Benito and Giuseppe Panini were operating a newspaper distribution office in Modena, Italy in 1960, when they found a collection of figurines (stickers attached with glue) that a Milan company was unable to sell. The brothers bought the collection, and sold them in packets of two for ten lire each. They sold three million packets. Having had success with the figurines Giuseppe founded Panini in 1961 to manufacture and sell his own figurines. Benito joined Panini the same year. Panini sold 15 million packets of figurines in 1961. 29 million units were sold the following year, and brothers Franco and Umberto Panini joined the company in 1963. Umberto Panini died on 29 November 2013 at the age of 83. Panini Group start sponsor Modena Volley 1968-1989. The company became well known in the 1960s for its football collections, which soon became popular with children. Rare stickers (figurine) can reach very high prices on the collectors’ market. Some popular games were invented which used stickers as playing cards
In 1970 Panini began publishing L’Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio Italiano (The Illustrated Guide to Italian Football), after purchasing the rights from publishing house Carcano. Panini also published its first FIFA World Cup trading cards and sticker album for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, in addition to using multilingual captions and selling stickers outside of Italy for the first time. Initiating a craze for collecting and trading stickers, Panini’s stickers were an instant hit, with The Guardian stating in the UK “the tradition of swapping duplicate [World Cup] stickers was a playground fixture during the 1970s and 1980s.” Another first for Panini, in the early 1970s, was introducing self-adhesive stickers; as opposed to using glue.
Panini Kaboom! cards have been…well…pretty explosive in recent years. Generally released as short printed inserts–typically about one per case–Kaboom! has its roots as a basketball insert back in 2013. The moniker sort of fits that sport, with powerful dunks eliciting that kind of response. Since then, though, Panini has taken the brand to its football, soccer and baseball lines as well. Panini used them in a variety of brands during Kaboom’s debut in 2013-14 including Innovation, Excalibur and Crown Royale. They were met with a mixed response back then, but interest quietly grew and some of the newer collectors and investors entering the space have really embraced them. In 2018 Kaboom! was brought to Panini’s NFL line through Absolute. Panini brought them to soccer, too. In 2021, 20 different players were part of the first Kaboom! baseball card set. The nature of the cards’ design has made Panini’s lack of an MLB licensing issues a bit less important. The cards are little works of comic art. It’s the combination of scarcity and grade that has generated some of the highest prices for “Kaboom!” inserts. Rookies and iconic players have appeared on Kaboom! cards over the years. High-grade colored parallels with low serial numbers are the most sought after.
What is your favorite Kaboom! card?