Upper Deck epacks for newbies

[michaelpatko]

I just joined 2 weeks ago upon learning that you get a free pack every day.

I'm 8 packs in, and have 24 base cards.

Are the inserts and Young Guns etc only available in the packs you pay for, or are they randomly inserted into the daily free packs also?

I guess I'm cheap, but I'm not paying 4 bucks for packs I can get at DACW for 3.

Any tips or insight is greatly appreciated.

[RGM81]

If you're looking for a good full-on primer for e-Pack, check out this article I wrote: bitly.com/UDePack

[michaelpatko]

Thank you for that article. If I understood it correctly, the daily free pack will only contain base cards, always.

[Gallinator]

Thank you for that article. If I understood it correctly, the daily free pack will only contain base cards, always.

You are correct. I have noticed, though, that the hits do seem to be concentrated, both from my own experience and from reading the reports of others (although those who DON"T hit are less likely to report it, LOL). I bought roughly 25 packs of S1 through ePack and got 10-11 YG and each pack had at least an insert (whereas in a hobby box you will have 1-2 all base packs per box). Pulled two YG Canvas, and of course the Blue parallels to Shining Stars are everywhere, which is reflected in the prices you see on COMC for them (almost all the hobby-inserted versions can be bought for less than $1).

At $4 per pack, UD2 is a complete rip-off when we are seeing Hobby boxes at $60 or so. However, I did succumb to the late night urge and bought 2 lots of 2 packs each - 2nd pack had a Lafleur Retired Greats Canvas, which is a pretty long pull.

I guess one of the side benefits (or is it the main benefit? Hmmm...) is the ability to trade with others and work towards getting the foil versions of base/YG and/or cashing in the online inserts for incentive cards. I have had quite a few trade requests, but none of them have seemed very reasonable to me, so I'm not sure it's worth the time invested.

We'll see how this develops over time. If they do indeed put Ultimate on the ePlatform, I suspect we'll see a high participation rate, much to the hobby stores' collective chagrin (unless pricing is just way out of line).

[atruong317]

We'll see how this develops over time. If they do indeed put Ultimate on the ePlatform, I suspect we'll see a high participation rate, much to the hobby stores' collective chagrin (unless pricing is just way out of line).

I'm curious as well to see how Ultimate is received. From what I read the past 2 seasons, Ultimate wasn't popular with collectors anyways? (hence the price drops on the boxes)

So perhaps this is a way to see if EPack can give some life to a languishing product.

[Sharky94]

If you are willing to put the time into it, you can very easily get foil versions of your favorite team -- even without spending money. There are plenty of people willing to trade 1:1 base -- you just have to try to avoid the FORUM, where most people will only trade with you if they "win" the trade. (I even had one Ranger fan give me a "1" rating for sending him an offer of my Henrik Lundqvist for his John Carlson!)

Just save up until you get 3 or more guys from one team, then find someone with that team logo and send a 1:1 offer for your team. Most of the time, people will accept those types of trades unless you try sending them three 4th liners and ask for three Sidney Crosbys or Jonathan Toews.

If you want anything more than just base cards you can foil up, you are probably going to have to buy some boxes to get some trade bait.

[TRDouble]

Besides not having to deal with base cards when I have already finished my set, as Gallinator hit on, each e-pack is guaranteed to have a insert/physical card in the pack. It makes the pack price a little more palatable if you just have an urge to open some packs. At this point, I'd rather buy $20 of e-packs than a $20 tin from DACW. In the end, I think the inserts even out and I don't have base cards and another tin to deal with.

[IceRat]

If you are willing to put the time into it, you can very easily get foil versions of your favorite team -- even without spending money. There are plenty of people willing to trade 1:1 base -- you just have to try to avoid the FORUM, where most people will only trade with you if they "win" the trade. (I even had one Ranger fan give me a "1" rating for sending him an offer of my Henrik Lundqvist for his John Carlson!)

Just save up until you get 3 or more guys from one team, then find someone with that team logo and send a 1:1 offer for your team. Most of the time, people will accept those types of trades unless you try sending them three 4th liners and ask for three Sidney Crosbys or Jonathan Toews.

If you want anything more than just base cards you can foil up, you are probably going to have to buy some boxes to get some trade bait.

pretty broad generalization
of course people are going to try and "win" trades in their favor from time to time but there are plenty in the forum/chat willing to trade 1:1 and there are more than generous people who have traded me base as many as 1:50 and I've also seen newbies (hopefully not via duplicate/multiple accounts) be gifted a number of free cards including inserts.
I have 537 cards in my epack collection (all base cept 1) and have not spent a cent (sorry UD)
I have built a complete set of S1 and s2 base (plus extras) and they were all acquired via free packs or trades and of course I asked for more than 1:1 trade ratios on occasion to get there

[Drewk86a]

Speaking of price drops. We see it all the time in the LCS and on websites when sets stop selling they lower the prices.
Do you think upper deck will lower the per pack/box/case of epacks? I think UD Ser 1 sold out on epacks so there was no reason to lower the price. Wonder if that will happen to UD 2 and MVP?


UPDATE with second thought - Can the ePacks actually sell out? I guess they could offer the free packs till the cows come home because they are nothing but base. However, issuing more base cards than the production run would throw off the insert ratios, I guess.

[Sharky94]

I guess they could offer the free packs till the cows come home because they are nothing but base. However, issuing more base cards than the production run would throw off the insert ratios, I guess.

Not really, when you get down to it. They could give out the free e-packs forever. It would only change the ratio of cards in circulation. The insert odds when opening packs would still stay the same because the number of base cards inside real packs doesn't change.