Sports card manufacturers are now facing product delays a result of business closures.
A shelter-in-place order issued by Texas Governor Greg Abbott has halted work at the facility that prints Panini America’s cards.
2019 Flawless Football, which is scheduled to be released this Wednesday, should not be impacted, but it is likely the last Panini product collectors will see for a while. The company says it is still working on future releases, though.
“Our business continues to operate across all departments – albeit not in a traditional business setting of sitting in a building together, but rather remotely in ‘work-from-home’ scenarios and lots of interaction via video meetings, allowing us to continue to prepare and develop our collections,” the company stated.
“Our product development, design, editorial, sales, online-sales and shipping, marketing, acquisitions, customer service and accounting teams are all working remotely. We continue to develop and produce products for upcoming releases.”
Topps’ production process has also been affected, but the company does have some new releases in the pipeline. 2020 Tribute Baseball, moved up to an earlier release date of Friday, April 10, is expected to be delivered. The company is also moving ahead with distribution of its XFL cards on April 15, the five-figure Transcendent Hall of Fame boxes on April 24 and Definitive Baseball on April 29.
Other releases originally scheduled to arrive later this spring, including 2020 Bowman baseball, have been delayed with a “To Be Determined” date listed on the company’s release calendar. What impact those delays may have on products scheduled for summer and fall release is yet to be determined.
Upper Deck’s Southern California offices have been closed since last month due to government orders but two April hockey card releases appear to still be on the schedule including: O-Pee-Chee Platinum (April 15) and Credentials (4/29).
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