Upset with Upper Deck and National hockey card day

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lemieuxl66

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Long story short... I do not live close to a hobby shop (nearest is 1 hour away) and when I heard that Toys R Us was taking part in the NHCD I was more than elated. I pumped up my son and daughter who love opening packs as much as I do (son is 9, daughter is five) After showing them the mock ups of the cards on the website, they were all pumped to get a Lemieux card (our last name) as well as many others... Stamkos played his junior in Sarnia, RNH, etc... Come saturday morning, blizzard in Southern Ontario. Get my son out to shovel two feet of snow with the promise of free packs to break once we get to the mall. After an hour and a half of shovelling and dragging the whole family to the mall ( I was hoping we could each get a pack) to try and get a full set together, we show up there to get told there are no packs, and just one jumbo card per customer (i.e. one for the whole family).... (Toews Jumbo card). My son's eyes well up and he is just heart broken... I just feel that UD's web site was a bit misleading. It states that TRU will be participating... I does not state that they will only be giving away jumbo cards. I truly believed that they would have the packs as did the Hobby shops.

Sorry for the rant, but just had to get this off my chest and was wondering if anyone else was mislead a bit by the website? Also, if anyone out there has extra packs, I would love to trade or buy them form you. Just want to make my kids happy.

Luc
 
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My complaint with the promotion is a little different. When I saw the participating stores in USA, I could not believe who they chose as the nearest store.

First let me explain, I live in an area that has a glut of card/sports stores. I can think of 7 other stores off the top of my head locally other than the store they used for the promotion (these are just the stores I've actually been to!).

The local shop that was part of the UD promotion is a store that sells ZERO WAX. This person does NOT carry any sealed boxes of product in his store that are for sale to the public. I have been to this store several times, and have not once bought a single thing. He only sells singles and auto'd balls, helmets, etc.

I have asked about boxes, and have been told he doesn't keep anything instore for customers. However, if I want, he'll special order A box for me ( the price was so far above what I can buy the same product for at ANY OTHER STORE in the area, it was laughable). This person only does business with a small circle of customers through his store, and does the vast majority of his business on FeeBay.

As a further bit of info, his "BRICK AND MORTAR" store is nothing more than a remodeled extention on his house! Since he's in a "Mixed Use" residential area, he's able to run a "store" out of his house.

In my opnion, his store is a front for his internet business, and he doesn't really do anything with it. It just seems like everything inside is dusty, and the cases are full of old commons that you can see have been sitting in the exact same place for a really long time. He has a folding table of old boxes of cards selling for 5 bucks/box. Even his cash register looks like he bought it at a garage sale.

There is nothing professional or business-like about this place. It seems like you are just walking into the guy's man-cave.

I just wonder how Upper Deck chose this place over anyplace else in the area. I know they give special consideration to thier "Diamond Dealers", and this guy somehow is, but if they ever actually saw this place, I can't imagine they'd chose it for thier promotions..

Ok, my headache induced, early morning rant ended..
 
Just need to add that Upper Deck doesn't appoint dealers with this promotion. To be honest this is a pet peeve of mine. Upper Deck does their promotions of NHCD, but what really irritates me is the dealers BUY these cards, they are NOT FREE. The dealers give these out FOR FREE but UD makes it sound like THEY sponsor this promo and give them to the dealers. So unless your LCS bought them they will not have any. And to top it off this year , you could normally ,ake 25-30 sets out of a box, NOPE this year about 12 , so trying to reward your loyal customers with a set was tough BRUTAL !! RANT OVER
 
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My favorite is that they charge $5/set the next day. Yeah I know the dealers pay for them but all in all if a person can't make it out ( especially with the snow we got ), then they should of just handed them out again the next day.
I know many collectors who don't drive and in our area did not want to spend 2-3 hours going to the LCS when normal arrival time is like 20 mins.
 
These cards are a promotional expense for the store and the traffic they generate should be welcomed by any LCS fortunate enough to participate.

If your LCS is charging you $5 for a set the day after the promotion, then you need a new LCS.
 
Maple Leaf Sports said:
These cards are a promotional expense for the store and the traffic they generate should be welcomed by any LCS fortunate enough to participate.

If your LCS is charging you $5 for a set the day after the promotion, then you need a new LCS.
Click to expand...

Well said Darren. Yes, store owners must pay for the packs. However they are not forced into the promotion. If a LCS is going to participate, it shouldn't be charging customers for sets the day after the promo
 
As someone who does participate, it irks me (and UD knows this) that they lay claim to giving out the free packs. They don't.

However, we are still giving them out today, and will continue giving them out until we run out. I also buy some to break for singles so I can trade with people to help finish sets, and I keep extras to throw in shipping for good customers who may not have gotten any on HDIC.

Luc, if you'll send me your mailing address, I'll send you out a few packs.
 
I just feel that UD's web site was a bit misleading. It states that TRU will be participating... I does not state that they will only be giving away jumbo cards. I truly believed that they would have the packs as did the Hobby shops.

UD's Website in fact indeed state that TRU would only have Jumbo cards, thta's why I didn't go to TRU.

I got a few doubles of some of the cards, even the Mario your after, send me your addy tonight and I can mail out my extras in the morning

Ken
 
The promotion of this out west has been horrible. I actually missed it. I've collected sets the last few years, but didn't even hear about it. It was Hockey Day in Canada this past Saturday and there was a local event with a celebrity ball hockey tourney with ex-NHLers from the Canucks and Trevor Linden signed free autographs. There was also an area where there were sports cards being sold. None of the vendors had anything that said anything about NHCD.
 
Yes, we have to buy them but it does draw people into the store... We were packed and there was one wicked snow storm going on....

I generally gave everyone 3 packs and then they could trade amoungst each other to complete sets. Those who were still short opened more packs so everyone left with a set.

I only provided the Crosby card to customers making purchases that day.

The collation was terrible this year and 12 sets per box seemed to be the norm.
 
The collation was terrible this year and 12 sets per box seemed to be the norm.

If this means you have lots of extra Scheifeles around, let me know -- I'd willing to trade for them with HDIC or whatever else.
 
tiger tiger said:
None of the vendors had anything that said anything about NHCD.
Click to expand...

There were only 2 eligible dealers at the show AFAIK (Wiser's and Pastime) - It's somewhat on them that they didn't promote NHCD at the show, though I assume that they likely would've saved whatever they purchased for their own stores to give out to repeat customers.

With the fact that it's now costing dealers out of their overhead, it would've been nothing short of impossible to pay for and hand out 10,000 free packs of cards per store without feeling the pinch.

Besides, Derek was basically giving cards away at his table with his prices :laugh:
 
The collation was terrible this year and 12 sets per box seemed to be the norm.


That was very true, of the 5 packs I got 3 were identical, I got 7 different cards out of 5 packs, no rookies, ohh well they were free.
 
We got to open about 6 packs between us at the store, never completed a set or even came close, the store owner was nice enough to trade me all my extra's to complete a set.

Just waiting for the gf to come here so I can take a pic with them for the contest....left them in her purse by accident :|
 

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