Will Number of Rookie Autos Decrease Now?

[theboxbreaker96]

I responded to some one recently saying that I think Rookie Autos and Autos in general will decrease in numbers now that Panini will not be producing next year. If you look at all the products Panini had all of them had autos and lots of them. UD will be releasing Ultra, OPC, Series 1 & 2, MVP which have no rookie autos. Black Diamond only has rookie autos /25. Artifacts only has rookie autos /99 which are redemptions and the live ones are very limited /5.

If you compare that to what Panini had out as there before January release you find a huge reduction of Rookie Autos and Autos in general. Prizm and Score both had Rookie autos. Select and Certified had parallel autos galore. Knowing UD and the way they are starting the 14-15 season previews off there will not be much change from 09-10. You will see products like OPC Premier, Ud Black, Odd end product like Champs/Retro. 05/06 - 09-10 Rookie Autos weren't plentiful like they are now.

I have no idea how many products UD will be producing and how many Autos they will contain. If you look back to when they had the exclusive the amount of rookie autos was way down. There will be some products coming back and some new ones maybe. Just knowing UD and not much changing in their products I expect numbers to be down significantly.


With all the negativity towards an exclusive I thought I would look at a positive and this could be a huge positive for the hobby as well. I could also be wrong and numbers wont decrease but I expect them too. What do you think?

[cygnusx1]

No competition means they are free to do what they like, which means more niche products. These would be less likely to contain autos as they don't have to worry about another company releasing a product with autos at a time where UD is releasing no auto content.

It will likely decrease, though I think the ridiculous increase in 13-14 was due to the dual RC class hype anyway.

[KingKuba]

The number of quality of autos was not that large in 13-14. ...
Dominion, crown royale, NT, prime and contenders. The rest don't matter from panini.

Can you tell me how many autos are there of erik gelinas, haula and anders lee??? Tyler Johnson, pallat ..etc.

Too many autos of overrated players like galchenyuk, yakupov and mackinnon. Those are flooded obviously.

The good thing about the exclusive is there won't be more and more of panini cards so they might become collectible.


People will still be buying 13-14 for a while. 14-15 will all be junk till like October 2015 lol

[KingKuba]

Better question is will you UD be able to sign players now...or take 1.5 years to get a ryan strome hard signed pseudo rookie .....

[RGM81]

Because UD is so secretive in some respects, the best answer at this time is "we don't know."

The understanding at this time is that UD has a license to produce 18-22 sets this year. While the early season and low-end releases (MVP, OPC, Ultra, UD1, Black Diamond) likely won't have much for autographed content, once you get into Trilogy, Artifacts, and the like people's expectations are going to jump up significantly. As costs of products go up, people expect to see premium content and when it comes to hockey that means autographs. Lots of them.

For comparison sake, in 2009-10 (the last year of the first UD exclusive) John Tavares was "the guy" and he had *only* 90 autographs with UD. Alex Galchenyuk, the #2 guy from the Double Rookie Class, had over 200 total from the two licensees--and 165 of those were Panini products. Many of them were of the hard-signed variety, which fans like...but wow that's a lot of signatures.

Can UD do more with less, to give collectors what they want? It looks like there may not be much of a choice.

It's going to come down to product selection, what those products include for autographs, and their ability & willingness to find the right balance between quality & quantity.

[theboxbreaker96]

Because UD is so secretive in some respects, the best answer at this time is "we don't know."

The understanding at this time is that UD has a license to produce 18-22 sets this year. While the early season and low-end releases (MVP, OPC, Ultra, UD1, Black Diamond) likely won't have much for autographed content, once you get into Trilogy, Artifacts, and the like people's expectations are going to jump up significantly. As costs of products go up, people expect to see premium content and when it comes to hockey that means autographs. Lots of them.

For comparison sake, in 2009-10 (the last year of the first UD exclusive) John Tavares was "the guy" and he had *only* 90 autographs with UD. Alex Galchenyuk, the #2 guy from the Double Rookie Class, had over 200 total from the two licensees--and 165 of those were Panini products. Many of them were of the hard-signed variety, which fans like...but wow that's a lot of signatures.

Can UD do more with less, to give collectors what they want? It looks like there may not be much of a choice.

It's going to come down to product selection, what those products include for autographs, and their ability & willingness to find the right balance between quality & quantity.

Yeah I agree that Panini put out a lot of hard signed autos that UD didn't do. I also think that they oversaturated the market as you said Galchenyuk had 165 Panini Autos. Your right we don't know what UD is going to do so its hard to say. But If I was putting money down I say that the numbers will decrease a significantly. They will definitely need to find a balance. I don't necessarily think the Autos of the non rookies will decrease but the rookies should. There is just way too many autos of rookies that it makes it hard to collect. Guys like Beau Bennett & Maatta I just cant get everything that I want. Prices will likely increase a little on the secondary market but that's a good thing I think.

Do you think that it will be beneficial for the hobby that the numbers decrease? (If they do)

[theboxbreaker96]

The number of quality of autos was not that large in 13-14. ...
Dominion, crown royale, NT, prime and contenders. The rest don't matter from panini.

Can you tell me how many autos are there of erik gelinas, haula and anders lee??? Tyler Johnson, pallat ..etc.

Too many autos of overrated players like galchenyuk, yakupov and mackinnon. Those are flooded obviously.

The good thing about the exclusive is there won't be more and more of panini cards so they might become collectible.


People will still be buying 13-14 for a while. 14-15 will all be junk till like October 2015 lol

The more autos of Galchenyuk/Mack/Yak/Hertl the more value it adds to your boxes but also with each new auto the secondary market becomes more flooded so it goes both ways. Yes Tyler Johnson/Pallat both should have had more autos. No more Panini cards is also a bad thing. I will miss some of their products and special sets they had.

If UD doesn't pay the players to sign then there might not be any more autos so we might not have to worry about it lol.

[notoriousrob101]

Better question is will you UD be able to sign players now...or take 1.5 years to get a ryan strome hard signed pseudo rookie .....

Lol overrated players. clueless.

[RGM81]

Yeah I agree that Panini put out a lot of hard signed autos that UD didn't do. I also think that they oversaturated the market as you said Galchenyuk had 165 Panini Autos. Your right we don't know what UD is going to do so its hard to say. But If I was putting money down I say that the numbers will decrease a significantly. They will definitely need to find a balance. I don't necessarily think the Autos of the non rookies will decrease but the rookies should. There is just way too many autos of rookies that it makes it hard to collect. Guys like Beau Bennett & Maatta I just cant get everything that I want. Prices will likely increase a little on the secondary market but that's a good thing I think.

Do you think that it will be beneficial for the hobby that the numbers decrease? (If they do)

I believe that reeling things in a bit will help. I said in another thread that UD would benefit tremendously by SP'ing elite-level players in the sets they choose to make autographs. Gretzky/Orr/Crosby/Price don't have to be in every product with autos, but it helps when they are, so you up the desirability of a set like SPA when they appear in limited numbers (i.e. 50 or less). Of course going hand-in-hand with that will be a desire from collectors to see wax prices drop across the board if those guys aren't always included. SPA at $130 is a tough sell when you know you're getting 3 autos and the checklist is notably missing certain people in certain sets.

With the 2014-15 rookie class shaping up to be a pretty weak one unless we see Jonathan Drouin hit the scene, it's a perfect opportunity to reduce the reliance on rookie autographs and shift it to the established stars of the game.

[KingKuba]

Lol overrated players. clueless.

Come back in 5 years and lets how much Galchenyuk cards are going for..
Getting excited about 30 point players that will never live up to their potential and card prices....ever.

When Galchenyuk scores 50 goals and Mackinnon gets 130 points you can tell me I was wrong...

Just look at all older threads and what hype people were buying into. It is pure comedy....

Leblanc, Scheiffle, Hodgson, Coutierer, RNH, Eberle, Kassian, Zibnajad, Gagner, Henrique, Statsny, Ladd, Stafford, Wheeler, Schenn, Turris, Pogge, I could go on forever...

All the while you could have been getting Tukka, Weber, Girioux, Lucic, Karlsson, Nyquist, etc.

In 2 years Mackinnon will be another Duchane/Tavaras, forgotten about as he's getting 80 point seasons at best and Mcdavid is all the hype/chase. While Mackinnon signatuare will be $20 just like Tavaras.