Leaf signed record setting exclusive autograph deal with jack eichel

[philmarois76]

This really SUCK..!

I see no point to have top rookies be exclusive in the suite of products of Leaf/ITG ... Like most people say we like their products for the vintage, HOF and prospects.

The PA should try to prevent something stupid like that because this will eventually reduce the value of having an exclusive license with NHL if company have no garanty that they will have today's game top players available to sign product content.

Again, this suck!

[30ranfordfan]

For example:

MacKinnon Cup /99 vs- MacKinnon National Treasures /99

- Both cards come from a similar priced product.

- NT is hands down a nicer looking card. NT has a huge window compared to its Cup counterpart.

- But The Cup has UD infront of it .... making comparable cards worth so much more than the NT copies.

You forgot to mention that Panini used a MacKinnon gammer in NT, and UD was using a photoshoot jersey in The Cup.....

[30ranfordfan]

Reducing the value of having an exclusive would be great for everyone else. Maybe get 3-5 manufacturers again?

This really SUCK..!

I see no point to have top rookies be exclusive in the suite of products of Leaf/ITG ... Like most people say we like their products for the vintage, HOF and prospects.

The PA should try to prevent something stupid like that because this will eventually reduce the value of having an exclusive license with NHL if company have no garanty that they will have today's game top players available to sign product content.

Again, this suck!

[geschrocks33]

I wouldnt call them great, but they were different. There is also a reason why those cards can be purchased for 25 cents or less.

Why does Eichel need to be in a hockey uni? Because thats what the majority of collectors want .... thats what they put value on. How much more would cards from ITG Used be if they were licensed ..... if they could include true rookies into the set, WITH all the awesome vintage memorabilia.

Do people want auto rookies? - Yes

Are people going to consider anything Leaf Eichel to be a true auto rookie? - No

Is UD not being able to put out a true auto rookie of one of the top rookies in the class going to hurt the hobby world this year? - Of course

Im sure UD has something up their sleeves. Sure, they cant do auto rookies of him, and thats going to hurt the hobby as a whole for 1 season more than the UD monopoly will for 1 season.

As much as UD is screwing over other companies with exclusives of various players, they did not hurt the card collector the same way as have Eichel being an exclusive for a non licensed company. Thats why people are more up in arms about this, then UD getting their monopoly back. Can anyone imagine if things went the other way, and Panini had a monopoly on the hockey market ...... chaos.

We are as much to blame for Panini not being in the mix as UD. From the get go, most collectors looked and Panini cards as second class cards .... even if they had better designs.

For example:

MacKinnon Cup /99 vs- MacKinnon National Treasures /99

- Both cards come from a similar priced product.

- NT is hands down a nicer looking card. NT has a huge window compared to its Cup counterpart.

- But The Cup has UD infront of it .... making comparable cards worth so much more than the NT copies.

I would love to hear what the hobby shops have to say about this news. Are they mad with Leaf for doing this? This has got to hurt their box / case sales for the year to come. Sure, Leaf had to do something like this ..... but this move hurts no one but the collectors and the shop owners. UD is going to sell everything out .... thats a given .... but are people going to be buying as much .... are hobby shops going to be going back to the distributors for more cases once theirs sell out?

As much as this is a middle finger to UD from Leaf .... it is pretty easy to see why most collectors also see that middle finger directed at them.

Leaf - This hurts us the most. Not UD. Are your sales going to go up because of this move ..... most likely not.

I'm in Buffalo, and the LCS owner who I'm close with is pretty irritated, and so is the customer base. He does not stock ITG products, because the big guns who open high-end stuff there don't like it. Only gets ITG stuff in when it goes massively cheap, and that's rarely. So all of his big product openers now have no shots at Eichel cards unless they decide to try some Leaf stuff

[geschrocks33]

If you are a Buffalo fan, you should be GLAD this happened. It just means that your new PC will cost a lot less to get started...

Will his FW be cheaper? Yep.

Will Leaf cards be cheap? Who knows, but you know all the morons in this hobby that rip and flip will use the mentality that the Eichel autos are 1 per case (as stated by BG from Leaf on a different site) so they will be a 1 per case auto in high-end products. Unless we see some lower-end options that aren't 1 Pack, X Cards, for $100+ I don't see Eichel autos being an easily obtainable item, like if he were in SPA - 999 autos to grab. SPX - Not sure what the SP's were this year but I want to say like around 200? Forget what my Reinhart is out of. Plus you have to imagine all the other autos he would have gotten. Just going to make it harder for us to find them, and easier for the rip and flip high-end opens to try and charge more.

[Bimola]

This really SUCK..!

I see no point to have top rookies be exclusive in the suite of products of Leaf/ITG ... Like most people say we like their products for the vintage, HOF and prospects.

The PA should try to prevent something stupid like that because this will eventually reduce the value of having an exclusive license with NHL if company have no garanty that they will have today's game top players available to sign product content.

Again, this suck!

This should read: I see no point to have top rookies be exclusive in the suite of products of ANY CARD COMPANY.This is the root problem here - UD has been doing it for years with primary goal of eliminating competition. Now Leaf has signed ONE exlusive autograph deal and they are getting hammered. Well, good for them for trying to level the playing field and offering collectors another option to UD's monopoly. I am not a RC collector (or speculator in my opinion), however, there are VERY few collectors who can afford what these cards end up selling for on secondary markets. Eichel cards, although more limited, will be financially more reachable for collectors. AND, I strongly believe Leaf will do a better job than UD would at marketing Eichel (at UD Eichel would be just another player behind King McDavid).

Your other point is interesting: "Like most people say we like their products for the vintage, HOF and prospects."

As a vintage collector, I'd MUCH RATHER see Leaf spending their cash on vintage jerseys, memorabilia for future releases. Eichel doesn't do anything for my collection and it bothers me to see them put effort into a hobby sector that is away from their perceived niche. I'm guessing they would like to increase their revenue beyond what they get from us vintage collectors, but I'm wary as you can't be everything to everybody.

[Tripredacus]

This is disappointing to me because I never buy high-end stuff because I can't afford them. For Sabres, i almost never get the chance to buy anything locally due to the home team markup, so I rely on Ebay mostly. So it looks like I'll be only having a Young Gun for many years before I can get an auto for him to put in my Sabres book. :(

[rhcardinals]

On the other hand this is absolutely brutal for the hobby, one of the highest hyped Rookie Classes of the last decade just got ruined by an unlicensed company. One of the biggest rookies in years now won't be featured in staple sets like SPA and The Cup because a 3rd rate company wanted to make a splash in the hobby world.

Very disappointed in Leaf for this, I'll be boycotting them right alongside with the old ITG now.

These are my thoughts exactly.

[Professor-Chaos]

Haha everyone is mad at Leaf.. Eichel could have said no.. He didn't have to take that HUGE check.. Maybe Eichel doesn't care about the hobby and the collectors.. I'll be boycotting all Eichel cards altogether..

P-C
--

[piper1]

Haha everyone is mad at Leaf.. Eichel could have said no.. He didn't have to take that HUGE check.. Maybe Eichel doesn't care about the hobby and the collectors.. I'll be boycotting all Eichel cards altogether..

P-C
--

McDavid could have said no to the Exlcusive with UD. Will you be boycotting his cards as well?