Dixie Dean : The Illustrated Legend

The fascinating thing with card collecting is the appreciation of players who performed before we were around to see them. Personalities from Babe Ruth to Jack Dempsey are ones we've only read about or saw some grainy film footage or pictures.

 

My first collectible featuring "Dixie" Dean was a 1985 Panini sticker from its "Stars of the Past" subset.

1985 Panini Dixie Dean

 

Dean appears on over 40 cards during his playing days (1923-1939). Of those, almost half are illustrated in painted portraits or caricatures.  

 

I added two cards to my PC of Dixie - both of which are art work on cardboard. In addition, both are issued on John Player & Sons cigarette cards.

1927 Player's by "MAC" - Dixie Dean

 

Three consecutive years, Player's cigarette cards featured English soccer stars. Starting with illustrations by "RIP" in 1926 and followed up with art by "MAC", and the 1928-29 set of footballers.

1928-29 Player's Footballers - Dixie Dean

 

Dean was a consummate super star especially after his record breaking goals in the 1927-28 season. With 60 league goals and 3 more in the FA Cup, only 2 other players have approached these numbers in tops league. (Argentina's Lionel Messi and the USA's Archie Stark)  

His international scoring, albeit short, was a remarkable 18 tallies in 16 appearances.  His last cards, issued just before the Second World War, was issued in Germany and South Africa. Both are quite rare and bring high prices.

William "Dixie" Dean is a must have for any soccer collection. Many of his cards are still extremely affordable.

Panini Champions League - Left in Stitches

Modern card collectors who chase jersey cards have lots and lots of choices. While other American sports cards have tons of jersey swatches - from the greatest players to the modern rookies.

Soccer cards, which are evolving with these modern "chase cards", do not have such luxuries - yet.

Other than the Pele' swatches from SportsKings, there are few legendary artifacts in the market.

To make matter worse for North American collectors, Upper Deck - possibly the worse cards ever for modern soccer (ugly, overpriced and farcical in other ways), cannot manage to match their photos with swatches.

Panini, the masters in soccer collecting since the 1960's, has meanwhile done an effective job at producing jersey cards. Their 2011 Champions League subset included 5 players with varying swatches (as many as 3 different colors).

True card makers know that these jersey cards are base on availability, not like the NFL which hands out jersey samples with photo sessions among their "game-used" material.

These Panini examples are matching to the colors of the jersey depicted on the card. Unlike the Upper Deck MLS which you may as well guess the team or the year that the material. The Thiago Silva card (above) even has the stitches to the two-color pattern.

This Frank Lampard jersey patch is sublime with the soccer balls outlining the crest. Some of these cards were known to have included an autograph as well. The above Lampard card sold for $400 on ebay.

The list:

Thiago Silva - AC Milan

Frank Lampard - Chelsea

Michael Bastos - Olympique Lyon

Michael Carrick - Manchester United

Ji-Sung Park - Manchester United

Add SPAIN to The Champions Roll

After a great month of watching EURO 2012 and collecting PANINI stickers - we have a new winner - Congratulation to SPAIN or ESPANA !

I have duplicates of the bottom half of the 2 foil stickers that make up the trophy. Oh well.

Up next: the 2012 Olympic Soccer Games.

PANINI EURO 2012 STICKERS - Product Review

As I  await for the afternoon hour to kickoff the last quarterfinal of EURO 2012, I rip open another packet of 2012 PANINI Euro stickers.

All this is thanks to our friends over at PANINI AMERICA.

The package arrived on Friday but there was so much going on I waited until I had some sleep before approaching the box. A rather big box, for one to transport such a small box of stickers !

To my surprise, there were 2 albums included in the box (ergo the size of box). Unfortunately, they used rubber bands to roll them up. The box and the album is decorated with the flower motive of Euro 2012 - Poland / Ukraine.

The albums had a starter bonus of 10 stickers so I was already on my way to finishing the set (well, maybe). This issue was different from past years when the stickers were just an uncut sheet of the players. These are spread over a larger sheet where boarders do not touch. In addition to the 8 players, there are 2 stickers that make up Stadium Miejski in Poland.

The 8 players stickers are a nice rounding of stars: Fabregas (Spain), Malouda (France), Keane (Ireland), Boateng (Germany), Rooney (England), D Rossi (Italy), C. Ronaldo (Portugal) and van Persie (Netherlands).

There are several noticeable additions to the albums. The number of players for each squad is greater so that each nation has 20. The bonus is that every country also has 3 star players "in action" stickers. In the past, only the players in the set were listed in the album. For Euro 2012, the complete roster of players from qualifying and recent games are included.

Panini stickers sets have almost always been a portrait style of photos with minimal data on the stickers. Previous issues, like World Cup, had the data inside the album for the players birthdate, height, weight, club and position.   

These are are all on the actual sticker for the Euro 2012 set.

Each album has a insert form so that collectors can send away for their missing stickers to complete the set. This has always been a great tradition with Panini.

The box comes with a hologram seal and shrink wrap. Not that anyone would tamper with soccer stickers, but if in the future there was a question of authenticity, Panini has it covered.

The packets are matching purple and flower theme that runs throughout the product. In contrast to past years, the large bar code is now on the front of the packet rather than the back. 

The collation of the stickers is pretty good - I got only 2 duplicates after opening about half the box. The team photos for each country consists of 4 stickers. While the size of the photo becomes a nice viewable size, the stickers are a bit useless if you only get a fraction of the completed group. 

After half the box, I had yet to complete a team photo.

What we like about PANINI Euro 2012: 

The portrait photos by Panini make for instant identification of international players. Most depict a good shot of the National Team crest and jersey. The stats on the sticker give a bit more data without having the album at hand. (although the albums used to be like stat books of info)

The increased number of players per squad means that most likely every star that participates is included. However, some players fail like England's Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard are in the set but not at the tournament. (Some World Cup sets had supplimental stickers issued which have turned out to be very rare.)

As with past sets, previous competition's highlights were a subset of stickers. The Euros from 1960 to 2008 are pictured on stickers. There are some black and white photos and some memorable moments with these.

What we did not like about PANINI Euro 2012:

The flower theme was used on the team pages with the country names. So having the country name and flowers in cartoon duplicated on stickers was really unnecessary. While I was lucky to get these set to me by mail, I wish they were available at my nearest stores. I don't see any difference following this tournament and watching other American sports on TV. 

One Hellas of A Tournament !

One great thing about collecting soccer cards is how much your learn about countries and their cities.

For instance, how many of you knew that the other name for the nation of Greece was HELLAS.

Well if you collect Panini for as long as I have, you would know (or soon find out).

Anyway, this EURO 2012 has been full of surprises and upsets with no less than the co-hosts, Poland, being knocked out the group along with favorites, Russia. This means we get to see at least another round with this goalkeeping legend - 

2011 FUTERA Heroes GOLD - Petr Cech

Last week when the tournament began, I opened a pack of 2011Futera I have been saving from last year and this was the hit card I got.  I now have 4 GOLD HEROES cards - Thierry Henry, Lionel Messi and Ronaldinho. 

So far the best goalies in the tournament for me have been:

"Gigi" BUFFON - Italy

Stipe PLETIKOSA - Croatia

Petr CECH - Czech Republic

Joe HART - England

It doesn't hurt that I collect both Cech and Buffon vigorously. I may do the same with Joe Hart, but I'm not much of a Manchester City fan.

It is amazing that all the group play has kept the teams close without any one team qualifying after the 2nd match. Tomorrow's "Group of Death" will be played out. Two of the top 10 teams in the world will be eliminated from Euro 2012 - of Germany, Holland, Portugal and Denmark - only 2 will advance to the next round.

So who are your favorite goalies of the tournament ?

PANINI to the Rescue !

The news that Topps and Upper Deck are out of the basketball card business is making the rounds. As I have adopted the enlightened thinking for my new year - I look at the possibilities, not the negative.


PANINI of Modena, Italy have been producing soccer cards and stickers since 1962. They have been involved with the making of NFL football, MLB baseball and NHL hockey issues in the 1980's and 1990's.

The European based company has also made products for Disney and Star Wars. Their annual soccer sets are made for no less than 30 countries around the globe. So it is a safe bet they know what they are doing when it comes to collectibles.


This brings me to the void that this will leave in the sports market in the USA. Since most of North American leagues are becoming global, it seems a given that soccer will take its rightful role in the American sports scene. It begs to ask what the card makers could conger if they used the designs to make MLS cards ...

Former EPL ironman Brian McBride sports a 1984 topps design in Chicago's colors.

Los Angeles' David Beckham is seen here in the 1981 Fleer style - that is if he retruns from AC Milan.

New Captain and all-time great Kasey Keller is sporting the 1991 topps for the expansion Seattle Sounders.

If only ... Upper Deck would be given a run for their money in this league.

I'm Glad it's not Just Me ...

Beckham-mania may have cooled in America, but it may be attributed to the season being over ... and that the player has been loaned to Italian League Giants - AC Milan for a few months. So the craze has shifted back to Europe.

Proof, you say ? Well, how about this: " Panini Beckham Sticker Causes Panic"
Panini, the long time producer of sports and collectable stickers has produced a special sticker not included in the set. The Italian based company offices has been inundated with over 1,000 calls a day asking for a copy of the sticker.

In a related story of money, Beckham's teammate - the Brazilian KAKA' - is wanted by English club Manchester City. They are offering $160 MILLION dollars ! Yup - and they are willing to add another $100 million dollars to entice the player to sign a contract. Can you say Cha-Ching ! ... or is that Barra-Bing-o !

Lastly, in this vein of filthy wealth - comes the headlines that Manchester United's superstar CRISTIANO RONALDO has wrecked his $300,000 (200,000 British Pounds) Ferrari on the way to training.

No problem, he just called relatives to pick him up in another one of his luxury vehicles. Is it any wonder why so many American soccer players want to earn their living in Europe ?

On a side note, this Upper Deck SP of Ronaldo autograph card went for $700.00 at auction. Who needs a stadium seat when you can get a "sports car crasher" autograph ?