1. For decades people have collected Upper Deck products. Upper Deck IS hockey cards. During this time Upper Deck has provided collectors with autographs of the current years top rookies and everyone assumes that year after year they can expect this. This year is the first year ever in the history of hockey cards that multiple big rookies will not be in a Upper Deck product. This is a big big problem to a ton of people.
2. You may want to reconsider the "With all due respect...." and then insult others. You won't be here long.
Just want to say one final thing about this whole day of threads and then we can hopefully move on... I re-read through what I wrote, and I can look back and I understand why you guys thought I was being insulting. I can tell you, I honestly and truly did not mean to be that. When I started posting this morning, it began as trying to understand the collecting habits of those who differ from mine, and understand the outrage. I was different, I didn't care as much who made the cards Jack Eichel was on, so long as I was collecting the player. You guys obviously do care, and very deeply, and for all valid reasons.
At some point my choice of words got away from me, and although I still feel the way I do about the Exclusive situation itself, I shouldn't have said stuff like doubting why lucscaps would want to collect John Quenneville. It doesn't matter why you do, you want to have a YG, and you can't. And that sucks. And these exclusives suck.
The being said, I don't think the responses I received were on the same level. I was called garbage, a douche, and basically had my intelligence insulted by being told my position didn't make sense. It absolutely does, and I'm not the only one here who feels the way I do too. And I don't think my language was nearly as vitriolic as what I had to endure. There's room enough in the hobby for all points of view, but there shouldn't be any room in it for invective like that, especially toward a fellow collector.
I don't need an apology from anyone either, and I'm not asking for one. I'm a big boy, and I can take anything that can be dished out. With that being said, if "being here long" means I have to put up with that kind of stuff when I disagree with you, then you guys should have to reflect on that too, the same way I took some time tonight to reflect on what I said.
I can absolutely let bygones be bygones, and what we should actually be spending our energy doing is finding out how to move on in this current climate of exclusives and get what we do deserve as loyal collectors, and how we can somehow hold the card companies accountable for how they are clearly tearing the hobby apart. How can we let the NHL and NHLPA know in no uncertain terms how they're ruining the landscape with this single licensee/exclusive war situation?
I for one, still totally agree with Frank about parallels and inserts. I come from baseball originally, and there it's all about that, and far less about relics anymore, though prospect autos still rule all. It would be nice to see OPC Platinum become more of a flagship set, or at least the possibility of getting S1 and S2 in chrome format... imagine a YG Gold Refractor /10 (HG) or a YG Black /100 (Exclusives) in chrome? I think they'd knock that right out of the park!
Looking forward to many more conversations about this and other topics as we move forward into the dog days of the summer. I promise to do better and consider the ramifications of my words more if hopefully you guys can too.
Onward and upward!
