Why I'm disgusted with The Cup

[Savard18]

I watched a break last night where blue jackets goalie merzlickins had a 1 of 1 and the 4 plate booklet in the same tin. So really, 5 one of ones of the same guy in a tin.

That's actually more common than you think.. It's almost like some boxes/tins/packs have a player theme.. I mean I've broke packs where I got the same player in a pack be it an insert, parallel or serial numbered card etc..I don't know if it's coincidence or if UD is doing it on purpose? either way I don't mind - it's not like I'm getting doubles, tho that would be cool for some cards, lol.... Ha, a while back I broke a 90-91 Topps box and every pack had a Jeremy Roenick rookie in it - right in the center of the pack - it wasn't only Roenick it was a bunch of players, the packs were all very similar and they were packaged rather bizarre with the backs of the cards on the outside and the fronts of the card facing in and in the middle of the pack the fronts of two cards met - which is where the Roenick was.... I didn't care, I'm a Hawks fan and I got the box in a large lot of junk wax and these were loose packs,but there were 36 of them er a box.

[KingKuba]

If you can get a Tax ID/# you can buy directly from Upper Deck but it's a little complicated, pretty intrusive and there are contracts involved and just a bunch of other nonsense... Essentially UD wants a commitment in writing that you will buy X amount of product per month or quarterly and there is a bunch of other crap that reads like a "terms of service agreement"... Of course they check your credit score and they want business financials just to buy cards, it's pretty ridiculous..

IDK, In my opinion Dave & Adam's Card World always has the best prices, and the best sales on unopened material, obviously you're all familiar with D & A's, and I have had nothing but good experiences with their product and prices... I mean maybe a year ago (it was a while back but not too long ago) they had a sale on 16-17 UD S1 Blasters - it was incredible - 7 Blaster boxes for $75 with free shipping as usual... I bought 28 boxes and pulled 3 Matthews YG's, not to mention all of the other YG's and inserts I pulled.... Look, I just did the math and I was like, I'm going to pull at least 1 Matthews YG out of 28 blasters, not to mention all of the other YG's I'm going to pull, so it was well worth it ... I mean for $10.50 a box that's a seal and I should have bought more, lol...

So yea I buy from them a lot because they just have the best prices or are very competitive... I do bid on box lots on eBay so you can get unopened material on the cheap that way because sometimes these lots just "fall though the cracks" - don't know how, why and I don't care if I get a lot of recent unopened product at a really good price at auction... But if you keep your eye open on eBay you can always find a deal on unopened product...I mean a while back I won a hobby box of 15-16 UD S2 for $40.00, and that's a steal obviously.. I mean a hobby box of anything regular UD for less than $100.00 that was released over the last 5 or so years is a steal.... Of course I pulled the Eichel Rookie - Yea the UD Portrait, lol... Well I did pull the McDavid OPC Rainbow Update too I believe (one of the OPC updates, it may have been the retro) ... But for $40 bucks, you just cant pass that up - not when there is a McDavid Canvas a McDavid POE and 10 other McDavid's along with an Eichel YG, well worth it for $40 even tho I didn't get the best box.

D & A's is the best on the internet IMO, of course the LCS is a total ripoff, I'm sure it's the same way everywhere.. I mean the best place to buy retail around me is Walmart and Target but they have almost no hockey at all, they have plenty of football, baseball and basketball but there hockey selection is down right pathetic. Upper Deck blasters, tins and fat packs and if you're lucky they may have MVP or Parkhurst too, and the price isn't too bad really except for the tins, blasters are only like $14.99 or $15.99, Fat Packs are like $5 bucks, but the cool thing is on occasion they will get some old UD product, 18-19 or 19-20 and its usually on clearance which is usually like $10.99.. They carried 16-17 UD for the longest time, they still were stocking that until like 2018, so I bought a bunch of it over the years, lol... I don't know how much 16-17 I broke but it had to be at least 100+ blasters and 100+ fat packs and a few hobby and retail boxes and several tins. I think I have like 7 tins sitting in the other room and I know I sent cards out in a few others... I mean I pulled over a dozen Matthews YG's so I did break a ton of 16-17, but hey it was the only product I really had immediate access to so I suppose beggars cant be choosers, lol.

Anyway I hear Toys R Us sells sports cards too, unfortunately the Toys R Us is like a half hour drive from me, I've never been there to checkout their selection but I would presume and I would expect that it's pretty much the same as Walmart or Target, almost no hockey and plenty of baseball, basketball and football.. If my presumption is wrong (and I hope it is) please point that out... I suppose I could call them and be one of those annoying customers that asks too many damn questions....

Then of course you have the asshats that go into Walmart, Target and Toys R Us and pretty much any place that sells cards at retail and they just buy everything, jack the prices up and hawk them on eBay, which sucks because these stores don't have cards in the back, these stores use vendors, so when they're out of cards they will be out until the next time the vendor comes.... And I've seen it happen and I confronted this guy, he was grabbing everything and tossing it into his cart and I told him off and picked though his cart, I wasn't going to let him take the hockey, not only that but I bought some baseball cards too just out of spite, I suppose I got a little bit immature as well because I was taking the boxes out of his cart and putting them back on the shelf .... I mean the dude pissed me off ... I was like "hey do you think you can leave some cards for the kids" of course his smart ™™™ said "uh yea, the pokymon cards are right there haha"... Obviously there was nothing I could do to stop him besides tell him off and take boxes out of his cart that I planned to purchase, look if you see "card hogs" like that and you're not afraid of confrontations then you should confront these clowns because they know what they're doing is selfish and wrong and it's nice to see them humiliated for being ™™™ hats...

DA had good prices years ago now they are horrible.
Especially anything in demand or older.

If its new I can anything cheaper at the LCS.

[Savard18]

DA had good prices years ago now they are horrible.
Especially anything in demand or older.

If its new I can anything cheaper at the LCS.

Dude, I got some major steals from D&A's... Only a couple years back they had 16-17 blasters for like $10 bucks a box, it took me 2 seconds to do the math in my head to realize at that price the probability of me pulling a Matthews YG out of 30 boxes was extremely high, and at the time Matthews YG's were regularly selling for $250, so yea the math was on my side lol. Of course I didn't even get though the 5th or 6th box before I hit my first Matthews YG, obviously from that point forward it was all profit.... I really wish I bought more to be honest, because blasters now are going for like $70/ea... Yea, I really should have bought several cases in hindsight, lol.

My last Dave & Adams purchase was 18/19 Upper Deck SP and I bought that last September, so it's been a while - but I paid like $349 per case for 18/19 SP and each case had 2 inner cases which had 20 blasters each - so each case was 40 boxes and I bought 3 cases er 120 blaster boxes. See, I learned from my mistakes - actually no I didn't because no one wants UD SP, most only want SPA despite the notion that they're essentially the same product...

So yea, I have spent a lot of money with D&A's, and look - I'm from The States and we don't have a very good hockey card selection here anywhere and usually the best selection is found at the LCS, but the LCS takes advantage of that and jacks the prices way up because there is little to no competition around. I mean there are only a handful of card shops within a 20 mile radius of my house, and I live in the Chicagoland area, so it's not like I'm out in the "boonies".. Oh and to make matters worse ever since Covid the LCS' have been clearing out the local Walmart's and Targets and reselling the product at obviously jacked up prices.. And even if the local Walmart or Target did have hockey cards - they generally only carry Upper Deck and if you're lucky you may find some MVP or Parkhurst - that's all, that's it as far as selection, tho I've been meaning to try Toys 'R' Us..

So yea, I suppose you Canadian hockey card collectors just don't realize or appreciate how good you got it when it comes to hockey cards and selection up there in the "great white north", lol.... I saw camera footage of the card section at one of your Canadian Walmarts and all I was thinking was "buy everything" haha.

[odjickfan]

Dude, I got some major steals from D&A's... Only a couple years back they had 16-17 blasters for like $10 bucks a box, it took me 2 seconds to do the math in my head to realize at that price the probability of me pulling a Matthews YG out of 30 boxes was extremely high, and at the time Matthews YG's were regularly selling for $250, so yea the math was on my side lol. Of course I didn't even get though the 5th or 6th box before I hit my first Matthews YG, obviously from that point forward it was all profit.... I really wish I bought more to be honest, because blasters now are going for like $70/ea... Yea, I really should have bought several cases in hindsight, lol.

My last Dave & Adams purchase was 18/19 Upper Deck SP and I bought that last September, so it's been a while - but I paid like $349 per case for 18/19 SP and each case had 2 inner cases which had 20 blasters each - so each case was 40 boxes and I bought 3 cases er 120 blaster boxes. See, I learned from my mistakes - actually no I didn't because no one wants UD SP, most only want SPA despite the notion that they're essentially the same product...

So yea, I have spent a lot of money with D&A's, and look - I'm from The States and we don't have a very good hockey card selection here anywhere and usually the best selection is found at the LCS, but the LCS takes advantage of that and jacks the prices way up because there is little to no competition around. I mean there are only a handful of card shops within a 20 mile radius of my house, and I live in the Chicagoland area, so it's not like I'm out in the "boonies".. Oh and to make matters worse ever since Covid the LCS' have been clearing out the local Walmart's and Targets and reselling the product at obviously jacked up prices.. And even if the local Walmart or Target did have hockey cards - they generally only carry Upper Deck and if you're lucky you may find some MVP or Parkhurst - that's all, that's it as far as selection, tho I've been meaning to try Toys 'R' Us..

So yea, I suppose you Canadian hockey card collectors just don't realize or appreciate how good you got it when it comes to hockey cards and selection up there in the "great white north", lol.... I saw camera footage of the card section at one of your Canadian Walmarts and all I was thinking was "buy everything" haha.

Less than 10USD or around 10-12CAD per SP blaster box, that was a killer deal! I really like that product. Too bad the customs fees are so high when importing from US stores like D&A. I bought a blaster of each edition of SP at Walmart at full SRP (42CAD). Both boxes were loaded of Habs cards (Kotkaniemi /1199 and blue, Poehling /1199, Price jersey) + some other hits like Profiles /699 and a Adam Fox jersey. I'll break one or two next spring for sure, it's among my favorite products of the season.