Including the unfindable Pizzaballa and Baggio at Aste Bolaffi

Turin, 21 April 2022 - Numerous "rookie year" pieces, including those of Paolo Rossi and Ayrton Senna, the almost unobtainable card of Maradona wearing the Argentinos Juniors shirt, and even the legendary Baggio-Monelli one in the uncut "variety", considered to be the "Gronchi Rosa" stamp of trading card. Aste Bolaffi is pleased to present the first Italian monographic auction of trading cards-stickers, scheduled for Thursday 12 May in live internet mode on the Aste Bolaffi website (www.astebolaffi.it) with a catalogue of 224 lots.
The sale marks the debut of Aste Bolaffi's new department dedicated to collectible trading cards-stickers, which in recent years have grown from being just childhood souvenirs to objects desired and sought after by collectors all over the world. “Card collecting”, commented Filippo Bolaffi, CEO of Aste Bolaffi, “is a very popular form of collecting in the United States, and has recently become a real investment phenomenon that moves tens of millions of dollars every year. These objects, which were already cult objects in American culture, have become true investment assets thanks to their ‘grading’,  by an independent third party. Building on its experience in numismatics and getting coins graded since many years, Aste Bolaffi is now becoming in Italy the pioneer of this field of collectables, also by adopting the grading practice that can attract buyers from all over the world, regardless of the subject of the cards. Obviously, in our case, we will focus on the subject that characterises the DNA of our country: soccer cards”.
With the opening of the new department, Aste Bolaffi aims at further enhancing and spreading the collecting of trading cards-stickers, opening it also to a public that so far has not been involved by this topic, but with which the auction house is already in touch through the other departments where it operates. Italy is the home ground of sticker cards, thanks to the Panini brand, but, in this country, unlike the United States, where card have a tradition of been treated and preserved as heirlooms, finding sticker cards that have never been attached and not recovered (detached from albums) is very difficult. Born as a children’s game and exchanged to the rhythm of the refrain of “Celo celo manca” (got it, got it, missing…) to fill in the album blank spaces, cards in immaculate condition are very rare and, precisely for this reason, the existing ones have a very important potential to appreciate over time.

The top lots in the catalogue

Over 70% of the catalogue consists of Panini sticker cards, the main player in the world, next to which are presented cards printed by various other Italian publishing houses, almost all disappeared over time, including Lampo, Imperia, Nannina and Edis. The auction offers only selected pieces, either due to their difficult availability on the market, or to the importance of their subject, or to their preservation quality. Starting prices are very accessible averaging out just few hundred euros. Sports disciplines are the undisputed star of the sale, led by many cards of soccer champions and also with no shortage of forays into cycling, boxing, Formula 1, athletics and music.

 In the soccer chapter, in addition to the great international champions, such as Pelè and Maradona, are also represented all the main stages of Roberto Baggio's career, including the "legendary" Baggio-Monelli card of 1985. Not just a sticker card in his rookie year, but the almost unfindable "error" version (flipped image/uncut), where printer Edis made an unforgivable mistake, namely the inversion of the players' names (with his unaware fellow striker Paolo Monelli) (Lot 95, starting price 1,000 euros GRADING). This lot is just one of many other "rookie" cards, including those of the unforgettable Paolo Rossi, and of many iconic Italian soccer players of the 1990s and 2000s such as Maldini, Vieri, Inzaghi, Totti, Del Piero, Cannavaro and Buffon. Among the many lots of Maradona, worthy of mention is the almost impossible to find sample in which he is wearing the Argentinos Juniors shirt in 1979 (Lot 72, starting price 500 euros GRADING), while among those of Pelè, there is a card of his appearance in Mexico '70, the most iconic Panini football album of the world (Lot 52, starting price 200 euros GRADING).

Sticker cards that have entered the history of Panini are its first ever printed: the Bruno Bolchi card from the album of 1961-62 (Lot 13, starting price 75 euros) and, above all, the legendary Pizzaballa,  the impossible to find Atalanta goalkeeper of the 1963-64 collection, the bespoke missing Panini piece of any collection (Lot 56, starting price 200 euros GRADING)!

Among the top lots of the other sports, there is the rookie year card of Ayrton Senna at the wheel of his 1984 Toleman, very rare also because it is the only Panini card silkscreen printed on transparent plastic paper (Lot 193, starting price 1,500 euros GRADING), the one of cyclist Gino Bartali as a rookie in 1935 in excellent condition (Lot 180, starting price 500 euros, GRADING) and the one, again as a rookie, of Cassius Clay in 1966, the year of his disqualification after refusing to enlist for Vietnam (Lot 170, starting price 300 euros, GRADING).
In the music section, there is the 1972 Jackson 5 card, which marked the first appearance on a card of Michael Jackson, at the age of 14, already being the star of the pop group (Lot 211, starting price 500 euros GRADING).

Some curiosities

Not everybody knows that:
- the Panini sticker cards for the España 82 Mundial (World Cup) are all unevenly cut, with the upper or lower side always oblique (e.g.: Lot 75, starting price 400 euros);
- Astutillo Malgioglio is the modern "Pizzaballa" and all the children of the 80s never managed to finish the collection because of such Inter Milan sub-goalkeeper (Lot 58, starting price 100 euros GRADING);
- the Formula 1 stickers are the ones that are currently enjoying the most attention, certainly thanks to the fact that the rights have been bought by US Company Liberty Media, which is launching the circus in the American market.