Buongiorno collectors !

This article concerns Italian issued figures (*Originally written in 2003 but revised in 2009)

The first Corinthian Italian blisterpacks were of "Serie A" club players and were released in March 1997

They featured many of the great "Serie A" players of that time, many who like Casiraghi, Desailly, Schwarz, Weah, Deschamps, Karembeu and Boksic have since played in England making them even more popular here in the U.K.

The fact that many of these 50 or so figures were never released again in different kits (as so many other Corinthian figures seem to be!) has helped to retain their valuation in today's ever fluctuating market

Unfortunately Corinthian have declined to help me with actual manufacturing quantities as it is "Against their policy" and as the CRV valuations in their publications don't always reflect the true current market values of many of these figures I have endeavoured to estimate their values purely by my own personal experiences in trading these figures/blisterpacks.

Discounting the figure of SER044 Christian Karembeu (Sampdoria) which was NEVER ON GENERAL RELEASE (This was a "1999 Corinthian CRV Ratings Booklet" error)

The three rarest and most sought after "Serie A" figures seem to be :~

SER048 Kennet Andersson (Bologna) *see picture below

SER086 Stefan Schwarz (Fiorentina)

and

SER060 Giovanni Stroppa (Udinese)

 

If you are ever fortunate enough to come across either of these figures, expect to pay £70+ for a loose figure or £100+ for a good condition blisterpack!

You will seldom encounter a Kennet Andersson figure in blisterpack and only on rare occasions, Giovanni Stroppa or Stefan Schwarz in blisterpack (Stroppa seems to be the more scarce of the three)

Virtually every major worldwide collector that I trade with has at least on of these figures on their "wants lists" … but more recently (2008/09) the Kennet Andersson figures seem to be more readily available and collectors seem to be finding it difficult to locate the figures of Stefan Schwarz (Fiorentina) & Nicola Amoruso (Juventus)

The production quantities were originally thought to have been extremely low on these figures but more recent revelations in 2003 have established that a good number of these "Serie A" blisterpacks are "stored" in a warehouse in Italy (a friend of mine has seen them). Perhaps one day Corinthian will tell us just exactly how many were manufactured

The next batch of rare "Serie A" figures listed below (in order of scarcity and with approximate blisterpack current market values by them) seem to be as follows :~

SER047 Nicola Amoruso (Juventus) £60+

SER012 Pierlughi Casiraghi (Lazio) £50

SER049 Domenico Morfeo (Atalanta) £50

SER095 Andre Cruz (Napoli) £50

SER050 Marcelo Otero (Vicenza) £30+

Do you notice how of the eight rarest figures, five of these were the ONLY figure manufactured for that particular "Serie A" club?

Bologna, Udinese, Atalanta, Napoli and Vicenza!

 

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other 40 or so "Serie A" figures seem to be fairly readily available although obviously one or two of them like Roberto Mancini (Sampdoria) & Dejan Savicevic (AC Milan) seem to only                                    surface on the odd occasion.

Expect to pay between £10-£20 for most of these figures in good condition blisterpack with perhaps Mancini fetching a little over £30 & Savicevic just a little less.

Three months after the release of these "Serie A" figures, thirteen of these figures were again issued with the May 1997 launch of the International Superstars blisterpack range.

This set of 25 blisterpacks was issued without cards and to my knowledge the figures are exactly the same as the regular figures.

The ISS were an attractive looking set but I personally won't collect the same figures in different packaging as it's a bit too much like the "Platinum Pack" thing … You are really paying extra for alternatively designed cardboard!

The 13 Italian National squad figures are usually quite easily obtainable although the more popular players like :~ 

SER008 Robbie Baggio, SER012 Pierlughi Casiraghi, SER019 Alessandro Del Piero, SER115 Fillipo Inzaghi, SER007 Paolo Maldini, SER089 Fabrizio Ravanelli and SER121 Gianfranco Zola seem a bit more elusive as these were the most popular at the time of issue and therefore stocks were exhausted a little more quickly.

Baggio, Ravanelli & Del Piero seem to be the rarest and tend to change hands at £20 - £30+ 

as for the others expect to be asked for £10 - £20 for good condition blisterpacks 

The Worldstars versions of the Serie A and Italian National figures differ only marginally if at all. The Worldstars version of Gabriel Batistuta (Fiorentina 1997/98) has the same purple kit as in the Serie A version (Fiorentina 1996/97 but the sponsorship badge has a slight colour variation whereas the Inzaghi (Italy) figure looks exactly the same in both the Worldstars & the 1996/97 Headliner blisterpacks

The figure with the most marked difference in this Worldstars Series is Ronaldo!

His Worldstar version is number SER122 on the base and he has the "Number 10" on his back instead of the Prostars version of "Number 9"

Not that you can see the difference when the figure is in a blisterpack anyway!

I hope that you have enjoyed this article and that it may in some small way serve to help you evaluate things when you go to purchase any of the figures mentioned

I have listed a few of the Italian items that I have for sale on the link on my front page

Please feel free to e-mail me with any queries or comments at

johnnycarson@tiscali.co.uk

HAPPY COLLECTING … AND … ARRIVEDERCI !

*This article was revised in July 2009 to reflect updated market prices