Product Delays: Why?

[flopfish]

At this current moment, all of us are looking forward to a fresh hockey card product to open: SPGU. However, with all of the products being bumped back a lot, let's take a look at possible reasons why the products are being bumped back:

A) It's not just Upper Deck. Panini's products are later, but not 3+ months late. Why is that? 2 main reasons in my opinion:

1) Sticker autos and redemptions. As much as you hate those buggers, they get the job done faster and on time. Panini has a lot more sticker autos in the products they've released, which means they are easier to get shipped and signed (not to mention quicker)
2) It also seems like Panini does a better job getting their cards out earlier for signing. Look at Dominion. They seem to have multiple cards in the circuit being signed already, most notably this guy:
(All signed in person by the players)

B) With both products being delayed, all of which are focused on autos or jerseys from rookies, is it due to rookies becoming lazy signers or a lack of jerseys to use? (Heard that Dominion is switching to Game Used RPA instead of photoshoot)

C) Redemptions. As previously mentioned, UD and Panini are trying to get away from these because of the community displeasure. Would it be different if they increased the time available to redeem them to a longer frame like 5-10 years if it meant products would be released on time?

What are your thoughts? Those are mine. They all seem to make logical sense to me at least

[marekschwarz33]

http://www.beckett.com/news/2012/03/ufl-ud-lawsuit/

I can only assume that the same kind of thing is happening in hockey. Are players really going to return their cards in a timely manner if they're not getting paid on time? This is an aspect that seems to get overlooked. From what I've heard, ITG pays their players up front (i.e- sending the check with the cards/stickers) and when was the last time they had a significant delay? Of course, wanting to avoid redemptions also plays a role. I normally stick to singles so I could care less about product delays but I'd imagine it's kind of annoying to shop owners who can't get any new inventory.

[Yipper]

1. Players slow at returning stuff (especially during playoffs)

2. Lag times between these players and company receiving cards

3. Lag times at the company and processing

4. Company facing internal and external issues

5. Collectors being demanding and don't want too many redemptions

They are so many factors. Overall, you can probably make a spread sheet and make changing variables lol.


People complain when products are released too mature, and people complain when products are released too late to reduce redemptions.

There is no happy medium, cause they can't control all aspects of the situation.

Just have to sit back and wait.

[flopfish]

First off, digging the name. Schwarz was one of my favourite WHL goalies! Also, that could be it. Never thought about it that way. Kind of scary.

http://www.beckett.com/news/2012/03/ufl-ud-lawsuit/

I can only assume that the same kind of thing is happening in hockey. Are players really going to return their cards in a timely manner if they're not getting paid on time? This is an aspect that seems to get overlooked. From what I've heard, ITG pays their players up front (i.e- sending the check with the cards/stickers) and when was the last time they had a significant delay? Of course, wanting to avoid redemptions also plays a role. I normally stick to singles so I could care less about product delays but I'd imagine it's kind of annoying to shop owners who can't get any new inventory.

[RGM81]

This is one of the most commonly discussed issues in the hobby. It's an ongoing problem for the two licensees to manage the balance between delays and redemptions, and for Upper Deck at least we can infer why. The recent NFLPI lawsuit shows that they owe some football players rather staggering amounts of money - we can likely deduce that they owe certain hockey players considerable money as well for their signatures. With Panini, we don't know really what the issue is there.

It's unfortunate that we don't get better communication from them to at least get an explanation as to why things are where they are. Obviously they're not going to give us a perfectly blunt assessment, i.e. "We want to get Sidney Crosby's autos live for this, but because of that whole brain injury thing, there have been issues getting a signing scheduled." They're not going to throw people under the bus because that will damage future relationships with key signers.

[30ranfordfan]

Content.

I will give the manufacturing process the beneift of the doubt here, and assume that its not an issue of actually making cards.

Since they get jerseys that they can use for years, I will assume that they are not the problem.

That leaves autographs.

For any number of reasons, they're having trouble getting autographed cards (or stickers) in house, on time for their release schedule.

So they're stuck with two choices: Delay the release (which everyone will hate) or issue Redemptions (which everyone will hate).

Not saying it isn't the manufacturer's fault that they're in the place to begin with (it probably is) but they really have only two things to do, and people are going to complain either way.

As for upping the time a redemption code is good for - I don't see the point. 3 years to redeem the card isn't unreasonable. I know it becomes an issue if you're opening old wax..... but really, products that have lots of expired redemptions in them usually get discounted once the redemptions expire...... and there is the issue of inventory. With how many redemptions are issued each year, it would likely be a mess for either company to be holding those cards, and have them available to redeem, for much longer than the 3 years.

[pur3strpker0]

Regarding the Pen Pal Quad. IF RNH did not play this season, then starts the process of getting the guys to sign again which may = more redemptions.

[palantri]

it takes a long time to print all those redemption cards, thus explaining why products are delayed...

[andrewconnors9]

Thing I find funny, UD and Panini have the NHL Licenses and the products are flooded with redemptions. ITG has no license and seems like the only redemptions you get are the ones done on purpose like Made To Order..... ITG for life!

[mortuus]

ITG does a very well job when sending cards to the players with the check, Dr. Price himself wrote that he never had an athlete not having the cards sent back so they seem to have a good knowledge how to make both players sending stuff back and getting paid for the job they do - UD on the other hands owes alot of rookies from last year money some are unpaid ive read.. so go figure why there is so many redemptions. And i think ITG plans way better then UD when sending cards so that they will be returned in time.