Checklist: 2020-21 The Cup

Sabresguy said:
I am sure player selection was done a while ago, but it is interesting to note the Jason Robertson RPA is /249 while Bryam and Romanov are both /99s.
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They probably put this checklist together three years ago.

Romanov was a Habs rookie and he’s an Islander now so that will be even more awkward as a /99. Byram I can see as a /99 so that’s not so bad. If they could go back in time I’m sure they’d swap Romanov for Robertson though. Way too late for that now.
 
HA!! There is literally ONE Taylor Hall card for me in this release. The printing plate Booklet 1/1

I guess no group or player breaks for me. Just hope whoever pulls it puts it up for sale at a decent price.
 
I was grousing to a friend of mine - who does not collect cards - that this checklist would be very challenging to get a good return on. More cards than ever, higher price than ever. He asked, "if the value keeps getting worse and worse, why do any of you buy it?"

I didn't have a good answer. Or at least not one that made collectors out to be sensible people.

Like many others here, I have never purchased a tin of the Cup because I'm risk averse and it's outside my budget. I snap up singles. But I don't feel great about playing the role of vulture to people who paid so much for so little.
 
I remember being shocked when I got back into collecting a few years ago at how many cool cards I could buy for $10-20. I was absolutely speechless when I realized how much the people that had originally pulled them had paid for the packs/boxes/cases they came in. The Cup is probably the craziest example of that - the realization that a card that cost me $30 came out of a pack of six cards that was $800. It still blows my mind that of the seven Ron Hextall cards in this set, one or two of them might approach the >$200 average card price when buying tins, and yet there's somehow a decent chance I'll be able to grab a couple from this release on eBay in the $50 range or even less.

I agree it feels odd to be able to pick and choose exactly what you want for pennies on the dollar when people have spent so much.

I have a lot of The Cup in my collection, they're great cards. I have never purchased a single tin of The Cup and I probably won't if they are $1250 for six cards. The math is just all wrong.
 
deepbluejacket said:
I was grousing to a friend of mine - who does not collect cards - that this checklist would be very challenging to get a good return on. More cards than ever, higher price than ever. He asked, "if the value keeps getting worse and worse, why do any of you buy it?"

I didn't have a good answer. Or at least not one that made collectors out to be sensible people.

Like many others here, I have never purchased a tin of the Cup because I'm risk averse and it's outside my budget. I snap up singles. But I don't feel great about playing the role of vulture to people who paid so much for so little.
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The answer is Group Breaks. That's what has driven up the price of wax.
 
Seeing some breaks with sticker autos!! 2 years late and using sticker autos in The Cup. Soooo not cool UD!
 
TMLFan3 said:
Seeing some breaks with sticker autos!! 2 years late and using sticker autos in The Cup. Soooo not cool UD!
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THIS!!!

Rookie Auto Patches with Sticker Autos????
If this does not sink this product nothing will. Sticker Autos at that price - just saw a Kaprizov RAP sticker and crappy penmanship. I don't recall any of UD's previews looking like sticker autos on RAP's and Rookie Signature Patches.
 
suitman19 said:
THIS!!!

Rookie Auto Patches with Sticker Autos????
If this does not sink this product nothing will. Sticker Autos at that price - just saw a Kaprizov RAP sticker and crappy penmanship. I don't recall any of UD's previews looking like sticker autos on RAP's and Rookie Signature Patches.
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Kaprizov and Sorokin. I'm guessing they couldn't get cards to them this offseason since both were in Russia.
 
Pasta was a cup sticker guys. They just didn't waste anyone's time with a redemption card. They shoulda shown a preview though.
 
Wow. Upper Deck is getting flamed for the sticker autos in The Cup hard. All the Facebook card groups I’m in are having a field day.
 
Ya seen some breaks. $1400, highest end product, that's 2 years late, and has sticker autos?
Upper Deck wore steel toes for the kick to the junk of collectors with this one.
 
Cannot disagree more with the sticker hate on this one. This is a late release of flagship product, and they are in a position of either having to put stickers in or redemptions in. They opted for live cards with sticker autos. I think that's the right call.

They spent five years on Pasta to end up with stickers. The current scarcity of Bure autos (and the glut of outstanding Bure redemptions) are a testament to how hard it can be with even willing, engaged athletes to get redemptions done. IIRC, there have been three separate attempts arranged with Bure to clear his redemption queue - and all have been sabotaged by forces external.

Fewer redemptions is the right call.
 
quincy said:
Cannot disagree more with the sticker hate on this one. This is a late release of flagship product, and they are in a position of either having to put stickers in or redemptions in. They opted for live cards with sticker autos. I think that's the right call.

They spent five years on Pasta to end up with stickers. The current scarcity of Bure autos (and the glut of outstanding Bure redemptions) are a testament to how hard it can be with even willing, engaged athletes to get redemptions done. IIRC, there have been three separate attempts arranged with Bure to clear his redemption queue - and all have been sabotaged by forces external.

Fewer redemptions is the right call.
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BINGO!

Thank you for providing a voice of reason. As a collector, if I'm faced with the choice of pulling a sticker ink or a redemption, I'm favoring sticker ten times outta ten. Mainly bc sticker autos have never dissuaded me. Ink is ink. Don't get me wrong, I PREFER hard signed, but the preference of sticker to on-card is negligible to me.

And truth be told, I don't mind redemptions either. Mainly b/c I am a set collector & I've seen more than my fair share of FWA redemptions that I've sat on & when they come in, are astronomical in price b/c of fellow set collectors buying them up. So I actually make it a habit to see which FWA's are redemptions & buy them up very quickly to avoid those prices down the road. It's saved me from having to pay $350 for a Niklas Grossmann FWA, among many others. I NEVER ask for redemption replacements. NEVER. Not unless UD explicitly states the card will not be made.

So, absolutely this is the right call. Again, ink is ink. And to play Devil's Advocate for all the folks clamoring for "I'd rather have a card the athlete touched"...with grading as popular as it is these days, fewer hands handling the cards provides a better chance of higher grades.

Folks are guaranteed to complain. Kaprizov is live. THAT's the allure. If he were a redemption, people would complain that he hasn't signed yet & flood UD's ears with complaints on that like they did with Pasta & Tarasenko. Heck, I'm old enough to remember the fuss about Gostisbehere being a redemption. GOSTISBEHERE!! Kids, relax.

And now here's the part where I'm told I'm part of the problem, no?
 
Lol, just lol to those defending UD. I am somewhat involved in the autograph scene and I personally know the guy who arranged several Kaprizov signings in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area: if you pay Kaprizov $(USD)250/auto with the minimum of $25k total and the max time commitment of 2 hours, he will come to sign to you inside 1 month during the season no questions asked. Even with $150/auto he will come to sign inside 3-6 months. It is only if you pay him $100/auto or less when he will loose the interest and might cancel last moment. If UD was late with the production, they could have gotten these 200 Kaprizov autos or so they needed for the product inside one month for $50k (which is a ridiculously small amount of money given what UD is charging for the Cup) by just flying somebody to Minneapolis. UD just didn't want to spend their money, but somehow they want others to spend money on their products.
 
fantiki said:
Lol, just lol to those defending UD. I am somewhat involved in the autograph scene and I personally know the guy who arranged several Kaprizov signings in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area: if you pay Kaprizov $(USD)250/auto with the minimum of $25k total and the max time commitment of 2 hours, he will come to sign to you inside 1 month during the season no questions asked. Even with $150/auto he will come to sign inside 3-6 months. It is only if you pay him $100/auto or less when he will loose the interest and might cancel last moment. If UD was late with the production, they could have gotten these 200 Kaprizov autos or so they needed for the product inside one month for $50k (which is a ridiculously small amount of money given what UD is charging for the Cup) by just flying somebody to Minneapolis. UD just didn't want to spend their money, but somehow they want others to spend money on their products.
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And is Kaprizov the only athlete in the product? What about what Gretzky charges? Patrick Roy? Crosby? Yzerman? Or the litany of other athletes that are in the product? Why should he command more than what Patrick Roy charges for 2 hours of his time & blow their budget? You realize a product is also gauged upon their budget of what they spent to get product signed? They probably did stickers bc they still had inventory left over at a rookie signing with him. There's no way on Earth anyone should pay those prices. I know a dealer & consignor who has signed both Jason Robertson & Joe Pavelski just this year & the pricing for 3 hours for both of them combined was less than what you quoted that Kaprizov presumably charges.

That's not defending UD...that's product logistics. Much like running a team, your star player can only make a certain percentage of your cap and/or budget. If he makes more than that, it handicaps your team. Thus, why should UD pay those prices if that's truly what he charges?
 
I’ll say this, I was putting money away to buy a nice Sorokin cup rookie and I won’t buy one now. I would have bought a redemption for a hard signed one but a sticker in the cup is a cop out. For those of you above that prefer the sticker to the redemption, that’s fine. I’m assuming no one that collects these guys is ok with it
 
A consequence of Kaprizov’s sticker auto in The Cup: This will likely raise the prices on his hard-signed rookie autos in other products (which should include Premier, Ultimate, SPA, Platinum) while lowering the ceiling on his Cup RPA, as fewer collectors will be chasing it.
 

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