Upper Deck's 3rd ePack Release

[RGM81]

It's going to be Ultimate Collection.

Per Beckett: "On top of that, an e-Pack version of this product is expected to go live soon after it goes live in stores."
http://www.beckett.com/news/2016/03/...mes-brightest/

Discuss.

[mingus_md]

Wow. I am really surprised by this. I would have thought the epacks would have been for a much lower end product, like OPC Platinum as someone previously suggested. I think knowing that some of the hits in Ultimate will be held back for an epack release will displease box breakers and LCSs, especially if the epacks are available shortly after the release of the regular cards.

[Sharky94]

I thought the whole concept behind e-packs was to enable customers to get rid of base cards, so they didn't have a bunch of "worthless" commons taking up space in their houses. I don't get what the benefit is of going to an all-hit release of e-packs. Is anyone NOT going to want any of these cards delivered? I guess I will need someone smarter than me explain what the benefit is of Ultimate e-packs, other than simply saving the shipping fee of sending these to COMC (which really isn't much of a "benefit").

However, if they are going to be giving a daily "free" e-pack for visiting the site, then I am ALL for it. But I really don't see that coming down the road.

[creasecollector]

I don't like the high-end ePack release either. I mean, for a lower end product go right ahead, but UC? With all the potential shields getting held back + the fees associated with buying/shipping your epack results? That will not sit right with a lot of collectors I don't think.

Also, the lead time should be extended, and I mean really extended after the initial UC product launch. The dealers and card shops will lose a ton of potential customers if those customers go straight to ePack. With an extended ePack release, it will at lease give hobby shops more of a "window" to capitalize on the hype of a new product with in-store breaks and purchases. Sometimes I wish I knew what UD was thinking sometimes. I like UD, and don't want to hate on everything here, but I just don't think an ePack Ultimate Collection release is a good idea. Not feeling it.

[RGM81]

Wow. I am really surprised by this. I would have thought the epacks would have been for a much lower end product, like OPC Platinum as someone previously suggested. I think knowing that some of the hits in Ultimate will be held back for an epack release will displease box breakers and LCSs, especially if the epacks are available shortly after the release of the regular cards.

The main one that immediately comes to mind is, of course, the McDavid Autographed Shield 1/1

UD and COMC will know every card that is available only via ePack and I think that people will be looking for answers as to what's really available if you're at the LCS.

[geschrocks33]

Posted this on another site, but I think it's good to share here as well.

I was at Dave & Adams last night for "Upper Deck Night" where they had a couple UD reps there and when the insanity died down, I decided to question him about Ultimate being released via ePack. He said that it will be happening, and that the ePack site will display the exact card you are going to receive. So you hit Dylan Larkin 71/99, you are going to receive Dylan Larkin 71/99. If you hit an all white patch, you will receive that exact all white patch. All cards will be scanned into the ePack database, and will display the exact physical card you will receive.

I questioned him on how they are going to handle the distribution (i.e - how are they going to break up things like shields, etc.) and he said that what they are trying to get collectors to realize, is this isn't a separate release, it's all a part of the hobby product. Even though you can open it through physical boxes and online, it is all one product together. So he said that for example, there are 100 shields in the product, and they decide their ratio is 75% Physical boxes, 25% ePack (those are numbers I made up, he would not disclose the ratios) then 75 shields will be randomly inserted into boxes, and 25 shields randomly assigned to ePack. There will be no way or announcement that say Connor McDavid is in the physical boxes, or on ePack, it will be completely random and unannounced. So good luck Ultimate breakers, this should be really entertaining to see how this plays out.

Off topic from Ultimate, but still in the way of ePack, I asked if they had any intentions for releasing a product completely ePack exclusive and the answer to that is yes, we can look forward to seeing that, but he wouldn't say what. He also said that those MVP inserts that we saw hit COMC (the green ones I think they were?) weren't supposed to hit, and they were using that as a part of their test for this. So MVP might have an ePack addition coming as well, and in 16-17 he said that MVP will be available on ePack, as well as UD1/UD2 again.

He also said that next year they are looking into to something that will be ePack exclusive to a product (Foil parallels, Instant Impressions, etc.) for UD1 & UD2, but also will be making an effort to make stuff that is only available in physical boxes. He said that they the idea of making a bunch of stuff ePack exclusive, but nothing exclusive to the physical boxes might have irritated a few people.

Overall it was a good convo I had with the guy, and I'm happy he could share all the information that he did. Hopefully this helps clarify some of the Ultimate questions a little.

[RGM81]

Very helpful Derrick - thanks for sharing that.

I still think that this is going to rankle a lot of people doing it this way.

I've made this point a few times:

what they are trying to get collectors to realize, is this isn't a separate release, it's all a part of the hobby product. Even though you can open it through physical boxes and online, it is all one product together. So he said that for example, there are 100 shields in the product, and they decide their ratio is 75% Physical boxes, 25% ePack (those are numbers I made up, he would not disclose the ratios) then 75 shields will be randomly inserted into boxes, and 25 shields randomly assigned to ePack.

But a lot of people don't seem to really be able (or willing) to wrap their heads around it.

With so many low-numbered cards in Ultimate, this is a totally different animal than S1/2. If you thought people got cheesed off seeing High Gloss YG's in e-Pack, imagine how they're going to feel if/when a McDavid or Eichel Shield shows up from someone's e-Pack break.

[mingus_md]

With so many low-numbered cards in Ultimate, this is a totally different animal than S1/2. If you thought people got cheesed off seeing High Gloss YG's in e-Pack, imagine how they're going to feel if/when a McDavid or Eichel Shield shows up from someone's e-Pack break.

Even though they say it is random, it would be against their best interest for the McDavid and Eichel Shields to "randomly" end up in the ePacks.

[Sharky94]

Even though they say it is random, it would be against their best interest for the McDavid and Eichel Shields to "randomly" end up in the ePacks.

Unless their entire strategy is to get people to buy more e-packs and give up on boxes from retailers... They can make more profit selling directly to the customer and not having to go through dealers/retailers. So why wouldn't they want more people to adopt e-packs over wax?

[RGM81]

Even though they say it is random, it would be against their best interest for the McDavid and Eichel Shields to "randomly" end up in the ePacks.

Decidedly so. At least with the High Gloss cards, even if there were only 8-9 in the physical allocation, you still had a chance at pulling one. With these 1/1's, and any others that will be in the product, you either do or you do not.

And there's a lot more 1/1's in Ultimate than just the rookie auto shields, though obviously with Connormania that's a major focal point this year.