To whom it may concern,

The NBA has an exclusive agreement with Panini America to make and sell Basketball Trading cards from 2009-10's regular season and extends through the completion of the 2012-13 campaign. They are the only company that has this license and the basketball collectors worldwide would like for other companies to have a chance at making the cards again once this agreement is finished.
The Upper Deck Company still makes basketball products and has 2 of the biggest names in all of sports that are signed with them (Michael Jordan and Lebron James) Neither of these 2 can sign autographs for Panini America due to their contracts. The only cards that can be made by Upper Deck are in either college uniforms or high school uniforms so as of right now Lebron James will never have an autographed basketball trading card in his Miami Heat Uniform. How is it that the biggest star in the NBA today can’t be shown on a card in his NBA uniform with his John Hancock on it too? Upper Deck is widely known for their high end products like Exquisite and Black. These cards are some of the most sought after cards even in today's market. The innovention that Upper Deck brought year in and year out changed the basketball card world forever and then it just went away in a flash.
Moving onto Topps, in the card collecting world across most sports one phrase is used almost all the time, "Chrome is King", and it’s the truth. Topps and Bowman Chrome in baseball products are major buys by the card collecting community. Look up past sales of Topps or Bowman Chrome in basketball and you can see they are highly sought after. Some of the biggest icons in the NBA today have simple Chrome cards (and not even autographed) that go for hundreds of dollars.
Panini America knows that they have a stronghold on the Basketball card market and they keep pushing out product after product after product that just gets the basketball collector by until the next one comes out. We need competition between the companies just like in football and hockey. I’m not saying don’t give another license to Panini what I’m saying is give Topps, Upper Deck, Leaf, Sports Kings, and other companies a chance to show what they can do. I’m pretty sure the outcome would greatly increase your pockets as would the companies involved.

If you agree with what I’m saying please sign this petition. Hopefully hearing from the people that buy the products will help the NBA in making the correct choice come time for the renew of the license.

Thanks