Why is E-Pack more expensive?

[Savard18]

I've noticed a trend that is glaring more so today on e-pack. Their box/pack prices almost always seem more expensive than you can find in LCS. I did a quick check of 3 online sources (1 of whom is one of my LCS), and the SPGU prices were $89.95, 90.95, and 99.95 (all USD) vs $124.95 on e-pack. You would think that UD would analyze the pricing and try to be somewhat market rate with their competitors, especially since you will still have to pay to ship the final cards to yourself.

I've been back in the hobby now for almost 4 years and I still don't know what an e-pack is..... What do you do? buy a digital box, open it (NHL 20 style) and then UD sends you the cards in the mail?

Sounds stupid to me but whatever...

[30ranfordfan]

It is funny... I am 95% against epack but 95% for COMC.... go figure.

I wish the trading system on epack was better. It would be nice to have a way to contact the person via email (double blind if needed) if they don’t check their epack accounts.

There are a few PC cards of Red Deer Rebels on epack that I can’t get because the accounts aren’t responding.... at least on COMC you can make an offer.

Incidentally, COMC is where all of the live cards are, eve if you haven’t yet transferred the card. I have had this verified by their customer service department.


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You can message users within ePack, of course they may not respond. That you can't email someone was done by design..... they don't want you contacting each other outside of the system, and making (cash) deals for cards. They want all the money for themselves.

I understand that point, but if they could incorporate a cash market as well, I think it would work nicely. It's too bad they likely never will, as I think UD is missing out on a good opportunity, a means to make some of the cards (and the product) more valuable.

I'm going to use a product I collected, and foiled up, as an example: Clerks. The base cards could be combined... 10 of them for foils... and 10 foils for a gold foil. The SPs in the base set (#s 73-90) only fell 4 per box - so they were tough to track down. Lots sit in "dead" accounts (i.e. people that opened a few boxes, and then don't log on).

However, there's many copies of those cards that have been transferred to COMC. While the base cards 1-72 could not be, the SPs were physical cards too. You could go to COMC right now, and buy dozens of copies of each cards for less than 50 cents each.... most for under 40 cents. If I buy your card for 35 cents, you're getting a dime.

If there were a marketplace within ePack, where I could load money into my account, and offer to buy any copy of those cards for 15 cents each.... users would actually get more $$$ for them than they would on COMC (where they don't actually sell, because once they've been transfered, you can't use them for foils - so there is literally NOBODY that would want these).

I did finish my set, but I would have happily loaded $100 into an ePack account, and had people selling these singles for real cash (that they'll never get on COMC) to me, at a decent price.

I've had a bit of luck searching for ePack user names on google, finding the person, and working out deals - but I stress the word "bit", as more often than not I have not had any luck.

And yeah, all the physical cards lives in COMC's warehouse. If you have your cards shipped directly to you from ePack, instead of transferring to COMC, it's still COMC that mails them to you.

[30ranfordfan]

I've been back in the hobby now for almost 4 years and I still don't know what an e-pack is..... What do you do? buy a digital box, open it (NHL 20 style) and then UD sends you the cards in the mail?

Sounds stupid to me but whatever...

That simplifies it, but yes.

For a set with large amounts of base (i.e. Upper Deck Series 1) the base cards don't exist, but you can exchange 10 copies of a base card for a foil version, that is only available via ePack. The "hits" (i.e. YGs, inserts, jersey) all exist as a physical cards. You can exchange multiple YGs for foils, often there are "achievement" cards that come as a bonus if you finish set.... complete the UD Game Jersey set, and they'll give you a bonus jersey card that's only available on ePack, for the first 20 people to finish a set. That kind of thing.

Other "hit" based products, like SPGU, all the cards are physical - but there's still achievements, and foils, to be made.

Not everyone's cup of tea, I get that, but I wouldn't call it stupid.... and based on the amount of product they move through there, I don't think UD thinks it's stupid either.

[Savard18]

That simplifies it, but yes.

For a set with large amounts of base (i.e. Upper Deck Series 1) the base cards don't exist, but you can exchange 10 copies of a base card for a foil version, that is only available via ePack. The "hits" (i.e. YGs, inserts, jersey) all exist as a physical cards. You can exchange multiple YGs for foils, often there are "achievement" cards that come as a bonus if you finish set.... complete the UD Game Jersey set, and they'll give you a bonus jersey card that's only available on ePack, for the first 20 people to finish a set. That kind of thing.

Other "hit" based products, like SPGU, all the cards are physical - but there's still achievements, and foils, to be made.

Not everyone's cup of tea, I get that, but I wouldn't call it stupid.... and based on the amount of product they move through there, I don't think UD thinks it's stupid either.

It sounds interesting, I may give it a try... Do you buy packs or boxes or how does that work? and how long does it take UD to send you your "hits"... I get it they don't give you physical base cards but they do give your physical "hits" correct?

[fatfrank]

It sounds interesting, I may give it a try... Do you buy packs or boxes or how does that work? and how long does it take UD to send you your "hits"... I get it they don't give you physical base cards but they do give your physical "hits" correct?

You can buy by the pack, box, or case. I am not sure on shipping time or charges. I just got into it a few months ago. Mainly doing it to get Game Dated Moments cards (available when you buy product, you can load that weeks cards into your cart). The hits availability depends on the product. For E-pack only products (Compendium, etc), a lot of the stuff is just virtual until you exchange a certain number of copies. For Upper Deck Series One, the hits are available in a physical copy. But if you exchange the required number of UD Portraits to get the green parallel, those cards disappear and you have the one parallel instead.