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Mickey Mantle Makes Return to Baseball Cards

Attendees of the sports collectible’s Industry Summit didn’t have to wait until August to land their first Panini Mickey Mantle card. The company provided each who attended a copy of the limited edition card pictured here.

The sports collectibles industry concluded its annual B2B trade show, called the Industry Summit, earlier this month. The event hosts dozens of sports card and memorabilia retailers from across the country in a collaborative effort to advance the industry’s business objectives. In addition to traditional networking and workshop opportunities, attendees receive the plans of trading card manufacturers, sports leagues, memorabilia companies and more.

Every year serves as an opportunity for the attending trading card manufacturers to showcase upcoming product releases, technology innovations and exclusive player signings. This year, Panini America used the Industry Summit to announce that they had just negotiated and secured a long-term licensing agreement with the estate of Mickey Mantle. This exclusive agreement means that only Panini America (Panini) can use Mickey Mantle’s image and likeness, memorabilia and cut autographs in baseball card products.

“We are honored that the Mantle family has chosen Panini America to represent Mantle’s legacy on trading cards for now and the future,” said Jim Stefano, Panini America Senior Director of Product Development“This is a historic day for Panini MLBPA-licensed baseball trading card products. We believe trading card collectors will be excited about what we will be creating in terms of product content and promotions by utilizing arguably the most collectible player in baseball history. We plan to work closely with the Mantle family on The Mick’s triumphant and long-overdue return to the trading card marketplace.”

It has been more than five years since Mickey Mantle was featured in any baseball card set. For years, Topps, the exclusive trading card licensee of Major League Baseball had held those rights. While Topps still is the league’s exclusive trading card licensee, Panini has a long-term licensing agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA).

What exactly does that mean for collectors and fans of Mickey Mantle? While Panini produces several baseball card sets throughout the year, they are barred from using MLB licensed logos and team names. The company legally circumvents these restrictions by airbrushing out team logos or utilizing photography from angles where the team logo and name are not visible. In addition, instead of listing a player being on a team such as the Chicago Cubs, Panini designates the player as being on Chicago N.L., short for National League.

Under terms of the agreement, Mantle’s first Panini America trading cards will be released in the 2017 Panini Immaculate Baseball Collection.  This hobby store exclusive product will hit store shelves in August of this year. Through the partnership with the Mantle Estate, Panini America will procure cut autographs and memorabilia directly from the Mantle family. These pieces will then be embedded directly into the baseball cards themselves.

Speaking about negotiation and licensing process, Mantle’s son David said “Panini America is the recognized leader in the trading card category and a world class organization. We’re excited to see how respectfully and innovatively they honor our father and get his trading cards into the hands of baseball trading card collectors and introduce him to a new generation of collectors.”

The agreement was quite the feat for Panini, which is often seen by collectors as playing second fiddle to Topps in the baseball card category. However, this exclusive licensing deal provides the company with an iconic legend they can call their own—and for a very long time.

While specific details, including price and specific duration were not disclosed, Mantle’s other son Danny had this to say about working with officials at Panini:  “Panini America has treated us like family from the beginning and blew us away with the amount of passion and respect their people have for our father and his legacy. At the end of the day, it was an easy decision to partner with them as the only trading card company that will be able to include Mickey Mantle.” 

In order to insure the market isn’t inundated and saturated with Mickey Mantle baseball cards, company officials did disclose that the agreement allows Panini to include Mantle in no more than six baseball card releases each year. In addition, Mantle’s image will also be showcased on two of the company’s products each year as well.

Attendees of the sports collectible’s Industry Summit didn’t have to wait until August to land their first Panini Mickey Mantle card. The company provided each who attended a copy of the limited edition card pictured above.


Rob Bertrand has been an active collector of sports cards and memorabilia for more than 20 years. His involvement in the hobby community is well-documented, having been the content manager for the Card Corner Club website before the company’s merger with CardboardConnection in 2011, where he is now a staff writer and multimedia content producer. Rob is also the co-host of the sports collectibles hobby’s only live and nationally broadcast radio show, Cardboard Connection Radio. He is the author of the highly respected and trafficked blog, Voice of the Collector and you can follow him on Twitter @VOTC. A dealer himself, Rob runs an online business through eBay, and is frequently asked to consign collections.

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