One topic at a time; your thoughts on LEAF making BTP successful again

spooner9ball

spooner9ball

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If you have been reading the threads since Leaf acquired ITG, you will know that Between The Pipes has went from a once mighty product to and insert set in other programs.

While BTP used to sell like hotcakes, it spiraled out of favour of the course of the 2012-2014 seasons. Losing an AHL license, an increase in unknown CHL players, an increase in common hits, some stale designs, some repetition, and other factors (different strokes for different folks) all contributed to its demise.

Closeout prices seemed to be the only way to move it at the shows, and where collectors used to gladly pay close to a hundred bucks a box or the product, by 2013-14 hardcore collectors would pas at $45 bucks. Older releases could be had for $45-60 all around the shows.

Obviously LEAF has to make money, and they sure aren't going to do it with retailers selling the boxes for fifty bucks a box. So what can change, or stay the same, to make it a worthy endeavor again?

My feeling is that LEAF can stick to an older format but use their new ideals and technology to breathe new life into it. They don't have to drive it with mass amounts of hits.

18 Packs.

2 AU
2 GU
3 masks
2 numbered cards
3 inserts
2 parallel set cards coloured goodness!!
4 puzzle pieces

6 base cards per pack, plus the "hit", equals 7 cards per pack. 100 card base set has you finish the set with one box. You could drop the base to five cards per pack so there is trading to finish the base set, or drive sales on a second box. And I think skaters can be included, properly themed. I think Mask Collection did well back in the day!!!


I think there is room to adjust the numbers obviously, but I'd pay $100 for a box breakdown like that no problem. Kids can get packs for less than $6 bucks! Drop some hits to make it a 15 pack box, even.

What do you guys think of a breakdown like that? And does LEAF think it is remotely doable, with base cards but not THAT many base cards.
 
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I would think that a similar breakdown would work for H&P as well, but I can't speak on their interests as I've never bought a pack of the stuff.
 
spooner9ball said:
I would think that a similar breakdown would work for H&P as well, but I can't speak on their interests as I've never bought a pack of the stuff.
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Just to let everyone know. We have a product set for release end of year called Masked Men.

It will feature all Goalies with Pads, Gloves, Sticks, Patches, Jerseys, Signatures and combinations of them all

Also, we will introduce a new Mask insert with a technology that we haven't used before, but i think you will enjoy. These will have different levels of color rarities.
 
LeafGregg said:
Just to let everyone know. We have a product set for release end of year called Masked Men.

It will feature all Goalies with Pads, Gloves, Sticks, Patches, Jerseys, Signatures and combinations of them all

Also, we will introduce a new Mask insert with a technology that we haven't used before, but i think you will enjoy. These will have different levels of color rarities.
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Yeah, a one pack product though?
 
Simple designs like this still work for me:





I am not sure if you recently got in trouble for using it but leaving Roy's mask alone would be a huge deal to me.
 
If they had an NHL, AHL and CHL license I think BTP would be amazing.

Even when they had and AHL and CHL license I really liked the product.

Once they were down to just a CHL license (through no fault of their own) I lost interest.

Looking forward to trying Masked Men this year, depending on the price.
 
Masked Men sounds great, but it sounds like an all hit product, with nothing of a 100-200 card base set, without the licenses I don't think they can do the base set like ITG did, even still I don't think it would be much different then the old ITG sets
 
In my opinion Leaf is a lost cause. They just don't seem to get that the 1 pack product is not good for 99% of the collectors.

We need topps or panini back and Leaf can roll over and die.
 
Lost cause? No. Just know what old products with ITG sold in at and how they were closed out and we could not keep that up. They were not getting enough support
As they were. That is a fact. We had to make a change.

Masked Men is not the right product for a base set. However, we will have a base set next year in at least one product for sure.

99%?? Well they have been selling out so someone likes them.
I hope you will give your customers the choice
 
The 1% buying is the gamblers that resell. The reason it had to go to close out is because the same old boring design and watered down product was over printed. Leaf should have fixed those problems instead of creating bigger ones.
 
gamebit said:
The 1% buying is the gamblers that resell. The reason it had to go to close out is because the same old boring design and watered down product was over printed. Leaf should have fixed those problems instead of creating bigger ones.
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We have fixed design and themes in my opinion.

We will be bringing back base into the mix next year

Don't give up yet.
 
The next affordable multi pack product with a base set. I will take 10 cases of. Until then our store will be like a tree in fall with no Leaf
 
gamebit said:
In my opinion Leaf is a lost cause. They just don't seem to get that the 1 pack product is not good for 99% of the collectors.

We need topps or panini back and Leaf can roll over and die.
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Do you really own a store or are you actually working for ud? Topps? Not sure but I wouldn't go to your store based on the last couple of days of posts. I understand your passionate but comments like the above are not warranted. I have one of the biggest itg collections I know of and I also have not bought one single pack of the new leaf since draft prospects (which had base cards) but telling them to roll over and die is uncalled for. Back to the topic at hand.

I am not a goalie collector but I think what made btp stale was that it had the same prospects and the same stars and the same retired for the last few years. You add in a few chl goalies that 98% of collectors never heard of and it just wasn't enough to keep people coming back. Now to switch gears I have every set of H&P base sets, and update sets. The fact that young players are easier to predict than young goalies and you have heard of most of the prospects. As mentioned above, people love getting the base cards autographed. If H&P came out with a new 3-4 hits, as well as base set (at least 100 but preferably 150, throw in a few memorial cup inserts and draft prospects inserts and I'm buying a tonne of it again.
 
Bossy22 said:
Do you really own a store or are you actually working for ud? Topps? Not sure but I wouldn't go to your store based on the last couple of days of posts. I understand your passionate but comments like the above are not warranted. I have one of the biggest itg collections I know of and I also have not bought one single pack of the new leaf since draft prospects (which had base cards) but telling them to roll over and die is uncalled for. Back to the topic at hand.

I am not a goalie collector but I think what made btp stale was that it had the same prospects and the same stars and the same retired for the last few years. You add in a few chl goalies that 98% of collectors never heard of and it just wasn't enough to keep people coming back. Now to switch gears I have every set of H&P base sets, and update sets. The fact that young players are easier to predict than young goalies and you have heard of most of the prospects. As mentioned above, people love getting the base cards autographed. If H&P came out with a new 3-4 hits, as well as base set (at least 100 but preferably 150, throw in a few memorial cup inserts and draft prospects inserts and I'm buying a tonne of it again.
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I've got most of the H&P sets from 2004-05 up to 2011-12 or so, had a blast building them, mail in 200 puzzle points for a /20 card was fun too, I was really looking forward to Leaf coming back with the H&P base set, but they've been quite the let down
 

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