Ultimate on epack November 2

they do not want to cut the grass under the local shops...this was one of the main concerns for local shops...if the product is half price online, no one will go to LCS anymore...

yzerberg said:
hahaha even with no packaging or distribution costs and it's still the same price we pay in Canada. gross.
UpperDeck....:crazy::crazy::crazy::eek:


Sean.
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yzerberg said:
hahaha even with no packaging or distribution costs and it's still the same price we pay in Canada. gross.
UpperDeck....:crazy::crazy::crazy::eek:


Sean.
Click to expand...

Not supporting epack whatsoever but it popped into my head that although there are no packaging costs, there are/were, and likely much more significantly, technology costs to create epack (which will be amortized across products its used for) and to maintain it. Just something to consider before thinking that they are simply saving money from not having to use packaging and traditional distribution.
 
I want to know how all the hits will work. Do I have a chance to pull all the big stuff on epack? What did they not put in the physical packs in order to make epack work? Did they increase production?

All kinds of questions with very little education for the collector by UD
 
cremona71 said:
I want to know how all the hits will work. Do I have a chance to pull all the big stuff on epack? What did they not put in the physical packs in order to make epack work? Did they increase production?

All kinds of questions with very little education for the collector by UD
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They've already covered what's exclusive to hobby vs. ePack on the checklist at product release. And I'm pretty sure every card is serial numbered, so you know your odds.

IIRC, the big items missing were the 1/1 rookie shield cards.
 
gomaz said:
Not supporting epack whatsoever but it popped into my head that although there are no packaging costs, there are/were, and likely much more significantly, technology costs to create epack (which will be amortized across products its used for) and to maintain it. Just something to consider before thinking that they are simply saving money from not having to use packaging and traditional distribution.
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While that's true, I would also posit the following: the wax price on the shelf incorporates markups from (usually) two sets of hands between the manufacturer and the customers. Both sets of hands have been bypassed where ePack is concerned. So not only have they sloughed packaging costs, they've managed to collect the middleman's share for no additional value added in the cost to the consumer.

And somehow this is in any way equitable treatment of brick'n'mortar.
 
Perhaps this is the strategy to eliminate the LCS and keep those two levels of markup for themselves?

Sure this has been discussed but it comes to the forefront with each new epack release.

Even after UD has heard from retailers at the industry summit that they do not appreciate epack, and even after UD has added the whole "visit your LCS for other products", EVERY LCS owner I've talked to or overheard talking still hates epack and feels that it is stealing their business.

If I was an Upper Deck shareholder i'd love it. But for the LCS stakeholders....seems like your stake is a wick and that wick is on fire. The only "happy" LCS owners these days are the ones who moved into gaming cards to keep their lights on.
 
I remember when some card shops weren't too happy with the uprising of online group breaks because they were losing revenue to those group breakers. My comment was always, that they need to adapt and join the game or find another way to compete (trader nights or add gaming or something else altogether).

But with epack, asking them to adapt is still a reasonable suggestion but joining the game is not an option and compound the fact that UD has the ability to restrict who gets AIR status really seems like LCS' are walking up a down escalator.
 
quincy said:
While that's true, I would also posit the following: the wax price on the shelf incorporates markups from (usually) two sets of hands between the manufacturer and the customers. Both sets of hands have been bypassed where ePack is concerned. So not only have they sloughed packaging costs, they've managed to collect the middleman's share for no additional value added in the cost to the consumer.

And somehow this is in any way equitable treatment of brick'n'mortar.
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Don't forget they have to pay COMC to process and scan all of the cards into the system.

I doubt COMC scans the base cards and lower end inserts, but they do scan the jersey/patches for sure.
 
Mauri said:
What do you think, considering that I live in Finland, what would be the most reasonable option for me to buy a pack of Ultimate?
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This is the strongest argument for ePack. I haven't found a hobby shop I like out here yet, and while I haven't bought via ePack, I've considered it.

I guess the key here is to keep the price point as a somewhat prohibitive alternative to going to an LCS. And it looks like they've done that so far; I've not seen anything priced better from Upper Deck than anywhere I've checked out. They're not even trying to blow out last year's MVP product for example.
 
Maple Leaf Sports said:
Is this even a real question?


How do you go about buying any other pack, single or supply item for your collection?
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I don't buy packs because nothing has them available for reasonable shipping prices.

Obviously supplies and singles are out of topic, because so far I haven't seen those for sale in ePack.
 
Mauri said:
I don't buy packs because nothing has them available for reasonable shipping prices.

Obviously supplies and singles are out of topic, because so far I haven't seen those for sale in ePack.
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ePack does use COMC to ship their cards. I'm not sure how different the shipping prices are between ePack and COMC, but you could open a COMC account, transfer your ePack cards there, and you can purchase Toploaders for the cards that you want to top load. You can also purchase singles from COMC as well.

This is assuming that you've gotten the ePack cards shipped to you. If not, and you just keep it on ePack, well, then you don't need supplies. :P
 
aflamesfan said:
ePack does use COMC to ship their cards. I'm not sure how different the shipping prices are between ePack and COMC, but you could open a COMC account, transfer your ePack cards there, and you can purchase Toploaders for the cards that you want to top load. You can also purchase singles from COMC as well.

This is assuming that you've gotten the ePack cards shipped to you. If not, and you just keep it on ePack, well, then you don't need supplies. :P
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Yeah, no need to ship the cards to me. I'm ok with electronic copies. I might get them all shipped to me at some point.
 

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