LCS Hoarding

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Shanahan1414

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Hey all,

Was just curious your thoughts regarding something that's been rubbing me the wrong way for a few months now. I've been a loyal hockey customer for an LCS here in SoCal and while I enjoy another shop (Card Pavillion in Santa Ana) more, I spread myself around sometimes to spread my odds of getting case hits around (it usually works backwards...). Anyways, last year around this time I noticed a case of UD Buybacks and asked the LCS owner if he'd be selling any packs. He said he'd want to sell the case only. No big deal I thought, so I made him an offer of $1500 on the 15 pack case. He turned it down and said he'd want to hold on to the case instead. This naturally seemed rather weird to me, but I let it go without arguing the point. Fast forward to this week. I was in to check the pulse on what he's doing with the cup, if he's getting any, and what he hopes to see happen with it. Tin prices are insanely high and so unless it's a good deal I'll probably stay away. The owner told me it's unlikely he'll sell any of his 3-tin case unless "someone blows him away" with an offer. So he said it'll probably just sit in the back.

Is there anything illegal about this with his deal with Upper Deck? I can't imagine it would be okay to withhold product, but maybe that's just my moral compass going off. Anybody else running into similar problems this year with the cup or with other LCS owners doing similar things in the past?

Thanks and best of luck on the cup!

--Andrew
 
Business must be good that he doesn't require the cash flow for his day-to-day operations.

At the same time though if he feels that the value will go up if left untouched, hard to blame him from an investment perspective. He's in business to make money, feed his family, so if that's how he feels he will make the most money I think its his prerogative.

Not sure UD really cares what he does with it. It's out their door, they've been paid.

If you are this guys cistomer and you've been buying all year with hopes of buying Cup too, I'd be pissed and would probably start shopping elsewhere.
 
Yes, it has happened to me for the past few years. I supported a store in Edmonton as my go to for current releases and a lot of supplies for over 15 years. Nothing major, but a few cases per year of UD plus other boxes and cases regularly. I could always get decent pre-order prices and remained loyal. The past few years all I get when I ask about pre-order pricing is that they don't know what the price will be yadda yadda yadda. I know this is a flat out lie and they are just hanging on to sell it upon release or a few weeks after release when they drive the price up artificially. The same as what the distributors do in my opinion. Extortion at its finest! I know not every store operates like this, but this is my knife in the back experience.
 
Wow, as a store owner I would love to have loyal customers. With the cases of the Cup we get in, our regulars get 1st crack(pun intended) LOL
If they opt out then the other non regulars get a crack.

For other product that we can get pre orders in on, I will honour the people who had asked or prepaid for it.

I've never held on to products in hopes that they would rise in price. Although I have held on to product (not by choice) and watch the prices drop. You know CONTOURS!!!!!

I would also find someone else to deal with, although I know card shops are harder to find these days.

happy hunting
Dan
 
My LCS prides itself on product turnover. They only re-order popular or requested items. No hoarding at all. It is near LAX if you are nearby and can't stand your local LCS hoarder. WHich shop was it anyway?
 
I think this is similar to singles market value. If you want UD to care, make a rule there. Like, Upper Deck gets 90℅ of the price instantly and the other 10℅ after the store sold it forward.
 
The thing that struck me most was that the owner said make me an offer. I've never come across a card shop where the price of product was negotiable.
 
In no way do I agree or endorse what the dealer is doing, but...

He's completely within his rights. He is the consumer. He paid for the product and it's now his. Upper Deck could not POSSIBLY care less, they have already been paid what they asked for, it's out the door and no longer theirs to worry about.


Believe me when I say, in comparison to the other things I've seen dealers do, if this is his worst sin, you're kinda lucky. I've known a few dealers that pretty much never have sealed hobby product reach the floor.
 
Annoying for sure. Being good to his customers? Nope. Totally his prerogative? Yes. UD could care less about what he does, and he is clearly more in it for the money or business side of the hobby.
 
Eh. As a customer, this sounds like the type of thing to keep me from coming back to your store because I don't know when you'll have something in stock. But we've heard a lot of ways in which the LCSs have been suffering and they do have to keep the doors open somehow.

If this were distributors withholding product, I'd hope both the LCSs and Upper Deck would take them to task.

And I guess I missed this, but there's some value in the LCS being so candid with you as to tell you their plans. It's disappointing, but at least it's not dishonest. Sort of a low-level crime from a consumer perspective.
 
If I were you I would find a shop that was willing to sell you a case of each release at a set markup. That's the best way to get an "allocation" of the good stuff at a decent price.

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk
 
The Dealer has the product and they can do whatever they want with it. First and foremost, they want to turn a tidy profit. No shame in trying to make a little extra when you can. We all have a "personal" relationship with our shops where we go in, talk shop, buy, reveal in great breaks, cry in poor ones. We think we have an "in" but we don't. All these are businesses that try to stay in business. Making a little extra at the expense of others is capitalism.

What busts my nuts is the older boxes that sit on the shelf with the original prices from 3-10 years ago. Some, have rebounded to that price, most have not. I know I can get a much better deal at D&A or Cardboard, but I'm there. I want it now and bite the bullet, try to get a little off the top to make it seem like a deal & hopefully I pull something that makes it worth it in the end.

On the hoarding of the products: Buyback was a good one to hoard...Eichel auto RC from UD. This year's CUP...McDavid's RC & a really decent class of RC's. If it is anything like UD S1, most of these will bump up after the initial sales for re-orders. THIS is where they make the $$$. They can say "we have it, no wait, at this price..." and we, as loving hungry collectors buy the product.

I really have to stop typing so much.
 

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