Panini lands Kobe Bryant - no longer UD exclusive

[ffgameman]

Kobe Bryant will no longer be associated with Upper Deck....he is with Panini.

This is likely a big blow to Upper Deck - although they lost the license they previously had the allure of Bryant, James, and MJ.

http://beta.beckett.com/group/361173/?t ... iewArticle

 

[rymflaherty]

Lord knows I'm not a Kobe fan......but that's great news.

I've seen lots of on-card auto's, donruss brands with value, and now if they can get superstars like this to jump over than Panini may be just fine after all.
I just hope they can create a couple exciting and creative higher end sets and it should be all good.....because really it's not like UD quality has been anything special the past few years....IMO their success was from their exclusive contract and the desire to pull those top guys......so good to see one of them with Panini now.