Upper Deck ePacks

[cardscardscards]

You say that, but 50% of respondents in the survey in this very Forum said that they haven't got one. Maybe this is their chance.

I'd be curious to know what the figure would stand at if we were in 2006 and we asked the same question for Crosby. Something tells me it would be far less than 50%.

[wild4life]

Question for y'all: in the coming weeks UD is going to be launching the trading platform on e-Pack, and it will be peer-to-peer.

What are your thoughts on us setting up a special sub-forum in the Hockey Card Trading area for e-Pack want and trade lists?

I'm intrigued, but wondering how it would work. The trade would obviously be through the epack site/app, but would be negotiated through SCF?

[Crosby 87]

Varly, Gionta and Taylor Hall.

Will like it more once there's a app and trading.

[Sharky94]

What are your thoughts on us setting up a special sub-forum in the Hockey Card Trading area for e-Pack want and trade lists?

Definitely! Need to have one.

[RGM81]

Richard: Definitely a well-written article. I read it twice. However, at the risk of appearing obtuse, I must question this passage:

Those collectors who felt “cheated” that there are only 7-9 High Gloss cards available from the physical release instead of the full ten may not have had that indignation had they been made aware of the program and its structure when Series 1 was released in November. While some understand that proportionally all the hit ratios and likelihood of hitting any individual SSP card remained unaffected by the reduced allocation, others simply view not having all cards in the physical product as problematic.

a) Certainly the feeling of being "cheated" would have been lessened or entirely negated had the program been thoroughly explained in November.
b) The problem with the second sentence is that we cannot know that proportionality has been maintained unless we get confirmation from Upper Deck that this is so. Specifically, let's say 20 Exclusives and 2 HG of each Young Gun were withheld from the Hobby distribution to supply the ePacks - 20 percent of the run. Proportionality is therefore maintained ONLY if the ePacks produced equal 20 percent of the total print run. If not, then those cards are either more concentrated (if ePacks are less than 20 percent of the total print run) or less concentrated (if ePacks are more than 20 percent of the total print run). Does that make sense? While UD says the ePacks will eventually sell out, we have NO information on how many are or will be produced. Even if there is an initial "production" run for ePacks (production used loosely for this mostly-virtual product), UD has a strong financial incentive to extend the supply of ePacks should the program prove to be a hit. Sure, they would run out of supply for the SP and SSP numbered cards, but who outside the company would know this? One would have to buy multiple cases late in the supply cycle to even suspect the supply of SP and SSP cards had been exhausted. We cannot trust UD to do the right thing, given their less than stellar record of transparency.

This problem is still only ancillary to the absolute fact that people who thought they were chasing any one of 100 Exclusive and 10 High Gloss McLarkinDomi cards were, in fact, only chasing 80 and 8 (or whatever the actual number is) and must now allocate additional funds to ePacks if they want a shot at those cards that were withheld from Hobby distribution - funds that were already allocated to previous purchases. In other words, if I felt comfortable entering a group break on a case of UD1 and paying $300 for Edmonton, a certain portion of that amount is to cover the possibility that I am going to hit one of the 100 Exclusive or 10 High Gloss McDavids (as I did back in 13/14 with MacKinnon). However, if I had known that I was only chasing one of 80 or 8 of those cards, I might have only paid $270 for that group break spot - and so on down the line for various amounts for various RC on various teams. Therefore, individually and in the aggregate, the REAL EXPECTED VALUE of any one group, case or box break - and therefore the expected value of the Hobby release as a whole - has been decreased by whatever percentage was withheld for ePacks, but the PERCEIVED EXPECTED VALUE was not accordingly adjusted simply because UD did not notify collectors in advance with any sort of actionable information.

This is certainly a breach of trust by UD and could be considered a fraudulent action if intent could be proven. I think they just didn't think about the ramifications of their actions. Did this aspect of it come up at all in your conversation with Chris Carlin?

Note I don't really have a dog in this fight, as I've only spent about $200 on UD1 this year and $28 on ePacks. I just think this is such an obvious case of improper action on UD's part that they shouldn't get a free pass on it.

This is all addressed in the article.

If you go into your break, regardless of size and regardless of physical or e-Pack, expecting to hit a specific card you are only setting yourself up for disappointment. With e-Pack, you never had a chance to pull Mike Condon YG HG #2/10 from a physical box break. Conversely, with the phyiscal allocation, you never had a chance to pull Mike Condon YG HG #5/10 #6/10 or #8/10 from an e-Pack break. High Gloss Young Guns are a multi-case hit--they're not distributed one in every case, and the odds of hitting any one of them is very small. It is a tremendous stroke of luck for any collector to hit one of these cards when you consider how much of the product is made and how far across the world it is distributed. A small shop in Penticton, BC, may not even see one High Gloss (YG or regular set) pulled from their stores while a big store in Edmonton may only get one or two YG HG's out of the 500 total cards in existence.

...

Bottom line in all this? Don't be too flustered that one or two copies of a supremely short-printed card you probably weren't going to pull anyways was never in the physical release.

Regarding "fraudulent action." Absolutely no chance of that, and the suggestion strains credulity. There is a reference to a digital platform in a press release that came out back in November:

Upper Deck Series One Hockey cards are now available at hobby shops across North America. Retail packs, boxes and collectible tins will be on retailer shelves starting November 18th, and are currently available on UpperDeckStore.com. In addition, Upper Deck will be offering a digital version of the product later this year.

[RGM81]

I'm intrigued, but wondering how it would work. The trade would obviously be through the epack site/app, but would be negotiated through SCF?

Details would still have to be finalized, and it is being discussed. But we're keenly aware that a lot of collectors here and across the world will be wanting to get a chance at those Silver Foil Board parallels, and want to give people the platform to raise awareness of their own efforts.

[RGM81]

Good: people are already receiving e-Pack orders from COMC

Bad, very bad: cards, including McDavid YGs, are apparently not being shipped with top loaders.

[frankiefives]

Richard, I posted this on HI as well. I'd like your thoughts

If all retailers and distributors who signed your agreement have to follow strict guidelines, then so should you. Upper Deck themselves shouldn't be considered a Distributor but even if we do give them that label, they would have had to wait 90 days after the release of UD1 in order to be allowed to distribute hobby boxes to the general public. That's a clear violation of their own agreement.

That doesn't even cover the fact that they held back product while deceiving their Diamond Dealers into thinking they were sold out. This: "In addition, Upper Deck will be offering a digital version of the product later this year."in no way leads any of us to believe that the digital version will have live cards that are part of the hobby release

[maple19]

You guys are saying the price for S&H is high I have 20 E topps cards I will never get as the price to ship them is unreal the price for these are find I got a Connor McDavid YG I hope
being mail it better be in a toploader I let you know when I get it

[RGM81]

Richard, I posted this on HI as well. I'd like your thoughts

If all retailers and distributors who signed your agreement have to follow strict guidelines, then so should you. Upper Deck themselves shouldn't be considered a Distributor but even if we do give them that label, they would have had to wait 90 days after the release of UD1 in order to be allowed to distribute hobby boxes to the general public. That's a clear violation of their own agreement.

That doesn't even cover the fact that they held back product while deceiving their Diamond Dealers into thinking they were sold out. This: "In addition, Upper Deck will be offering a digital version of the product later this year."in no way leads any of us to believe that the digital version will have live cards that are part of the hobby release

It's a very valid discussion point. I've never been privy to read an agreement between UD and one of the Diamond Dealers or Authorized Internet Retailers, so I don't know all the in's and out's of what is and isn't permissible. Unless UD considers themselves a retailer, or outside that chain entirely, they should follow the rules.

As I understand it, the window for hobby shops to have exclusivity in selling Series 2 Hobby will be smaller than it was for Series 1. It won't be 2-1/2 months this time around.