Debating on collecting new products or vintage.

[30ranfordfan]

On topic but not...please excuse my question if its dumb, but new product...why is it literally the same price everywhere? Do the card companies dictate prices an margins?

It's UD's best effort at price fixing. Giving people wiggle room (especially with new products) is bad for their business, especially since they sell a lot of their own product directly to consumers via ePack. If you can buy a box of UD Series 1 for $20 less than UD sells it on ePack..... unless you really love the ePack platform (or the exclusive parallels) why would you buy it directly from UD?

The Expo in Toronto, and UD's Redemption program, used to be a wonderful thing. I could go to my LCS on Friday.... buy a couple of boxes from them.... take those boxes to Toronto the next day, and get my redemptions while also supporting the local guys.

The other thing that would happen, you'd see a bit of a price war on the Expo floor. Boxes would be $70. Then a few people would sell them for $65. Maybe you'd get someone on Sunday who marks them down to $60, because they don't want to take them home.

Now? You can only get those redemptions if you also have the ticket that comes with them, when you buy from a certified dealer on the expo floor..... and they are not allowed to change their prices. If the price was set at $80 per box, then they have to charge $80 a box.

[30ranfordfan]

I can offer a little perspective on the idea of getting rid of the modern stuff (as you suggested you might do). When I did it a few years ago, it made me happy. I'm still happy I did it. I had complete UD Series 1/2 sets from 1990-91 through 2015-16. The first three seasons had all the insert & promos too. Only other inserts I ever kept were the "Hockey Heroes" ones... and my run on those were complete as well. I also had a complete 2010-11 UD 20th Anniversary (the reto parallels) set that I moved at the same time.

I had a few reasons for wanting to get rid of all of that, I did it, and I'm glad I did. I got what I thought was a fair price at the time.... of course I would have made more if I had been willing to spend three years breaking up the sets and selling all the SP'd cards as singles, but I just wanted to get rid of it all at once. Had I not done this, I suspect I could get a much higher price today.... Young Guns have gone up in value a lot, though I'm still waiting for that bubble to pop.

I had also started doing some 80s OPC sets (I have complete sets of 79, 83, 87, 88, 89). My goal (at one point) was to have complete UD Sets from 1990-91, to current.... and then keep picking away at older OPC sets too. Once I finished the 80s, I would have moved back to the 70s, etc. I never did move out those complete sets, maybe I should try. lol

If you're really not digging those sets anymore, and you get rid of them, I can almost assure you that you won't miss them. 30 years of UD1/2 sets is worth a fair bit today. That's a nice chunk of cash that can fund your Vintage collection, or something else not card related.

I would ask you one question though... and this applies, IMO, because it reads like you're going to keep all the modern OPC stuff, and will continue to build that - along with the Vintage.

Will you have any sets (or anything?) for years when there was no OPC ? Easy example: 2005-06. I forget all of the years that would be like that.... but I'm sure there are multiple seasons (especially after Topps was done with hockey, but before UD bought the OPC name) where there is no OPC set.

[Zuback]

30randfordfan - thank you for this. It is nice to see someone that went through, almost exactly what I am going through. There is a great value in the cards that I have from upper deck. I am from 1990-91 to present. I have the sets and I have the Hockey Heroes as well. I sold off the other inserts in the last few months. I took a hit, if you look at book value, but it wanted to get rid of them. They did not fit my collection needs. I too struggle with breaking them up or selling them all. Selling a complete set at once makes more sense to me, as then I don't have to have odd items from all years to keep track of. The reason to still do the current OPC, is that it is in me. My DNA is OPC and will always will be. This is what I grew up with.

This gives me a great look at things, as I have someone who had done this.

Thank you.

[creasecollector]

Thought I'd share: My first (on purpose) Vintage goalie card for my PC....

1953-54 Parkhurst #46 Terry Sawchuk



I love this card and the history it brings to my card collection.