Panini America Adding USA Baseball To Its Roster Of Trading Card Partners

Panini America will announce at today’s Industry Summit in Las Vegas that it has added USA Baseball to its roster of U.S. trading-card licenses. As the official trading card, Panini gets rights to USA Baseball marks and national team players, which will initially be used in an October "Prime Cuts" release. Panini will also produce the annual USA Baseball national team's box set. Starting in '13, Panini will sell a set with top USA Baseball players -- current and retired -- which will include autographs and memorabilia. Adding baseball's NGB to its collection of rights complements the MLBPA rights Panini acquired last year. Topps has had the exclusive MLB card license since '10. Topps is also the USOC's exclusive trading card licensee, although Panini has rights for USA Basketball and the U.S. women's national soccer team.