The Official Collectibles Power Rankings: This Week’s Top 5
· Yahoo Sports
We have a lot of randomness to discuss this week. So we’re introducing the first official COLLECTIBLES POWER RANKINGS brought to you by Mantel’s Mail Day (Tagline: “We’ll eventually get you all to love Leaf”). This is kind of like “what I’m buying” but David Gonos does that now so we’re pivoting out of respect and love!
On to the ranks!
Visit umafrika.club for more information.
1. The Coca Cola/Panini World Cup collaboration (last week: NR).
It should surprise no one here that I got served an Instagram ad last week for the Panini/Coca-Cola crossover, where the iconic World Cup stickers are attached to the inside of Coke labels. I immediately announced to the house that we needed unsalted butter and ran out to my local grocery store (nothing there yet), a SECOND grocery store (nothing there yet), and Target (an empty shelf that I assumed meant they had sold out but it turns out they just hadn’t stocked them yet):
Image Credit: J.R. Fickle
According to Coca Cola and Panini, they’ve printed 1 billion stickers:
So these are essentially worthless. But still fun. And props to whoever came up with this genius idea (from the official Coca-Cola page):
Peel off the sticker from the label and place it onto the dedicated Coca‑Cola page within the 2026 Panini FIFA World Cup™ sticker album.
In other words, if you’re one of those sticker collectors who HAS to finish off your album, you’re going to actually need all the Coke stickers, too.
Also… kudos to Coca-Cola in general. This is one of those fun promotions that will probably sell a ton of soda because it’s simply big dumb fun. Like the MagiCans of 1990! But without the accidental drinking of saline! (Here’s the MagiCan Wikipedia page – it’s worth it).
2. The new InfoWars hat (Last week: NR).
The Onion’s purchase of InfoWars went through (we think it’s final) and they started selling gear with rainbow versions of the logo. The $30 hat sold out almost immediately. I guess they could make more of them… but will they? Or will it eventually hit the secondary market (it hasn’t yet) for hundreds of dollars? TBD, but I’m going with the latter.
Note: The fanny pack is still available!
3. The best $4.99 I’ve spent recently is this GPK wrapper magnet I got off eBay (Last week: NR)
I am always “antennae up” on cheap eBay/etsy items that seem fun but are actually garbage, but this one delivered. It is exactly what you think it is – it looks and even feels like a pack of cards on your fridge. I will now be buying several of these and throwing them in my “Christmas gifts” tub for later this year.
4. Panini’s “Free Parking” parallels (Last Week: 122).
I’ve been harsh on Panini/Monopoly here in Mail Day – but it’s mostly because something that had such potential (Monopoly + Trading Cards) flopped so dramatically. Yet they persevere. There’s a World Cup Monopoly game out now, and the chase parallels are “Free Parking,” which is just incredible irony considering parking at MetLife Stadium, where the World Cup finals will be played, is banned. If you want to drive, you have to pay $225 to park at the nearby mega-mall.
Also, for one $150 round trip ride on NJ Transit to MetLife, you can almost own any of Monopoly’s railroads:
The cards themselves are actually pretty cool, though. I don’t think I’ll buy them – I actually know I won’t, but I didn’t want to pile on Panini – but there has to be an audience out there!
5. Panini Instant Photo of the Week — Sylvain Francisco (Last Week: 276).
This is actually a good week for Panini in the power rankings! Elite sticker promotion, fun World Cup cards, and now these obscure-but-catchy Panini Instant cards.
I stumbled upon this while browsing the Panini site earlier this week, just for the sake of poking around to see what they’re up to (I do that more than I should).
Pretty great picture, right? I don’t know anything about EuroLeague, why these guys are all doing the same gesture, or who Sylvain Francisco is – and I won’t be spending $30 on the card, based on all that… but I thought about it. It’s a great picture and I still naively believe that collecting cool stuff is what this is all about!
Correction: I didn’t know who Sylvain Francisco was BEFORE I went down a rabbit hole on him. Now he’s my favorite player. Check out his twitter feed!