malsk
New Member, Must Send First
100%! Been saying this for years too! In other sports it makes it really quick and easy to figure out.
News about 2023-24 UD Series 1!
- Thread starter PJ@UD
- Start date
100%! Been saying this for years too! In other sports it makes it really quick and easy to figure out.
malsk
New Member, Must Send First
This is soooo true. Something needs to be done with distributors like Fanatics is doing to the other sports.
I do disagree on the UD is not to blame though. They set prices and have policies in place for every one of their products and who can sell them. They go so far as to make new stores prove everything including pictures of their store front, how many years the owner has collected, etc etc. There is no reason they can't do something with distributors. What that is I don't know but if they cared they would do something.
winniescards
Verified Trader,
So Frank are you saying that Bedard will be in series one?
frankiefives
Verified Trader,
No but he'll be in Series 2 and he'll have a 1/1 YG parallel.
frankiefives
Verified Trader,
Upper Deck does not set prices.
winniescards
Verified Trader,
Thank you for clarifying that for me.
katoy2j
Verified Trader
Upper Deck shares in the blame. They could easily enforce a maximum sales price allowable for distributors and if those are exceeded then they could threaten to pull allocation of future product. This would restrict distributors from holding back on product then suddenly having a second wave available at grossly inflated prices to hobby shops a few days after release.
They don't care because as the price goes higher it actually benefits them when they put products listed as "hobby only" on e-pack. Thus driving more people to their platform.
They don't care because as the price goes higher it actually benefits them when they put products listed as "hobby only" on e-pack. Thus driving more people to their platform.
malsk
New Member, Must Send First
If you are a certified online dealer your price can not go below SRP for 2-3 months (I was told but can't remember exact time)...this is setting a price. Obviously they can not see what all LCS are doing but if they fire sold it I can guarantee UD would call that LCS.
habscards
Registered Trader,
I am guess this it is a bit of a cost cutting thing done by UD without having to lose value in the product.
48 less cards per box to produce and 8 less packages to use. Packaging is actually a pretty big cost. The cost of boxes goes up by $5-10 a year due to multiple reasons; inflation, card stock prices, acetate cards used more frequently, etc. Maybe this is a way for UD to offset some costs a bit. The actual boxes will be slightly smaller too and will use a little less material.
48 less cards per box to produce and 8 less packages to use. Packaging is actually a pretty big cost. The cost of boxes goes up by $5-10 a year due to multiple reasons; inflation, card stock prices, acetate cards used more frequently, etc. Maybe this is a way for UD to offset some costs a bit. The actual boxes will be slightly smaller too and will use a little less material.
Maple Leaf Sports
LCS Sponsor,
First I’ve ever heard of this…
frankiefives
Verified Trader,
Upper Deck doesn't raise the price of their e-pack products from what I've seen. Could they possibly regulate the distributors? Sure but how many manufacturers actually do this?
Q
quincy
Guest
Common in the electronics space: the price of an iPhone, Xbox, PlayStation - these are common knowledge as the manufacturer sets them and distributes based on discounts from that price. Ditto comics.
I could see the same model working in cards under some conditions. It would be an outright catastrophe for some products.
malsk
New Member, Must Send First
From the Diamond dealer agreement:
“Shop will not take any action which diminishes the value or reputation of Upper Deck or the Upper Deck Products.”
Sell below SRP in the first 90 days and see if this clause kicks in.
hawkeenut
Verified Trader,
What about Upper Deck just selling directly to Diamond Dealer stores?
katoy2j
Verified Trader
As said previously. Lots of manufacturers do this. Some such as Apple even go further into the retail level and will demand where the phones and accessories are displayed in the store. If the store refuses to do what they say, then they are no longer able to sell Apple products.
In terms of who calls the shots it's Upper Deck. They supply the product. Once the product is approved by the NHLPA and NHL they produce the item. If they wanted to control the maximum price a product can be sold by distributors they could easily. At the store level is very different because there are thousands of stores but the number of distributors they deal with is a very small number.
They don't raise the price of e-pack. The thing is they don't stop products to get out of control in the original market so that when they have the product available on e-pack at half the price, people will go there to get it. It ends up hurting the hobby shops because if they have the product on the shelf for 150.00 because they had to pay an increased price from the distributor but it's available on e-pack for 89.99 those customers just flood to e-pack.
I blame Upper Deck more than distributors actually because they have the ability to control what prices hobby shops pay for their items. Heck they don't even really need distributors at this point it wouldn't be hard to ship direct to shops. Otherwise it would be easy to just say, you can not sell the product to hobby shops for more than x percent that you are paying for it. Instead they do nothing. At the end of the day it just hurts their brand though but from a business perspective it just turns off customers. Upper Deck as a company has been shady from the get go though.
Also if any of this giant price increases went on in big box retail Upper Deck would step in right away. The second a distributor would say your product costs 50% more to Wal-Mart then Wal-Mart would be on the phone with Upper Deck and the price would be back to normal. They have the ability to control the pricing till the item reaches the shop level. Especially in a monopoly environment where there aren't any competitors in licensed cards.
In terms of who calls the shots it's Upper Deck. They supply the product. Once the product is approved by the NHLPA and NHL they produce the item. If they wanted to control the maximum price a product can be sold by distributors they could easily. At the store level is very different because there are thousands of stores but the number of distributors they deal with is a very small number.
They don't raise the price of e-pack. The thing is they don't stop products to get out of control in the original market so that when they have the product available on e-pack at half the price, people will go there to get it. It ends up hurting the hobby shops because if they have the product on the shelf for 150.00 because they had to pay an increased price from the distributor but it's available on e-pack for 89.99 those customers just flood to e-pack.
I blame Upper Deck more than distributors actually because they have the ability to control what prices hobby shops pay for their items. Heck they don't even really need distributors at this point it wouldn't be hard to ship direct to shops. Otherwise it would be easy to just say, you can not sell the product to hobby shops for more than x percent that you are paying for it. Instead they do nothing. At the end of the day it just hurts their brand though but from a business perspective it just turns off customers. Upper Deck as a company has been shady from the get go though.
Also if any of this giant price increases went on in big box retail Upper Deck would step in right away. The second a distributor would say your product costs 50% more to Wal-Mart then Wal-Mart would be on the phone with Upper Deck and the price would be back to normal. They have the ability to control the pricing till the item reaches the shop level. Especially in a monopoly environment where there aren't any competitors in licensed cards.
odjickfan
Verified Trader,
My guess is 200+CAD per box for UD1. Look at OPC Platinum with the new 12 packs/5 parallels per box box format.
The Outburst silver parallel on the preview is pretty.
katoy2j
Verified Trader
I think the price of series 1 will be the same as this years. If they are doing holdovers the rookie crop will be awful. Series 2 on the other hand could get to crazy levels of bonkers depending how well Bedard does.
While I don't think he will be at the bust level (at least for the hype) of Lafraniere, I don't see Bedard as an immediate dominant force. While talented he is very small and I question if he can even play centre at the NHL level. He may be better suited for wing. At which point he has the ceiling of Patrick Kane which is much different than the ceiling of McDavid. I don't think he will take the league by storm the way that Crosby, Ovechkin and McDavid did. I think if he stays healthy and plays a full season he's a 25 goal, 35 assist player in his rookie year. Great numbers for a rookie but not the spectacular numbers the generational guys put up. Just my opinion though.
While I don't think he will be at the bust level (at least for the hype) of Lafraniere, I don't see Bedard as an immediate dominant force. While talented he is very small and I question if he can even play centre at the NHL level. He may be better suited for wing. At which point he has the ceiling of Patrick Kane which is much different than the ceiling of McDavid. I don't think he will take the league by storm the way that Crosby, Ovechkin and McDavid did. I think if he stays healthy and plays a full season he's a 25 goal, 35 assist player in his rookie year. Great numbers for a rookie but not the spectacular numbers the generational guys put up. Just my opinion though.
malsk
New Member, Must Send First
This is from Sports Collectors Daily:
“2023-24 Series 1 boxes will go from 24 packs to just 12, but there will be 12 cards per pack instead of eight. Boxes that used to hold 192 cards will now have just 144. The price of a pack is jumping from $4.99 to $8.99. That’s an increase of nearly 13 cents per card.”
Not sure how they got the info but if my math is right box prices might go down?
Current configuration 24 x $5 = $120
New box configuration 12 x $9 = $108
“2023-24 Series 1 boxes will go from 24 packs to just 12, but there will be 12 cards per pack instead of eight. Boxes that used to hold 192 cards will now have just 144. The price of a pack is jumping from $4.99 to $8.99. That’s an increase of nearly 13 cents per card.”
Not sure how they got the info but if my math is right box prices might go down?
Current configuration 24 x $5 = $120
New box configuration 12 x $9 = $108
Ultimater
Verified Trader,
Box price should go down but 120/192 = 62,5 cents per card in 22-23 vs 108/144 = 75 cents a card.
IMO I’d rather pay a little more for more inserts rather than base cards
IMO I’d rather pay a little more for more inserts rather than base cards
frankiefives
Verified Trader,
Distributors don't just do this with Upper Deck products. They do it in every sport. It's a racket. It sickens me how they hold hobby shops hostage. The blame is theirs. Could UD do more? Sure, but the distributors are the main culprits.
Pretty hard to compare Upper Deck to Apple, a global multi-billion dollar company that manufactures one of the most important devices in every single person's life right now...
