No More McDonalds Cards

[30ranfordfan]

I guess the rumors were true.....

McDonalds has pulled out of the Hockey Card business.

http://beta.beckett.com/group/185225...76#ViewArticle

[TheRussianRocket]

Nooooooooooooooooooo!

[mr ozzie]

In an email, Upper Deck’s Chris Carlin attributed the cancellation of the series to cutbacks on McDonald’s side...

A multi-BILLION dollar company that makes money hand-over-fist cancelled because of "cutbacks"? I don't think so.

[RGM81]

Too bad - they were always fun and they were my gateway back into the hobby. Plus, this:



To this day it is the only card I've seen featuring the stick that's in my living room.

[30ranfordfan]

Louis Payette, National Media Relations Manager for McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada Limited, confirmed that the promotion would not continue this year, with Upper Deck or any other trading card manufacturer.
“Based on its past success which spanned nearly two decades, this was indeed a difficult decision,” he said.
Payette further noted that non-card promotions, such as the mini jersey and mini stick offerings, would also cease while the fast food chain changes its promotional targets.
“At this point in time, premium programs [including non-card memorabilia] are not part of our strategic focus,” he said.

If they really wanted to keep the promo going, but has some issue with Upper Deck.... I'm sure they could have called up Panini and worked something out. Sounds like they're dropping 'premium' promos all together.

[reoddai]

Whelp... guess I'm not eating at McD's this year. The packs were the only reason I've even eaten at McD's in about 5 yrs.

[CSSports]

Dropping Hockey in Canada?????

Is that even legal?

[durangatang]

Doesn't seem like a good move on McDonalds part, but I'm thinking it won't affect them in any way haha

[Iced_Knuckle_Puck]

I would care if the states had them too, but we don't so I don't

lol

[habscards]

It honestly does not surprise me. After last year with them not having the jerseys, patches, autos and parallels out of 100 in it, I am pretty sure that their sales were way down. I opened a lot of packs in previous years but did not opne a single pack last year. Their was just not that needle in a haystack to hit. Without that a lot of the hockey card hobby people stopped buying packs. I am sure that they still sell a lot of packs to kids and it will really, really hurt the hobby with not producing the cards now. Lets face it, the kids are the lifeline of any product. If McDonald's can get a 12 year old kid interested in hockey cards it does nothing but help the hockey card business. A few more years and that kid will have a part time job and maybe get into hockey cards. McDonald's is also a great way for collectors to start because every player produced in their set is a name player and not some common like we get in our packs of say Upper Deck Series One. Plus at only a dollar a pack it is affordable.

So all and all this is a very sad day in the history of hockey cards.