have to commit, it is beyond the purchase you have to show that you are a true collector,” warns Greg Jousset.
And when the exchange is not enough, there is always the possibility of ordering the missing stickers directly on the Panini site. Would the myth of the Panini album that we never finished be unfounded? “There is no bad faith on our part, the promise of the collection that ends exists,” says Isabelle Fillon. “We usually manage to finish the records well, explains Greg Jousset, ordering the missing vignettes will always be more expensive, but the pleasure is exchanging”.
The “one of one”
The only unknown that remains comes from the novelty that Panini offers this year: extremely rare cards, the “one of one”. A unique card, which should raise the rating of some stickers in the long run. But unlike the trading card business in America, especially in the world of baseball, Panini stickers have no real financial aspect. “We stick to the principle, for children, of trading card for card. At the moment, rarity is only done based on condition and age,” recalls Greg Jousset. The behavior of collectors with respect to these new “one of one” cards will determine their price, or not, in the trading card market in the future.
In the United States, these cards can already reach considerable sums, if they have not been glued…
Therefore, the exchange is preferable to reach the end of your Panini World Cup 2022 album. If you are not yet ready to mortgage your house to finish it, you will need to demonstrate a good strategy, show your credentials to join the collectors. clubs and above all… Have fun. Because, as Greg Jousset reminds us, cards and stickers are “much more than a piece of cardboard”.
Source: BFM TV
