Upper Deck ePacks

[penguinsChief]

So I went back and looked and found this:

• Combine a complete set of either insert on e-Pack to redeem for a limited physical card #0 from that set.
• Combine 20 copies of card #0 on e-Pack to redeem for an ultra-rare physical card #00.
• Note, once you have earned these cards, the ability to transfer or ship them will be delayed slightly as we are currently printing and scanning these cards.

Then below it I found this:

COMBINE BASE CARDS AND YOUNG GUNS TO GET EXCLUSIVE FOIL PARALLELS

Combine 10 copies of any individual digital base card (#1-200) on e-Pack, or 5 copies of any individual physical Yong Guns card (#201-250) on e-Pack, to receive an e-Pack exclusive physical foil parallel of that card.


So I am a little confused, but honestly don't care anymore. I won't be buying anything from Series 1 due to this and the over production that we all knew was coming. So McDavid has how many YG's? Oh and BTW UD will now get some of those back for this program.....

[Nazem Kadri]

Kind of off topic but would SCF not be in trouble if they added trading to their site? The trades could all be down through COMC, no one ever gets scammed or slow shipping. I just think LCS and hockey trading sites will get undermined and go belly up slowly over time.

[30ranfordfan]

I thought they only ship hits? Do I get base shipped as well? I expect free shipping because I can go 5 mins and get the physical box in my hands. I would rather go to the LCS but I agree it's a good idea for remote collectors and new collectors.

Only hits will be an option to ship, yes. There are no base cards available.... not physical ones, anyway. You get a bunch of digital base card, and digital hits - which can be traded in for physical (same card, 1-for-1) hits.

If you expect free shipping, stay away. It won't be. You're paying COMC shipping prices (that's who will do the shipping to you, not Upper Deck) which are really good, but still not free.

Kind of off topic but would SCF not be in trouble if they added trading to their site? The trades could all be down through COMC, no one ever gets scammed or slow shipping. I just think LCS and hockey trading sites will get undermined and go belly up slowly over time.

COMC has no trade mechanism on their site. You can only buy & sell.

I would assume that the UD will be adding the ability to trade digital cards between users within the epacks site though... the Tim Horton's site in the fall had that.

[RGM81]

I thought they only ship hits? Do I get base shipped as well? I expect free shipping because I can go 5 mins and get the physical box in my hands. I would rather go to the LCS but I agree it's a good idea for remote collectors and new collectors.

Then go 5 minutes to get the physical box from your LCS.
If you expect UD to eat the cost to ship you a card from your $4 e-Pack break, you're going to be mighty disappointed that they're just a little bit smarter than that. What you're talking about is a sure fire way to turn the venture into a huge monetary black hole.
Do you expect eBay sellers to ship your cards for free too? After all, you could just go to your LCS and buy the card there.

[Nazem Kadri]

Then go 5 minutes to get the physical box from your LCS.
If you expect UD to eat the cost to ship you a card from your $4 e-Pack break, you're going to be mighty disappointed that they're just a little bit smarter than that. What you're talking about is a sure fire way to turn the venture into a huge monetary black hole.
Do you expect eBay sellers to ship your cards for free too? After all, you could just go to your LCS and buy the card there.

Not every pack lol Do I have the option to get my base even shipped for a fee? Guess my kid can't collect his base sets once UD goes 100% virtual. Maybe they just buy discount lots and re insert them into their $3.99 packs? I will not be buying virtual cards for my phone app. I'm not saying its a bad idea but as of right now I don't see how this could be good for traditional collectors.

I am scared this will kill my chances of going 5 mins to get a physical pack when the card shops don't exist anymore.

[Nazem Kadri]

Only need to spend 10x your money to get that base set now. Add a double dose of silver on the last couple print runs and BAM shes a rare parallel!

[30ranfordfan]

Only hits will be an option to ship, yes. There are no base cards available.... not physical ones, anyway. You get a bunch of digital base card, and digital hits - which can be traded in for physical (same card, 1-for-1) hits.

If you expect free shipping, stay away. It won't be. You're paying COMC shipping prices (that's who will do the shipping to you, not Upper Deck) which are really good, but still not free.




COMC has no trade mechanism on their site. You can only buy & sell.

I would assume that the UD will be adding the ability to trade digital cards between users within the epacks site though... the Tim Horton's site in the fall had that.

Not every pack lol Do I have the option to get my base even shipped for a fee? Guess my kid can't collect his base sets once UD goes 100% virtual. Maybe they just buy discount lots and re insert them into their $3.99 packs? I will not be buying virtual cards for my phone app. I'm not saying its a bad idea but as of right now I don't see how this could be good for traditional collectors. I am scared this will kill my chances of going 5 mins to get a physical pack.

The base cards you get from the digital pack do not exist, other than in digital form. There is nothing to ship.

If you want the base cards, then this is a bad way of buying a product. Full disclose on this one. I like to build this particular base set every year. I already have mine completed. It's in a binder (like they all are) and I'm happy I have it. Me, and you, and your kid.... we're not like everyone though. There's a lot of people who bust those boxes, and then throw away the base cards. For them... this might make a lot of sense.

Only need to spend 10x your money to get that base set now. Add a double dose of silver on the last couple print runs and BAM shes a rare parallel!

No. If you want the base set, spend the same amount of money that you would have, and just go buy a physical box of cards. You can't get the base set from the digital packs.

[Nazem Kadri]

The base cards you get from the digital pack do not exist, other than in digital form. There is nothing to ship.

If you want the base cards, then this is a bad way of buying a product. Full disclose on this one. I like to build this particular base set every year. I already have mine completed. It's in a binder (like they all are) and I'm happy I have it. Me, and you, and your kid.... we're not like everyone though. There's a lot of people who bust those boxes, and then throw away the base cards. For them... this might make a lot of sense.




No. If you want the base set, spend the same amount of money that you would have, and just go buy a physical box of cards. You can't get the base set from the digital packs.

I'm saying in 5 years you think this wont effect the local markets? I understand case breaks make UD a lot of money so they prob will always have physical packs but even in low end poducts? They also save a lot of money doing it this way. Whats the point in buying a case from the LCS if you can log on 1 minute passed midnight and snag a case online and be one of the first to sell/trade the rarer cards you pull? As long as I will always have the option to buy hobby products even from Wal-Mart I would be happy. If this releases a few weeks after every physical hobby release then honestly I am all for it.

[UltimateHockeyFan]

I doubt trading will be added because you could make a ton of accounts and keep doing the free packs to accumulate the virtual base until you have 10 of a player on various accounts. Then you could trade them all to 1 account and redeem it for the foil version.

[RGM81]

I'm saying in 5 years you think this wont effect the local markets? I understand case breaks make UD a lot of money so they prob will always have physical packs but even in low end poducts? They also save a lot of money doing it this way. Whats the point in buying a case from the LCS if you can log on 1 minute passed midnight and snag a case online and be one of the first to sell/trade the rarer cards you pull? As long as I will always have the option to buy hobby products even from Wal-Mart I would be happy. If this releases a few weeks after every physical hobby release then honestly I am all for it.

Oh I think the effect will be much less than 5 years. Could be as little as 5 months.

Remember, they're only doing three releases this year in the e-Pack format: Series 1, Series 2, and one other TBD (if I had to bet $20 worth of e-Packs I would say OPC Platinum)--this is kind of a trial run for them. And let's face it, this is a great year for them to experiment with a new distribution model. I doubt they would have rolled out something like this during the 2014-15 season. Granted, the Canadian dollar was a lot stronger then.

There's always going to be physical hockey cards. Just like, a decade after Kobo's and iPods, people still buy actual books and CD's/vinyl. People like to have a physical, tangible thing. It's way cooler for me to show off my Carey Price cards to real people than it is to post a thread in show & tell that has a scan of said card. Not that I don't love showing off my PC to you guys here, but you lose something in that format. It would be mega-dull (to my ancient self, anyways) if all we had in the future was pulling out our latest iDevice, opening up the app and showing off the mere "digital card" that doesn't have a physical counterpart.