Panini America Adds New Tools of the Trade Material in 2012 Black Friday Promotion
In the months since Panini America first unveiled its show-special “Tools of the Trade” memorabilia cards during the 2012 Toronto Spring Expo with mammoth swatches of event-used towel from the NHL All-Star Game, the concept has picked up steam in a big way.
The company proceeded to fan the flames during August’s National Sports Collectors Convention by incorporating crazy-prime pieces of oversized team towels used by the likes of Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III and Trent Richardson at the 2012 NFLPA Rookie Premiere.
It was those limited terrycloth titans in particular that seemed to generate the most sincere “ooohs” and “aaahs” in our booth during the National. But even more importantly, they cast light on what other possibilities might exist in the non-traditional, player-touched memorabilia arena — and ultimately paved the way for even more uniqueness coming inside next week’s 2012 Black Friday promotion.
This time around, the top NBA rookies and one NHL youngster — including Anthony Davis, Thomas Robinson, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Austin Rivers and Chris Kreider— get the team-towel treatment, complete with plentiful prime pieces and cool card-back photos showing those towels in sweat-removing action during the 2012 NBA Rookie Photo Shoot and 2012 NHLPA Rookie Showcase, respectively.
But the real Tools of the Trade history-makers in the 2012 Panini America Black Friday set are cards of Dallas Cowboys Tony Romo and Dez Bryant embedded with huge pieces of each player’s . . . wait for it, wait for it . . . team-issued equipment bags. To be sure, the cards provide a unique new addition to the Tools of the Trade genre and continue the tradition of picturing the intact item from which the card was made on the back.
You can check out all of the new Tools of Trade cards in the revealing gallery that follows. Stay tuned to The Knight’s Lance for additional pre-event coverage of the 2012 Black Friday promotion. You can access our other preview galleries here, here and here.
Trackbacks
- Panini America Adds New Tools of the Trade Material in 2012 Black Friday Promotion - Blowout Cards Forums
- Icy Hot: Panini America Peeks Just Some of the Cracked Ice Autos in 2012 Black Friday « The Official Panini America Blog
- Panini America Presents: A Complete Visual Guide to the 2012 Black Friday Base Set « The Official Panini America Blog
- Black Friday Packs Are Coming! « Sports Card Info
The Knight's Lance 
Thats cool guys..keep coming up with great new ideas. We all benefit.
Just when i think this promo cant get anymore remarkable….. You post this.
I like the uniqueness panini offers but the NBA towels are a little much IMO.
I would like the idea of a big patch card something with the team logo in it or numbers something to set them apart from the other guys
Sick, sick, sick cards, look better than a Prime Patch I reckon.
Those are tears and sweats to be able to get to the pros!!!
Those are some nice looking cards right there! Any guys from Minnesota teams in this set?
That Romo is awesome. I hate the Cowboys, but I’d love to have that card!
I’d 2nd those sentiments!
Black Friday promotion keeps getting better and better!!
Am I the only one who feels like we’re just one step away from player worn jock strap swatches? Looks good though.
Hmmmm…
I think Thomas Robinson is blowing his nose on his towel…
Would that make it more desirable?
More unique at least…
Snot really……sorry, bad middle school humor I know!
As always, your product is impressive!
Now your talking and showing some cowboys love this is really starting to warm up towards the end of the season great looking cards cant wait to see these out and you certainly cant give cowboys cards to cowboys haters js lol.
Those towel pieces look nice and soft, I want one just so I can rub it all over me…that may have come across wrong.
LOL at the Thomas Robinson comment T HACK! YALL ARE KILLING ME THIS YEAR, ALL of the Black Friday stuff , SICK! The staff really stepped up this time and put a solid product together, KUDOS honestly and I have had my problems in the past you know that.
Appreciate that, Joe. Kudos to Scott Prusha and our design and prepress folks for making this bad boy sing this year.
Were can i get them from?????????? i want one any i don’t care wich one
If your local hobby shop is participating in Black Friday next week, go there to get your Black Friday packs.
What will Panini mastermind next!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just have to wait and see…but I don’t mind suggestions!
What about authentic player worn warm ups from basketball- or pieces of players old shoes, or wrist bands that some players wear? You could call them Hardcourt Gear. Something to think about. Let me know what you think about it Scott. Thanks again for being so creative.
Good ideas! We’ve done shoe cards recently in our Father’s Day promotion (and, spoiler alert, they’re coming in Black Friday, too). We used many of the players’ NBA All-Star warm-ups.
Really great addition to the BF promotion, TOTT is one of my favorite insert sets of all time and it was the thrill of the year for me to pull an Andrew Luck towel from the National promo pack a few months ago. Thanks for the preview Tracy!
When will we be able to get a list of participating dealers? I live south of Fort Worth and it looks like I will need to drive roughly an hour to get to any dealer. If I could get a heads-up, that will probably help vs driving all over the metroplex. Thanks again and Im super excited for this promotion!!
Glad to hear that. We’re compiling the master list of participating dealers now and hope to have it completed and posted by Monday at the latest.
Great! Thanks for the info, Ill be on the lookout. I dont know if you can answer this, but how do we get the Black Friday packs? Do we just buy them outright or have to purchase stuff to get them? Thanks again for the help!
You get them through participating hobby shops by buying from a pre-selected list of products, although each store owner typically runs the program a little differently.
Nas T
Very cool to see both the description of the swatch and a photo on the card.
I think back to a handful of times when you get a patch and its unclear origins lead to a Google search of varied difficulty for a photo match to know exactly what you hold (e.g. the All Star warm-ups).
Scotty is reaching critical amounts of Win and Awesome…I fear he may soon explode