Here is my attempt at providing a more constructive reply than my first one above.
Panini
Regarding Crosby and Donruss, This is the inaugural set of Post-Monopoly Donruss. My decision to purchase this product next year will most likely be based on my experience with it this year. Make a meaningful update and I'll buy it. But don't push it to the level of saving Crosby for it. The only good business reason I can think of, to leave Crosby for an update set of some sort, is to manipulate us into having to purchase something further during the 2010-11 card season. Me no like this tactic.
My other issue with Donruss is the grainy image quality similar to that of ITG. The 80’s ended 20 years ago. Why does it look like Panini is using technology from back then?
With respect to Certified, my issue is the volume of parallel's. Another manipulation. Player collectors are basically forced to go after too many similar copies of the same card. The term "rainbow", and player collectors' fascination with completing one, is the only reason for their existence. The effort needed to complete a parallel set is high. Very few collectors attempt these. And when they do, they try to sell them and if they do, it is at a loss. So other than finding the right player collector, and early, you are pretty much stuck with these dime-a-dozen cards. There is a glut of them added to the hobby landscape each year. Be innovative and come up with another way to fill the packs.
Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps there are hundreds of people chasing these cards. Panini, along with the other card companies, has HI and other boards at their disposal to use as a free focus group. No resources required. Set up a poll and see how many people do these sets. And how many player collectors actually collect a copy of every card? In a focus group in 2007 that I attended, in the context of Artifacts, Karvin made the comment that player collectors love parallel’s. He went ahead and pointed to me and said that “Jeremy will hunt for each different parallel of Hawerchuk”. I didn’t have the heart at the time to tell him that he was wrong in front of 30 people. I do not need every color of parallel simply because a card company decides to print them. Way too arbitrary for my taste. But it was his assumption that concerned me most at the time. The assumption that all player collectors chase all parallel’s. "If we print it they will come". I do not think this is true and rather think that player collectors chase only the cards they like. This may or may not include parallel’s and most often does not.
I set up at four shows each year in Canada and I ask just about every collector, who stops at my booth, what they collect. Most of them who are player collectors do not collect every card of their player. Only a handful does this. I also ask them to show me what they have picked up at the show and I can honestly say that no collector has ever shown me a handful of parallel’s from the “Parallel-Hell Era”.
So when Panini comes out of the gate with the parallel laden Certified, it concerns me that they are missing the boat on what collectors really want and therefore are flooding the hobby with garbage – literally, cards that no one wants.
But if Panini's market research shows that the hobby needs, and has room for, a parallel laden set from Panini and UD each year, then I guess I am wrong. But where is this market research occurring? I have not seen it.
And then Panini throws Proofs into Donruss. I pulled the Pitkanen. That's no hit. And no one wants it. Here is what I think of proofs:
Here are my three suggestions for Panini
1. Cut down, way down, on the parallel's.
2. Improve image quality.
3. Put the biggest star of the game into series one of your low-end sets.
Basically, ease up on the overt manipulation.
As far as fake patches go, either ensure that tampered cards will be ruined, or archive images of your product. Simple as that. See below for some suggestions on how to do this. Or call me and I will tell you all the details from my experience at an actual pack-out. I can PM you my number.
UD
Karvin went to bat for us, as Chris can attest, but budgets and finance at the executive level of UD got in the way. Simple as that.
Karvin left UD before The Cup was packed-out this summer. UD sat on at least 75% of the patch cards well in advance of the product's eventual pack-out. PLENTY of time to capture images of all the cards. Now, we have our
FIRST FAKE CUP CARD of 2009-10.
THIS SIMPLY SHOULD NOT HAPPEN.
I proved in July 2009 that one person can photograph over 98% of all patch cards, from The Cup, in four days. I offered to do it again this summer but was turned down.
So here are some suggestions on capturing images of patch cards.
1. Let a collector do it for free. At least the images exist. Or put in the overtime and do it yourself.
2. Pay someone to do it during the pack-out of high-end brands.
3. Make it part if the shipping or receiving process. Do it when the patch cards are packaged to be sent to athletes for signature. Or do it when they are received back from the athletes. Just work it into the process somewhere sometime to ensure the future value and integrity of our collections. Please!
ITG
I love everything about this company and their product except for the redundancy of their designs. I am not asking for an immediate drastic overhaul. Rather, a slow shift towards something different. I would start with improving on the background graphics and the image quality of those designs. They are too pixelly in my opinion. Other than this, I love ITG, their product and their commitment to the collector.
I did ten sets from UM9 including the base. In UM 10, I am doing zero sets. Why? Because the sets basically look the same as last year, and the year before. I would have done Stick Racks for the 4th consecutive year but this year there are no pics and they changed its name to Stick Works. I would have done the 500 goal scorer combo if not for the fact that the designs do not do it for me. Add pics and it’s likely another story. I hope that UM11 will provide something nice and different.
If I were the head of a card company or a brand manager I would be all over these boards looking for insights and suggestions. Do polls. Pose questions and use this resource to its full potential. It is free.
Kudos to Doc Price and ITG for tuning in to this before the others and taking advantage of it. They say competition breeds innovation and as ITG has been exposed to the toughest competition of any hockey card company (by not having a license), the have also been the most innovative.
