Contenders worth it?

[frankiefives]

Okay, that was by case. But individual box wise, it seems horrible.

I mean 2 cheap rookies, and a glencross NHL INK.

Wow Great box. *sarcasm*

By case or by box, you still have a better chance of pulling an auto/patch or a multi-auto booklet in Contenders than you do in SPA. If you don't like this product, fine. Just don't tell me SPA will be better. It will be more expensive with less content

[centrehice]

For $75.00 per box MAX, you should be able to get:

2 Rookies
2 Autos
2 Short prints #/100 or less minimum
4 Longer print ratios at above #750
10 Insert cards

If people are now paying upwards of $100.00 for less, then they are fools.

[flopfish]

Frankie hits the nail on the head. I've had boxes of SPA where my main hit was a Cody Almond FW Auto... I only got 3 autos in the box, and the other was a SOTT scrub. Also, there are 199 fewer autos of each player. You have around a 50/50 shot of hitting a beautiful rookie patch auto or booklet. You are always going to have bad boxes and good boxes. The product is missing something small like a couple insert sets (Against The Glass was one I'd like to see brought back next year), but as far as comparisons with SPA, these products are on par with each other.

For $108 you can get:

Optimistic wise:
Top notch Rookie Auto
Top notch Rookie Auto Patch
Top notch Player Patch Auto
Top notch Booklet players
Top notch NHL Ink Player Auto
Limited parallels of the cards above
1/1 parallels of the cards above

Pessimistic point of view:
Scrub rookie auto
Scrub rookie patch auto
scrub player patch auto
Scrub player booklet card with 4 scrub autos
Scrub NHL ink auto

You are going to get bad boxes and great boxes. You will always have sub par players in a box, because if you had all stars like everyone wants, there would be no secondary market. They'll have more of the weaker autos than stars because it drives the VALUE of the stars up.

How many products at $108 can you pull a booklet out of? You have at least a 1/14 chance of getting a booklet. Just think, if you hit that box, you are going to be extremely happy. This is an awesome product for the price point IMO. There is HUGE potential to hit a good box. Look at some people's breaks here! They are AWESOME! Then others are duds, but it's like that in every product ever made. For people who can't afford the Cup or Dominion, the opportunity to pull a booklet card out of a product I can afford is insane, and still excites me as I await my box. Even if I get a dud, I'd be upset, but if I hit a book, I'll be screaming my head off!

[Fred Bear]

For $75.00 per box MAX, you should be able to get:

2 Rookies
2 Autos
2 Short prints #/100 or less minimum
4 Longer print ratios at above #750
10 Insert cards

If people are now paying upwards of $100.00 for less, then they are fools.

I guess to you, we're probably all fools...

This year, UD1 gave us...
6 RCs
2 GU jerseys
4 Canvas 'parallels'
5 Other Inserts

Release price - ~$68
Current price - ~$80

As always... Products are worth what folks are willing to pay for them and cases will always improve your odds.

I've seen some 'dud' boxes of Contenders this year and I've seen absolutely loaded boxes. The couple of cases I've seen busted are in the range where it depends on purchase price - retail price (maybe win - to - minor loss) or distributor price (probable win - to - break even). What I found disappointing was that the majority (not all) of the 'big' hits were redemptions.

For all the cracks on UD, they have done better about getting their late-season, hard-signed products out the door with less redemptions. It might take an extra week (or 2-3 months), but I'm at least hopeful that RNH SPA FW will be live and not just redeemable...

[centrehice]

SPA Products from 1997-2003 were $75.00 per box for those years other than when people went off their heads thinking that Milan Hejduk was going to be the next Gretzky and the 98-99 SPA went for $115.00 for a while until people were caught holding the bag because of Hejduk.

If SPA is now over $100.00 retail, there isn't enough value in that when you look at the bigger picture.

No amount of cajoling can convince me.

[centrehice]

I guess to you, we're probably all fools...

This year, UD1 gave us...
6 RCs
2 GU jerseys
4 Canvas 'parallels'
5 Other Inserts

Release price - ~$68
Current price - ~$80

As always... Products are worth what folks are willing to pay for them and cases will always improve your odds.

I've seen some 'dud' boxes of Contenders this year and I've seen absolutely loaded boxes. The couple of cases I've seen busted are in the range where it depends on purchase price - retail price (maybe win - to - minor loss) or distributor price (probable win - to - break even). What I found disappointing was that the majority (not all) of the 'big' hits were redemptions.

For all the cracks on UD, they have done better about getting their late-season, hard-signed products out the door with less redemptions. It might take an extra week (or 2-3 months), but I'm at least hopeful that RNH SPA FW will be live and not just redeemable...

I'm not talking about Upper Deck, I'm talking about other issues. UD will remain popular because of Young Guns. Plus they offer many other boxes at reduced prices, Hot Packs, Retail Boxes, Blaster Boxes, Rack Packs.

If SPA or any of these Panini products had the options the UD has in 5 different buying formats then I could understand.

SPA has One Buying Format alone, the Hobby Box, and it's too much money.

[g-force]

Okay, that was by case. But individual box wise, it seems horrible.

I mean 2 cheap rookies, and a glencross NHL INK.

Wow Great box. *sarcasm*

As compared to any other product that's been made in the past 4 years which have almost identical results for the same price or more.

[rinkrathobbies]

Well, people seem to value on-card autos more then sticker autos.

The fact is, I would rather have a sticker auto relic then a on-card auto with no relic.

I wouldn't consider photoshoot jerseys "relics"...

[Yipper]

These debates seriously go no where.

Is a box ever worth the hits you get? 99% heck no.

And it will always remain that way. These companies run a business and if they ever give you what something is actually worth, it is poor business sense and practice. They will not lose money for you. Which company in the world does that. No one! Not even charities!

So quit asking is a product worth it. Answer is simple: No and Never.



...


If you are asking a bang for your buck question. At this stage, contenders as a recognized brand as well the as the rookie crop involved this year would not give you the best return. Besides RNH, the other rookies sell $50 and below.

The design is a huge improvement and ideas are there. It's just a matter of branding the product even better for future years since Panini is still in their second year of hockey.

It is always more so to do with the rookies each year less so the product. If you have a year with all Crosby-like rookies, everything will sell well and return will be better. This year, you only honestly have RNH that will break the $100 mark. Next closest is Landeskog and he might get $50.

[webster354]

Frankie hits the nail on the head. I've had boxes of SPA where my main hit was a Cody Almond FW Auto... I only got 3 autos in the box, and the other was a SOTT scrub. Also, there are 199 fewer autos of each player. You have around a 50/50 shot of hitting a beautiful rookie patch auto or booklet. You are always going to have bad boxes and good boxes. The product is missing something small like a couple insert sets (Against The Glass was one I'd like to see brought back next year), but as far as comparisons with SPA, these products are on par with each other.

For $108 you can get:

Optimistic wise:
Top notch Rookie Auto
Top notch Rookie Auto Patch
Top notch Player Patch Auto
Top notch Booklet players
Top notch NHL Ink Player Auto
Limited parallels of the cards above
1/1 parallels of the cards above

Pessimistic point of view:
Scrub rookie auto
Scrub rookie patch auto
scrub player patch auto
Scrub player booklet card with 4 scrub autos
Scrub NHL ink auto

You are going to get bad boxes and great boxes. You will always have sub par players in a box, because if you had all stars like everyone wants, there would be no secondary market. They'll have more of the weaker autos than stars because it drives the VALUE of the stars up.

How many products at $108 can you pull a booklet out of? You have at least a 1/14 chance of getting a booklet. Just think, if you hit that box, you are going to be extremely happy. This is an awesome product for the price point IMO. There is HUGE potential to hit a good box. Look at some people's breaks here! They are AWESOME! Then others are duds, but it's like that in every product ever made. For people who can't afford the Cup or Dominion, the opportunity to pull a booklet card out of a product I can afford is insane, and still excites me as I await my box. Even if I get a dud, I'd be upset, but if I hit a book, I'll be screaming my head off!

Agreed, the odds of pulling a decent case hit per box makes it very attractive for people buying a box or 2...