Leaf Signs Nico Hischier to Exclusive Autograph Deal

[canucksfan007]

@LeafGregg - Patrick Roy isnt vintage =S. Also, as said by your customers in this thread, they wont be happy to pull Nico or Nolan in your products.

1 - They do not collect the rookies and therefor do not need / want them in their products

2 - As said by another member, they have little to no re-sale value being in your products. No one really wants them, the wax consumers or the secondary market consumers

@Leafsman - Sorry, did not mean to assume

But, as you stated in your thread, "they were easier for me to acquire than Series I and II cards." So money or availability ( more available = less money ) did impact your decision on what to collect. Sure, you say overall value does not effect you or your collection at all, but you do state that it does ...... and of course it does for every member of this board.

This is ridiculous - "Pick a value and keep it there. None of this "he's hot, jack up the price; he's cold, I won't get my money back". Supply and demand. So what youre telling me is guys that came into the league with very little star power, Rinne / Crawford / Quick to name a few, should still have 20 or lower BV tags because of how they played in 2007, not 2017. Youre telling me Crosby should have the same value now, in 2017, with all hes accomplished ...... compared to when he was a young guy in 2005 with everything to prove.

I dont think you quite understand how markets on EVERYTHING bought and sold work

[LeafGregg]

Guess you missed my point. Why is it ok to have UD sign away Patrick Roy? According to you, that is our niche. Was there a reason UD needed him?

Be careful how you read into a post. They won't be unhappy pulling Nico or Nolan, they stated they open our products for vintage. That doesn't mean we should be allowed to offer prospects.

[LeafGregg]

Why not? Why not try and expand our brands? products like Ultimate, Invictus and Heroes and Prospects are great avenues for prospect signatures. Why did UD sign Patrick Roy Exclusive? They sell out anyway.

[canucksfan007]

Guess you missed my point. Why is it ok to have UD sign away Patrick Roy? According to you, that is our niche. Was there a reason UD needed him?

Be careful how you read into a post. They won't be unhappy pulling Nico or Nolan, they stated they open our products for vintage. That doesn't mean we should be allowed to offer prospects.

Your niche is vintage, your collector base is vintage. They do not consider Patrick Roy vintage .... hes retired sure, but if you or Leaf consider Roy vintage, then there is a problem there. Im sure the Leaf vintage collectors here will be able to chime in on what "vintage" really means.

In all honesty, you and UD are both like little kids ..... both in an arms race to try and make the other look bad / hurt their business. Do you guys need Eichel / Patrick / Heischer .... of course not .... does UD need Gretz / Crosby / Roy .... of course not. If UD was here, I would be giving their rep the same kind of razz because their company is far from perfect as well.

What both companies need to realize is that the way they act right now only hurts the consumer. I think we can all see that secondary market prices are down, which basically means the hobby how it is now is unhealthy.

I would argue that they would be unhappy pulling Nico or Nolan ..... if people bust your product for vintage, they do not want to pull those 2 rookies. Most people sell what they do not want, and if those 2 guys sell worse than that extra vintage piece they could have potentially gotten ..... then I would assume the consumer who bought your pack is unhappy with that pull .... maybe I am wrong though, but when I bust wax, and pulled items not for my collection ... I immediately think about getting the most $$$ or trade back in return for a card someone must want ..... unfortunately, on the Nico / Nolan front, there is very little demand for what you are offering.

As stated on another post here, a Philly fan hopes his team wont take the clear cut #2 guy in the draft now because of this exclusive announcement. Is he thinking ... wow, stupid UD, signs Patrick Roy to an exclusive .... no, he thinks only negatively about your company. You guys have now turned a positive hobby thing for him, in having the #2 overall pick .... into something sour, most likely losing a potential customer forever.

You've done this with Eichel, Patrick and now Heischer. Is it fair that UD gets no backlash for their Exclusives .... of course it isn't .... but people like what they like, theres no reason in trying to explain it. People also like what's familiar to them. If they are used to pulling auto rookies from UD, and you take that away from them .... they only see 1 person to blame.

[pwaldo]

How does this work? Leaf has more money than UD?

I remember a while back a local small Seattle area sports memorabilia shop signed Ichiro in baseball to an autograph exclusive deal. It kept his autographs away from Topps, Upper Deck, Fleer, etc for about 10 years. They just threw more money at him than the card companies did. If a company is offering you $1 million and other is offering $5 million why sign autographs for the $1 million offer company?

[theboxbreaker96]

Why not? Why not try and expand our brands? products like Ultimate, Invictus and Heroes and Prospects are great avenues for prospect signatures. Why did UD sign Patrick Roy Exclusive? They sell out anyway.

Because you don't have a license and as I stated earlier the demand isn't there for them. I'm sure you know but if you put up a poll on if people seriously want to collect Leaf Rookies over UD Rookies or just Leaf Rookies in general the response would be overwhelmingly No.

I'm starting to get a negative attitude though towards Leaf because I cant collect Auto Rookies from my favorite sets now. You're hurting the customer. I don't recall seeing anyone asking for Eichel Rookies from leaf on here and there are a good bit of buffalo collectors on here. All you have to do is take a look at ebay and see the prices for Patrick and Eichel. You guys have them really short printed and they still aren't selling that well. Look at McDavid Autos from ITG and look at UD autos not even close. Once a player makes it to the NHL we want true rookies and not some random stuff from Leaf.

As far as UD goes I cant answer that. I absolutely don't like it either but they have a license so I don't care as much.

[Craig2]

I have no problem with what Leaf is doing. My Ultimate Collection chase won't be the same next year with unsigned rookies of the likely top two picks, but the world will go on.

I have far worse pet peeves than this war of exclusives - non-game-used patches on Cup rookies, the huge glut of autographs for even the biggest stars, manufactured patch cards, all worse than this issue.

[CasualCollector28]

Are we really getting trolled by an employee of Leaf? ���� my issue is with the "exclusive"... As far as the vintage debate goes, vintage is pre 1970 as defined by the vast majority of secondary marketplaces...

[30ranfordfan]

I'm going to say it: Good for Leaf!

The UD Exclusive with the NHL & PA bothers me far more than any player exclusives Leaf or UD has signed. Hopefully things like this continue, and we get another licensed company before too much longer.

Since 2006: IMO the best years, BY FAR, from UD was when they had to compete with Panini.

The last few years, UD has gotten lazier and lazier IMO. Just keep creating more and more hits based around Rookie, their Autos, and a piece of one of the 8 dozen (or so) jerseys they wore on Photoshoot day.

No autographs from the top two picks? It might force them to actually try and create a year's worth of products were rookies aren't the main focus.

I don't think that Leaf has had a massive success with their exclusives so far: The products have sold, but the demand isn't there for Eichel or Patrick (yet). They have not had "the guy" locked up. This season, there's a chance that happens, though "the guy" isn't (and was never) going to be as big of a deal as he was the last couple seasons.


I seem to remember reading that Leaf has already signed some of the 18-19 guys too. This could be a thing for a while.

[huskies3]

If no one wants the Leaf autos, why is Upper Deck the one that refuses to call a truce on signing players to exclusives? The people who are mad at Leaf boggle my mind.