UD1 prices at the Expo

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spiral8

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So I figured that the whole Brick and Mortar UD program would have 1 of 2 side effects. I figured there could be a large backlash on the floor and there would be very few people busting UD1 as the prices were essentially inflated. Or it would be status quo and the UD redemption lineups would be crazy as usual. As it turns out, I think the program worked quite well for UD and the dealers allowed to sell series 1. People still bought the wax and the redemption lines were still insane.

However, there was one major side effect. People (including dealers) for the most part only busted boxes for the redemption program. That meant finding Young Guns, All World SPs, and any other tough/semi-tough cards was near impossible by Saturday afternoon.

So I guess the BaM program worked for the dealers at the expo, but wasn't that great for anyone trying to piece together a set of Series 1
 
There were a few dealers who sold for less than 75. My understanding was that in order to receive a voucher that enabled you to get in line for one of the priority autos you had to buy from certain vendors. I was told that they had to sell their boxes for 75.00. There were dealers who were selling for less, I bought mine for 65 and got a Rebook Winter Classic hat with it for free.I was told that they had to sell it for 65 without being able to give you a voucher for an auto.
This is what I observed. What official policy was I can only speculate but this seems to make sense. What it seems to boil down to is that the "free priority signing" cost you an extra 10 bucks as well as an hour and a half of your life to wait in line. While some pulled a wonderful auto there probably many who wished they paid 10.00 less and got a free hat instead.
 
We sold a few cases of the UD1 at $75/box. People were very pleasant about it and had a blast with UD1 again this year..
 
I was willing to give the redemption program a flyer if it was like four or five years ago - where I didn't have to camp overnight like I was waiting for concert tickets. I bought a box of Parkhurst with that in mind on Friday. I ended up returning the redemption ticket to the dealer and busting the box on my own later.
 
I paid $70 a box from a diamond dealer, and I did the redemption. The only local dealer in my home town is selling the boxes for $90, so $70 or $75 is still a great deal. My only complaint is how the lineup got completely messed up. We were in line for nearly 2 full hours by the time we completed the redemption. UD needs to work on a few things there, like where the line starts and ends, and why the hell they only have 1 window to do the redemption in the first place.
 
The UD redemption line was a disaster. I know I personally didnt want to line up in that line after my friend waited almost 2 hours to go through the line. It also kept people off the floor from buying things from other dealers as well. I noticed a rush at my table after people were cut off from getting anymore redemptions LOL..
 
Standing in line for a redemption was a total drag. Watching 2 diamond dealers take off their diamond dealer t-shirts while in line was even sadder. Are diamond dealers even allowed to get redemptions?? I thought these redemptions were for us collectors? Of course they didn't go incognito until they overheard us talking about them.
And since I'm ranting....watching people open up their packs and compare cards at the redemption counter while "Mr. UD Employee" leaned over to see for himself and do absolutely nothing about it was a real treat too. The longer it took, the less people got their redemptions seemed to be the UD theory of the day.
Just my 2 cents.....
 

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