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Over the last 6-9 months, the blogs have made incredible progress with manufacturers to show that they are worthy of consideration in disseminating news. They have gotten sneak peaks, done box reviews, and even major interviews with the industry's big wigs. Could Panini's entrance into things be destructive to this progress?
Since the news first broke here on SCU and on the Sports Card File, all official statements from Panini have gone through the fuck faces over at Beckett. This includes interviews, statements that disavowed everything said here and on SCF, and all exclusive info. What this fact says to me, is that Beckett has realized what our involvement means, and have jumped on these new people like kids jumping on candy from the pinata. It seems like beckett doesnt want any blog involvement because their arrogant nature forces them to work against that. They know that every exclusive that is broken by Mario, Chris, Dave or Steven could be extremely important in the war of words. Whoever has the exclusive can spin it for everyone. They want it all for themselves. They want to establish a relationship with Panini before everyone else so that the relationship wont echo what they have right now with UD.
Sadly, with Panini being introduced into the US market, there couldnt be a better foundation for Beckett to estabish a great realtionship on. They dont know as much about the past, from what I can see, and DLP really didnt want very much to do with the blogs either. Even when UD stopped sending boxes to Beckett, DLP continued with reckless abandon. Every set, Beckett got boxes early. It was the only company that still wanted to work with them after all the shit that was pulled the year before. Now, with Panini, im guessing they see beckett as the only legit news source in cards. That will be a problem for those of us who still want the companies to see them as the child that your mother forces you to play with out of pity. UD gets it, from the people I have spoken to. Topps, im sure is catching the drift. Panini seems like they are ready to give beckett the keys to the castle.
Hopefully Panini will eventually sort through the bullshit and see the true douchebag demon behind Beckett's curtain.
Have you tried contacting Panini for comment? Has anyone else? Beckett has and they've got the coverage because of it. I don't know if it's because of back scratching, sucking up or whatever, but if nobody else has tried to make contact then it's easy to see why Beckett's the only one out there getting news and comments - they have the right name and phone number in the rolodex.
ReplyDeleteThe sooner you realize that Beckett is here to stay, the sooner you can give up these tiresome rants. Lets give Panini a chance before we bash them. They can't do any worse than UD.
ReplyDeleteWe at CardInformant.com are working on developing a relationship with Panini. I've been on the phone with their people both in the U.S. and in Italy.
ReplyDeleteI think the card companies need to realize that Beckett is probably doing more harm for their products than good in the long run.
At Card Informant, we know we're not the Voice of the Collector, but we'd like to become the Choice of the Collector.
~Bill Williams
This seems a little short sighted and I agree with Ryan. I actually emailed Peter Warsop (the Group Licensing Director) and he was both pleasant and quick to reply. He answered all the questions I had and put me on the list for further news releases.
ReplyDeleteAs far as breaking the news, the deal wasn't finalized until late Thursday night, so even though the deal was essentially done when you, Mario, and SCF (and everyone else, for that matter, me included) had posted on it, there was nothing official that had taken place. In fact, Beckett was the only one to contact Panini after all the blog posts and "broke the news" that nothing was in place at that time.
I'm not cheerleading Beckett here, and I do think that the rise of the blogs has forced them to be a bit more rabid in their search for news. But I'm glad for that portion of it all because it means they are finally doing their job when it comes to news.
You can't blame beckett too much, the blog is the only good thing left that they do, now that they've trashed their "new" website and reconfigured the rags to ripoff status.
ReplyDeletePanini- I think they'll be fine if they fire current creative and hire new creative with an emphasis on listening to the collector/card shops (so they don't do things like DLP) and keep production and distribution, the great points of DLP.
Its good to hear that Bill has been reaching out to Panini. Hopefully bloggers with other card company relationships can get on the same page with Panini. It's good for everyone if there are multiple voices in the hobby.
ReplyDeleteSounds to me like Panini is willing to work with anybody who contacts them. Maybe it all comes down to the fact that the people at Beckett do what they do for a living and the bloggers all do it in their spare time.
ReplyDeleteI wasnt really focusing on the exclusives, I understand that beckett has "professionals" who have the rolodexes, I was referring to the fact that panini isnt aware of the past. They dont know what has happened, so beckett gets a free reset button.
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