Is UD headed for disaster?

[miscs75]

If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times:

The Time for Product Adjustment Has Arrived

Thank you for this post. I'm a big fan of combining products to help slim down. If only they did that and made 5-6 products a season (just like ITG) with bigger hits due to more time to concentrate on each product.

[iidaemmi]

If only they did that and made 5-6 products a season (just like ITG)

ITG has already done 6 products and BSB is their seventh this year. http://www.itgtradingcards.com/Product_Lineup/products. And if we count Sportskings, Famous fabrics sets, there is at least 9 products then.

If Upper Deck falls, I can easily live with that. They even deserve it.
Currently ALL three card companies produce more cards than we need. For example, ITG has done nothing to reduce their production, vice versa.

Should we contact the players that they do not make agreements with the card companies, until the volume of products is a reasonable level?

Stop signing.. stop signing..stop signing.

Harri

[chakhae1]

I don't think it's about getting rid of certain products, it's getting rid of the right product and adjusting certain products accordingly. For example, we all know the SPGU rcs are worth absolutely nothing(relatively speaking) compared to the auto and auto patch rcs that are out there and the common sense thing to do would be to get rid of them from spgu and focus on game used cards. That would most likely lower the price point per box by a bit.

Also, why did they ever get rid of Trilogy? The Ice Scripts were some of the nicest autos out there in the hobby imho. They should include them somewhere. Perhaps bring back ICE as well since their rookies also were very popular. To expand on that, I am not a fan of this entire "bonus" pack notion and I think it's just another way for UD to take advantage of its customers. Why pay $10 for a pack of cards that usually sells for 5? Seems kind of ridiculous if you ask me.

To tell you the truth I haven't even really paid attention to a lot of ud's product in awhile. Series one and two continue to be popular bc of the YG set builders, but I have never been a fan of SPA, the CUP is too expensive and some breaks are horrible and SPX, though I loved it in 08-09, is no longer that high on my collectible list.

Black Diamond is also just another product that doesn't wow me at all and it's just a little bit higher end than series one and two.

This problem of similar products also holds true for Panini and Topps as well. I guess there's only so much a company can do to make a product different, but there should definitely be more effort.

[RGM81]

Thank you for this post. I'm a big fan of combining products to help slim down. If only they did that and made 5-6 products a season (just like ITG) with bigger hits due to more time to concentrate on each product.

I do what I can. I doubt it'll have much long-term effect, but the point stands. Of the nearly 20 products on the market already from 2011-12 my interest is marginal in the great majority of them. Here's my Carey Price numbers from this season:
Artifacts: 6 - 3 base/parallels; 3 memorabilia
Between The Pipes: 4 - base, 1 auto, 2 memorabilia (more likely to come)
Black Diamond: 4: 3 base/parallels, 1 memorabilia
Certified: 8 - 3 base/parallels, 4 memorabilia, 1 MEM/AU
Crown Royale: 4 - 2 base/inserts, 2 memorabilia
Canada vs. The World: 2 memorabilia
H&P: 2 - 1 base, 1 memorabilia
Limited: 3 - 1 parallel, 2 memorabilia (really like the net cards)
OPC: 8 base/parallels/inserts
Pinnacle: 3 base/parallels
Score: 5 base/parallels
UD: 4 - 3 base/insert/parallels, 1 memorabilia
Victory: 4 base/insert/parallels

That all adds up to 60 out of over 350 cards produced. Look how many products aren't listed because, well, there's 0 cards in my collection. Nobody's really holding my interest this year, except for BTP which always delivers cards of top quality and desire for my collection. Burnout much? LOL

[chakhae1]

^

That brings about another point. I remember a time when it was possible to PC a player and get most of the cards of that player not only in any given year, but all of them in total. Now that's just impossible with all of the products that are out there.

[jlai624]

^

That brings about another point. I remember a time when it was possible to PC a player and get most of the cards of that player not only in any given year, but all of them in total. Now that's just impossible with all of the products that are out there.

^and that is the reason, I will never try to master collect any single player.

[RGM81]

It can still be done, it just can't be anybody exceedingly popular.

Carey Price has more cards in each individual product this year than Josh Gorges does for the entire season. LOL

[centrehice]

Perhaps it's time for the return to the Tiffany mentality of 1990-91.

In 1990-91 the Topps Company produce "Tiffany" for two issues:

1. Topps Tiffany
2. Bowman Tiffany

Only 400 Cases of each were produced. The shortest print run in regular issued cards since cards began and were manufactured as such.

I wouldn't mind seeing cards take a turn in this direction. Upper Deck tried it in 1997 with Diamond Vision, then the next year with UD3, then with 2 Issues "UD Challenge For The Cup, and the highly collectible UD Stanley Cup Champs of 01-02. The Diamond Vision cards didn't always catch on with everyone and the UD3 issued Parallel is still more confusing than the 97-97 Leaf Fractal Matrix Parallel.

Both UD Diamond Vision and UD3 were not produced in great quantities, they were however headed in the right direction.

Now when we take a look at the success of 01-02 UD Stanley Cup Champs, wow, those are Uber hard to find, even the base cards, They had a wonderful Jersey shaped in the form of the actual Stanley Cup, and today remain highly collectible.

UD needs to take a look and re-visit the "Stanley Cup Champs" mentality with fewer total cases produced and an actual rush to collect the cards.

[stankskunk]

The problem is that the refractors will sell for a pittance on ebay, and then everyone will complain about how they couldn't get their money out of the box.

without a sick patch or an autograph, no one cares about AWESOME looking cards anymore.

I love Score, at $30-$35 a box, and I'd say from last year's and this year's I've made my money back 80% of the time, and often even without pulling an auto. It's not hard for the companies to put out a solid product at something that's not $100+ and that has some value to it. They're just avoiding it because they can charge people $100+ for Elite/SPGU and get away with it.

[jlai624]

I love Score, at $30-$35 a box, and I'd say from last year's and this year's I've made my money back 80% of the time, and often even without pulling an auto. It's not hard for the companies to put out a solid product at something that's not $100+ and that has some value to it. They're just avoiding it because they can charge people $100+ for Elite/SPGU and get away with it.

very good points