Upper Deck releases Series 1 Short Print information

[mikecole141]

I have to agree that the owned is on the seller here. I starte this thread because I saw that the Lindros auto I had hit was a SSP, I thought right o the bat it probably woul be a short print so I passed on a few offers stating that I would wait. In the case of the Pietrangelo, no one really expected the card to be a super short print just like no assumed Hejduk was last year. That said if just after release you can't find the card listed you have to be careful. In the case of eBay flippers even more so... If they are running on such a tight margin they can't afford to wait to list you might just miss out on a big payday. On the other side I am betting no seller complains when he gets a premium when he is the first to list something and it sells for more and the price drops once more of the same card hits the market.

Binding contract is a binding contract, he should get his negative and reported, and at the end the buyer should (but won't) get the refund so he only pays what was originally agreed too, but will have to consider himself lucky he still got the card for a deal and blacklist that seller.

[canucksfan007]

Today a Pietrangelo was found in the $2 BIN at the show I had attended. Steal of the show!

[Fatty McGee]

Getting back to the original post here, personally I feel that this is pretty clever on the UD's part. "Why didn't they annouce who the SSP's were before the product came out"? For the simple fact that there isn't any NHL hockey this year and the main staple of Upper Deck Series 1, the Rookies, is pretty much dead in the water. So, what do you do? Well, you make certain players super short prints and don't announce who they are and the odds until AFTER the big hockey card expo. Why? Because UD knows that the feeding frenzy that is hockey collectors will buy a bunch of product as soon as it's released. Then another wave of sales hits at the expo and then ANOTHER wave of sales hits when people try to buy up packs/boxes/cases for those SSP's. When you think about it, it's quite smart actually. Dirty? Yes. Underhanded? Yes. Immoral? Absolutely. But from a sales perspective, it's literally money in the bank.

Think about it - would anyone in a million years ever think that a Pietrangelo GU jersey card would be the hot thing to chase? How about an Ed Belfour 300 wins jersey card? Or even an Ed Belfour or Brett Hull auto? There's a reason the SSP's are what are referred to as "bums" in the hobby world (value wise). Why else would UD make cards that would normally go for $2-$5 worth $100+? Because those are the cards that no one would ever suspect.

Sure, they've got some of the usual suspects in there, but honestly... Ed Belfour? Alex Pietrangelo?! Come on!!

[MatsSundin13Rocks]

Getting back to the original post here, personally I feel that this is pretty clever on the UD's part. "Why didn't they annouce who the SSP's were before the product came out"? For the simple fact that there isn't any NHL hockey this year and the main staple of Upper Deck Series 1, the Rookies, is pretty much dead in the water. So, what do you do? Well, you make certain players super short prints and don't announce who they are and the odds until AFTER the big hockey card expo. Why? Because UD knows that the feeding frenzy that is hockey collectors will buy a bunch of product as soon as it's released. Then another wave of sales hits at the expo and then ANOTHER wave of sales hits when people try to buy up packs/boxes/cases for those SSP's. When you think about it, it's quite smart actually. Dirty? Yes. Underhanded? Yes. Immoral? Absolutely. But from a sales perspective, it's literally money in the bank.

Think about it - would anyone in a million years ever think that a Pietrangelo GU jersey card would be the hot thing to chase? How about an Ed Belfour 300 wins jersey card? Or even an Ed Belfour or Brett Hull auto? There's a reason the SSP's are what are referred to as "bums" in the hobby world (value wise). Why else would UD make cards that would normally go for $2-$5 worth $100+? Because those are the cards that no one would ever suspect.

Sure, they've got some of the usual suspects in there, but honestly... Ed Belfour? Alex Pietrangelo?! Come on!!

I agree with this post.

Also I wasn't saying the buyer in the above situation was in the wrong at all. In fact the buyer is not at fault. UD and the seller should share the blame. Also I said he could have accepted the $40 which would have been even worse because you wouldn't have the card at all. I don't like the tacit and it definitely violates ebay policies yet you still decided to buy it from the seller. If you were so offended and upset with the seller being unethical then why did you still purchase the card? Because at $25 it is still a good deal considering how rare it is.

[AlexTheGr8]

FINAL update:

The seller has agreed to sell the card to me for the original $5.50 that was agreed upon and has refunded me the $19.50 that I have paid extra. I'm very happy that the seller decided to stick to his word.

[mikecole141]

We had hockey last year and the SSP information was not published until after the release date either.

the reason they hold back the SSP information is to build a little drama and as well to try an allow value to be there for the other cards in the set. You have to let the market build the secondary value but by publishing print ratios before the set is released would take some guessing out of the secondary. I had assumed the Lindros sig was a SSP and haven't seen any go on eBay or have seen another pulled here... So I was going to be cautious with moving it and more likely to sit on it for a little while. If the Pietrangelo sells for a couple of bucks early on, most likely it is PC collectors trying to get it right away, the bargain hunters come next once the SSP info is released, if that SSP info does not get released then when the card dries up it will go up and up and up in value as other PC collectors and set collectors start competing for it.

[Gallinator]

FINAL update:

The seller has agreed to sell the card to me for the original $5.50 that was agreed upon and has refunded me the $19.50 that I have paid extra. I'm very happy that the seller decided to stick to his word.

I'm glad the seller eventually did the right thing - something he should have learned how to do as a child...never to late to learn, eh?

[mikecole141]

When you think about it, it's quite smart actually. Dirty? Yes. Underhanded? Yes. Immoral? Absolutely. But from a sales perspective, it's literally money in the bank.

There is nothing dirty or underhanded about it; for years we have been complaining about the value of the UD Series 1 and 2 jersey cards. Upper Deck has been placing SPs and SSPs in there the past couple of years trying to add a little value, chase and mystery to the product, is there a windfall for them of course there is, but in the end it is only the fast multi-case flippers, who for the most part are the people killing the secondary market by flooding ebay as soon as a product comes out, who is going to stand the chance of losing out.

In my opinion it adds more value to the set as an item to build as now you have some rare cards to chase down, which is what this hobby used to be about.