07 UD Ultimate base card #'ing

[Seahawk 8]

Is it just me or do we see this every year from Upper Deck? A set comes out with serial numbered base cards (or parallels) and every year they happen to put on another 100 copies to each one. Last year /599 now this year /699. You can pump out a lot of chump product (packs with nuttin' in em') and gain a whole crap load of money if you do that. The ole' 1% of everyone's work or 100% of just one cliche works quite well here,...in fact it must be common practice for UD. A welcomed higher end product succeeds how can we make it better next year? Well without Crosby or Ovechkin the best solution is to add another 100 copies to each base card therefore we can make more packs and make up for the lost revenue that we would have seen this time last year when we had a hobby Golden Child.

Just an observation and theory.

Anyone agree or thoughts?

USJ

 

[sens555]

Hey, if people still buy it (which they will) then Upper Deck's just being a lot smarter than people give them credit for.

 

[burebuyer]

I could ring off a list multiple pages long of ways that Upper Deck has made supposedly minor changes to products from previous years, most often those being negative changes. Like taking out multi-auto cards from this years UD Ultimate, to not putting in Rookie Redemptions in 06/07 Power Play like they did in 05/06, they seem to be slowly cutting corners on previously successful products in hopes that your past perceptions of them will cause you to buy the following years offering even though the quality content has been cut, and the price remains the same.

Derek

 

[deepbluejacket]

Higher serial numbers, fewer cards

While it's true Ultimate increased its base print run from 599 to 699, they cut back on the number of base cards from 90 to 60.

2005-06 Base: 599 x 90 = 53,910 base cards
2006-07 Base: 699 x 60 = 41,940 base cards

Each pack is expected to deliver one base card, and breaks I've seen have been consistent. Contrast that with last season, where base cards were often harder to pull than rookies, suggesting quite a bit of product.

Mike

 

[Seahawk 8]

Ahhh,...final point well noted. Never knew that. The track record though still remains on some items. As for the other comment about UD being 'smarter than people give them credit for', well, it isn't hard to pull the wool over someone's eyes. Brutal.

USJ Rox

 

[porschegt3]

While it's true Ultimate increased its base print run from 599 to 699, they cut back on the number of base cards from 90 to 60.

2005-06 Base: 599 x 90 = 53,910 base cards
2006-07 Base: 699 x 60 = 41,940 base cards

Each pack is expected to deliver one base card, and breaks I've seen have been consistent. Contrast that with last season, where base cards were often harder to pull than rookies, suggesting quite a bit of product.

Mike

Nicely put - I reiterate the same. Chris, Karvin let us know at the Spring Expo meeting that the #/199 RC's in 05-06 -> #/249 RC's in 06-07 will be in the Cup to make up for the lower number of cards.