Too many Young Guns?

[ChuckNorrisFearsS]

Just wait until Extendeder and Extended Update start coming out. Not to mention Extenderest.

[RGM81]

Just wait until Extendeder and Extended Update start coming out. Not to mention Extenderest.

The year is 2036. Gary Bettman is still the NHL Commissioner. He has expanded the NHL to 40 teams, none of them in Canada. Upper Deck has just announced Upper Deck Series 5, which includes 50 more Young Guns for a total of 250 for the year. The set also includes a special Jaromir Jagr Retirement Celebration subset, as the Czech legend has finally retired from pro hockey at the age of 64. Collectors eagerly submit their pre-orders.

[ChuckNorrisFearsS]

The year is 2036. Gary Bettman is still the NHL Commissioner. He has expanded the NHL to 40 teams, none of them in Canada. Upper Deck has just announced Upper Deck Series 5, which includes 50 more Young Guns for a total of 250 for the year. The set also includes a special Jaromir Jagr Retirement Celebration subset, as the Czech legend has finally retired from pro hockey at the age of 64. Collectors eagerly submit their pre-orders.

So they canceled Series 6 then? I can't wait to see all the YGs for the 5 Idaho and Wyoming teams! If I heard correctly each box will now only contain ONE YG.

[discomike]

Just wait until Extendeder and Extended Update start coming out. Not to mention Extenderest.

Those all sound like male enhancement products. Mind you, so does Extended!

[theboxbreaker96]

Same for SPA used to be only 50 Signed FWAs with 10-20 more un signed. Now its like a 100 signed FWAs. Its a joke and I havent opened any since 16-17

[discomike]

If you are a set builder the only sensible thing to do is buy a set already completed by case breakers.
I mean they could narrow down the YG's to 20 most likely decent players with 10 per box and everyone could complete one with 3-4 boxes, but than the star YG would be very common, and cheap. Not too mention some late round surprise future stars would be without a YG, which is a bummer.
As for inserts, some really stink, some are average, and a few are incredible. All depends on your taste, and age bracket. Something for everyone it seems, unless one is very old school and only wants base cards and base rookies. MVP sounds good for that.

Yes, but buying a complete set defeats the thrill of putting together a complete set.

[discomike]

Same for SPA used to be only 50 Signed FWAs with 10-20 more un signed. Now its like a 100 signed FWAs. Its a joke and I havent opened any since 16-17

I always thought SPA is the most bland-looking product Upper Deck puts out. I realize that auto-rookies are the selling point of the product, but take those away and the product offers nothing.

[30ranfordfan]

I agree with the sentiment.

I used to put together the Series 1/2 every year. I gave that up before Extended started. I only ever bought a case once.... but I was usually good for 2-3 hobby boxes, and a bunch of blasters, per series. My stopping (and selling off that collection) had nothing to do with the increase in size - but my past set building does let me speak to the appeal.

The product was always reasonably priced (boxes now cost more than double what they did 10 years ago). Set builders drove the popularity of this set. To a degree, they always will - but as you bring in more update cards, more SP'd cards to chase (just to get the base set) - you make it harder for those set builders, and more and more of them will walk away.

The idea that YGs are somehow short printed is also a bit of a fallacy. More SP'd than the base set? Of course they are (6 per box). There are still 10s of thousands of copies out there though. There is no short supply of these cards. They're far more popular than a lot of other serial numbered RCs (which drives the price higher than those) - but if you chip away at the number of people building sets..... how long does that hold up?

Busting wax is always a gamble, and you should never expect to "get your money back" - but with how watered down the checklists are now, it's really hard to expect you're going to get (even) a couple of $15 YGs in a box. So you're left with depending on the other "hits" to get value out of your boxes.... and most of the hits are stuff that most collectors aren't interested in.

Part of me likes the idea of extended. It give UD a chance to make a RC of everyone eligible..... but I thought Compendium was a much better avenue for that (they could make 200 RCs, and it wouldn't be watering down that product). It was ePack only, boxes were cheap, everything you'll pulled was digital only (and could be combined for physical parallels or achievements). I think Compendium would still be going strong if they hadn't made the mistake of ending the free daily packs (if daily free combinable cards was costing too much - I would have reduced the # of cards in the free packs, or upped the numbers needed to combine, rather than ending them entirely).

[mooneyes]

Yes, but buying a complete set defeats the thrill of putting together a complete set.

Yeah if you wanted to pull every YG for this year yourself, that would take a lot of boxes.
I guess retail boxes, with 6 YG's per, would be the most cost effective way of doing that, but would still take what, like at least 6 boxes per series.

[cjb]

hobby boxes of series 1+2 last year sold out in a few days at my LCS

this year it's been many months and they're still availalble

can you say overproduction