CnC

[reoddai]

Please remember to stay on topic. We are seeing a wide spectrum of opinions here with a mixture of both good and bad experiences as well as pros and cons to CnC's approach to the market.

Please keep it civil, on topic and limited to personal experiences. Hearsay isn't necessary.

Cheers,
reoddai

[lumm0x]

I've bought from them a few times, traded a few in the past and been a part of their site. Never an issue. But like everywhere on this earth there will always be exceptions, faults and people of differing experiences and opinions. I am sure they enjoy the hobby, enough to make it their livelihood, and do their best with honest intentions.

[scottyt100]

I recently joined CnC and I have to say, it's been a complete waste of my time. The site seems run well, but most of the members there...well...

I'll put it this way. If you're a new member on CnC be prepared to be annoyed and insulted. If you propose a fair trade, it will be declined. The only offers you will get will be offers that go beyond insulting. In short, prepare to feel unwelcome.


I've bought from the store and have nothing but good things to say there. Fair pricing, quick shipping and even extras. I would definitely buy there again. As for my time as a member on the trading site. Wasted.

I get insulted with offers here all the time.
Unfortunatly some people always try one up you in a trade.

Man I miss the days when a pack of O-Pee-Chee was $0.15 and you just helped your buddy out if you didn't want the card.

I find that there are very few true hobbiests
Look at the way rookie cards change hands in the high end forum.
Or the guys that collect Toews one week then Eberle a week later.

I will admit I have just recently changed things up.
I found trying to collect just on player BORING!!!!!

Doesn't matter what site you are on you will have issues.
We have a trade manager and it definately helps weed out the bad apples.
I can say with all honesty I have had a few bad trades part of the game.
Isn't the hobby pretty well a gamble.

[Yipper]

@korpkaos

I'm right across the Peace bridge in Buffalo. I also think their prices are a little high. Why don't we have some US people purchase stuff in quantity and bring it up to Canada? I'm not familiar with "brokerage fees" but if I can save the Canadian SCF members some cash by buying here and driving up there, why not. Like a monthly trip, or whenever new product comes out etc?

They are a business, it makes zero sense for them to do that. And the truth is, it is not allowed anyways.

Just simply think about it, for them to get where they are right now wouldn't you think they have explored their options.

It's really easy to look from the outside. I'm sure they have did the math and it doesn't add up in a business.

[Wickabee]

I get insulted with offers here all the time.
Unfortunatly some people always try one up you in a trade.

Man I miss the days when a pack of O-Pee-Chee was $0.15 and you just helped your buddy out if you didn't want the card.

I find that there are very few true hobbiests
Look at the way rookie cards change hands in the high end forum.
Or the guys that collect Toews one week then Eberle a week later.

I will admit I have just recently changed things up.
I found trying to collect just on player BORING!!!!!

Doesn't matter what site you are on you will have issues.
We have a trade manager and it definately helps weed out the bad apples.
I can say with all honesty I have had a few bad trades part of the game.
Isn't the hobby pretty well a gamble.

I have been a member on this site since April or May 2010 and a member at several other sites for even longer. Just the other day I received my first offer I considered "insulting" on this site, or any of the others.

The one exception is CnC. I have had nothing BUT insulting offers. If I come back with something reasonable, it goes ignored. It seems if you're not willing to allow yourself to be ripped off, they're not interested in having you around.

[doniceage]

Ive joined a few groupbreaks from them. Havent had a bad experience yet (crosses fingers). Though I do think they favour the ones that frequent and purchase their GBs (favour as in talk, discuss more than say newer people just starting but then again why wouldnt you?)

Well it all depends how you do it. If you favor the randomizer that would totally unkool. To give out some more extra's to folks who frequent your breaks would be totally acceptable and smart business. It would need to be clarified on what the initial poster means by favoring etc.

I know I favor members who get in a case break only one way in the past. I sold some base so offered repeating members free shipping in on a particular break if they were in previously. That the only way I have personally done it.

I have participated in a couple group breaks, but didnt receive any good hits, so it dampened my spirits there a little bit, but i did receive my hits. As for the trading or buying/selling part of CnC, I have made a few decent deals, but I find that asking if anyone has a particular item on the blog chat is more useful than putting up a thread.

I will speak from experience there always going to be bad breaks. You just have to keep plugging away to get a good one once in a while. It will happen eventually but it not always going to happen the first few go arounds.

I have joined a few of CnC's group breaks and I have a couple criticisms: In all the breaks that I have been a part of I have gotten hits.
But I have become more and more skeptical in a sense.
They only do case breaks of new products, other wise it is a 20 box mix of 20 different releases. There is 2 problems with this in my opinion. The case hits may already be gone in all 20 boxes. Not that big of a deal but I think cases would be better instead of huge mixes. Secondly, I know they are a business but there group breaks are way over priced to anyone around. I know that for dominion 10 spot draft it was like 250 or so when Doncieage was doing them for 209 I believe. Also if you have ever sat in on a night of there blog prepare to hear this for 5 hours, " come on guys 29 more spots lets fill this tonight". That is all they say, they just try and remind there 50 viewers that they have to fill this break tonight. Like I have said in the past for group breaks online either stick to SCF, or Chad Redfern (youtube/blog: thettruth17) This guy busts hockey once and a while when there is a release and he often does strictly cases. Prices are excellent, Chad himself is a first class guy in the hobby, and his blog room has some personality, he is familiar with all 150 of his guests as long as you are active in the chat, and the talk in the room is always about sports, not how many spots are left.

As you say you have a criticism of the boxes(mixed). I would just say stay away from those breaks as it your option no reason to be negative of them if it all on the up and up. It a double edge sword as the luck can go either way. Granted the hit might be gone but they could well be there. Now the problem lies in if the person pushing the boxes knowing what been pulled. If they seen nothing come out of say 18 boxes of a 20 box case and he opens the last two to get the case hit that bad for the folks who bought the 18. Much like if they open a box for a shop and then peddle the other 9 or 19 boxes of the case while making bucks on the case hit. This is where it important to build a relationship and a trust with the people you are involved with.

that's a good point. in watching their youtube vids, I've seen it where the case hit box may have been sold to an individual, potentially taking the air out of the box that is in the group break (or vice versa). but at same time, mixing up the boxes for group break potentially allows C&C to embed a couple of boxes into the group break that will never get sold individually. Pretty smart way of getting rid of unpopular inventory I have to admit.

It smart business no doubt but if the hits over time do not yield anything is it smart? I do not watch them but there folks who do not run a smart business route but the quick buck which sours some on the hobby which is bad. As the hobby needs collectors like never before.

As for pricing, I've never even been to the site but keep in mind, they are a business and are in it to make money. On this site, Don isn't doing it to make money, he's doing it for the benefit of the members on this site (plus I believe he usually participates as well) so you get a cheaper price.

I definitely do not make money. I do end up with a lot of base which could be flipped for dollars if I was in a hockey hotbed. Being in Kentucky and having hockey cards at a show means your never going to sell anything. So usually take it to the Nationals which I attend yearly and set up but again the U.S. Hockey Market is small compared to the other three. I do it because I love the hobby and enjoy participating on the board with the members. I get the best price I can and pass it onto the members. I am sure if we had more staff overall we might be able to obtain even better prices. In the end that only benefits the members if passed on.

A buddy and myself have done maybe about 6 or 7 breaks under my username over there. To be honest, we really haven't had any problems. Our packages have arrived over normal postal time frames, and we've been part of the few who have pulled 1/1's, and also the guys who get only a double diamond base card from Black Diamond.

Its obvious they make solid money from the group breaks. The volume of people interested in them now is so high that for every 1 guy who doesn't like how they run their GBs, 10 others will jump right in on the gamble. That's why they can make such good money off these things and not have to worry about lowering prices to get people in.

The only complaint that my buddy had, was he was in a $140 break, got a terrible spot, then only came out with a UD1 canvas card and a 2 diamond BD card. He had the opinion that for $140 to not throw something else in when what he got he called "basically base cards", he thought was poor business. Myself, I think going into those breaks is like buying a lotto ticket, and I don't think they owe anyone anything if they made out bad.. luck of the gamble kind of thing. That's something to be debated though I guess.

Amen to it being a gamble much like your lottery ticket analogy.

I started dealing with C&C about 5 months ago and have had great luck both on the forums and in the GB/boxes I have bought. I have read every post in this thread and see that some people have a bad experiences but people have to realize that bad things happen everywhere even on this site when it comes to trusting others. The positives that I have had with C&C are that I have always received my cards and have received great customer service when buying boxes. I am located in Canada as they are so shipping times are always a constant 4-5 days regular mail. The prices they have set on there products are more than fair IMO as they sell boxes for $20-$30 less than the local store used to before it closed. I have to laugh at the person who compared there prices to that of American dealers as there are so many factors that have to be taken into account when comparing them. I know that buying a $130 hobby box from Dacardworld cost me an additional $40 brokerage fee which turned me off buying from them ever again. I also think it is funny when people accuse them of having "favorites" of course they will talk/pay alittle more attention to the people who not only occupy the site on a nightly basis but also spend 4-5x more than some random person who stops by occasionally. My local shop used to put boxes under the self for me if his stock started getting low during the week because he knew I would be in almost every Sat. for a box and to keep a regular like me happy was better than selling it to some person who walked in off the street. I do have a couple small complaints as I do agree there feedback system on the forums is lacking and it does take along time to fill some breaks. I think the biggest reason that filling is a problem is that they are on 7 days a week and alot of people can only afford to join so often. They do have certain nights (The Sunday Monster) that almost always fills be for they even start blog and also whenever a case break of a newly released product is available. I avoid sitting there watching blog for 4-5 hours and usually wait until alittle later than jump on and join a GB that has 10 or less spots left to limit the wait time. It's sad to hear that others have had issues but from all my dealings which would easily amount to over $2000 I have had nothing but good service and will continue to deal with C&C as they have been upstanding with me. -Brock-

They must be doing something right if they keep getting repeat business. Hopefully, they can keep it up for years.

p.s. In ending you can never please everyone no matter how much you try. So if you ever like another site or person better spend your time there. As negativity is a waste of time in the hobby imo. Best of luck to all who participate in groupbreaks everywhere.

Don

[Wickabee]

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who sees "We take care of our own" over there. Now that I know it's not just my perception but the actual attitude of the people there, I'm going to give up trying to trade on there. I'll still buy boxes from them, but the site has proven completely worthless and very unwelcoming.

Basically the exact opposite of this place!

[habscards]

I am from Kitchener as they are as well.

I have been in group breaks of their and never had much luck. That is just the way it goes. I was in a group break last week and I had pick #19. It was between the Rangers and Kings as best teams left when my turn came around. I picked the Kings and the Sharks had a Thornton 1/1 patch pulled. The Kings had a Palffy jersey, Vachon auto and Hickey auto. That is not their fault that I came out behind on my break. I cannot comment on shipping as I pick up my cards in store.

They sell a lot of product and they do free giveaways. This week they have a case of some Panini product case that is a free case break. The people who got a free spot in the break are the ones who have bought into previous breaks. They reward their return customers as any company should.

They have a traders night the last Saturday of every month. At their traders night they always order pizza and give everyone water or pop. They have had draws for door prizes where you can win a box of cards. The traders night this month will have ITG's Cross Canada Tour where for every box you buy ITG gives you a free 1/1 stamped jersey card. No other shop gets the Cross Canada Tour as often as them. For ITG Ultimate they have their pack wars tournament that has a chance at 1/1 made jersey cards from ITG.

For their prices yes they are more expensive than others. It has been discussed at length how they are more expensive because they are in Canada and not the States. Their are two other reasons as to why they are more expensive;

One--They own a store. They have to make profit. When a case draft is done on here it is cheaper. The reason why it is cheaper is because when Don does it he can do the draft out of his own home. He does a very good job of it and I think just breaks even. He invests his time to help everyone out. Now when the guys at CnC do it they have to make money. They have bills to pay when owning a store. You could find group breaks cheaper on other sites but they are all doing it out of their home.

Two--Shipping is expensive. You can go to your local card store and buy a box for a little cheaper than what you can buy a box off CnC for them to break live. What you have to remember is if you can get a box for $100 at your local card store and it costs $105 from CnC, they still have to ship you your cards which will cost them about $5. The other thing is that when they do their group breaks their are 28 spots in the break. If you had to ship out up to 28 packages for one case break it would cost a lot of money. If it costs say $5 on average to ship each slot that is $140 for a 28 slot break.

Lastly I have been there in the store when they are putting a mix group break together. They have a lot of boxes in their store and they asked me which box it should be for the break for every product picked. They do it at random and I can vouch for that.

I hope that I have cleared some air about them.

Jeff

[chakhae1]

Just to expand on the type of fellows that trade on their site I remember being friends with this guy that was a member there. I met him a couple of times in person and he seemed like a totally fine guy and I even made a couple of in person trades with him and sold him a couple of Blue Jays cards.

Soon thereafter he vanished and then I notice that he's in the trader report thread on CnC and apparently he had not paid for a bunch of high end cards that he bought. Not sure what was done about this situation since I no longer use CnC, but from what I have read here, seems like this kind of thing is still commonplace.

I got a quick question for you people that are commenting on the expensive prices that CnC is offering. If such things as shipping are so expensive and such a hassle, then why do they have group breaks and go live on blog tv every single day?

[AlexTheGr8]

Just to expand on the type of fellows that trade on their site I remember being friends with this guy that was a member there. I met him a couple of times in person and he seemed like a totally fine guy and I even made a couple of in person trades with him and sold him a couple of Blue Jays cards.

Soon thereafter he vanished and then I notice that he's in the trader report thread on CnC and apparently he had not paid for a bunch of high end cards that he bought. Not sure what was done about this situation since I no longer use CnC, but from what I have read here, seems like this kind of thing is still commonplace.

Can you please share the name of the particular member so we can verify your story for you?

Here is the list of banned/MSF members: http://forums.cloutsnchara.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2305

I can guarantee you that this type of behaviour isn't "commonplace" on CnC. Every site has a few bad apples and they are all taken care of appropriately when something is reported to one of the moderators on the site as they would be with any other site.