BECKETT keeps sending me e-mail messages about a digital subscription. Just curious to know if anyone on this forum finds a digital NSU an attractive offer because I really don't.

I allway's considered this forum to be the digital version of NSU.

I keep getting that e-mail as well . I just delete it without even looking now.

A digital magazine has about as much appeal for me as e-packs. I must be getting old as I just don't see the appeal ( or indeed the point ) . If I have paid for something I like to actually have it rather than just look at it on a computer screen .

As far as I can tell just be reading collector forums, the appeal of e-Packs seems to be waning. It is kind of a social networking experiment if you want to buy, trade, vault and upgrade E cards, with the goal of getting physical cards. Seems like a lot of work when you can just buy the cards online.

Digital NSU? Nope.

I don't see myself as a digital subscriber either. I like buying an actual magazine even though I'm at an age where the type seems to get smaller every year. I like seeing a big assortment of magazines like at Houston's airport or at Barnes & Noble. Books-A-Million has a great spread all along the back wall.

Besides, I don't keep every issue of NSU I buy. When I visit people in hospitals, I leave a recent one among the otherwise dull assortment of magazines in the waiting room. I figure it might distract someone otherwise dealing with bad news and maybe get NSU at least one new customer. I can't do that if NSU goes digital.

Jess

quote:

Originally posted by FRANK AMICO:
BECKETT keeps sending me e-mail messages about a digital subscription. Just curious to know if anyone on this forum finds a digital NSU an attractive offer because I really don't.

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
Besides, I don't keep every issue of NSU I buy. When I visit people in hospitals, I leave a recent one among the otherwise dull assortment of magazines in the waiting room. I figure it might distract someone otherwise dealing with bad news and maybe get NSU at least one new customer. I can't do that if NSU goes digital.

Jess

Great idea. Thanks for doing this Jess.

No problem. I figure any waiting area (dentist's office, law office, tax preparer, barber shop/hair salon, or a car dealership) would be a place that could use a different mix of magazines. I've had to visit a couple of relatives in the hospital in the past year and noticed there is usually just something like SI or ESPN plus a fashion magazine and something like People.

It's something to think about for collectors who buy more than one issue to try to get more of the promos. Instead of recycling the extras, find places to drop them off where they might be discovered by some kid or the older person who collected cards as a kid.

Jess

quote:

Originally posted by H_Toser:

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
Besides, I don't keep every issue of NSU I buy. When I visit people in hospitals, I leave a recent one among the otherwise dull assortment of magazines in the waiting room. I figure it might distract someone otherwise dealing with bad news and maybe get NSU at least one new customer. I can't do that if NSU goes digital.

Jess

Great idea. Thanks for doing this Jess.

That's awesome! We need to find ways like that to expand our hobby to more people. One thing that I like to do is send packs of cards with my daughter for her class giveaways instead of sending candy.

As for the digital version of the magazine, I can't give that away to friends and family like the real thing.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
As far as I can tell just be reading collector forums, the appeal of e-Packs seems to be waning. It is kind of a social networking experiment if you want to buy, trade, vault and upgrade E cards, with the goal of getting physical cards. Seems like a lot of work when you can just buy the cards online.

Digital NSU? Nope.

I played with the Walking Dead and Star Wars digital card apps for a few months. The concept of collecting cards that you cant actually touch is just one of the realities you wake up to.

Acquiring cards from a company that has complete control and accountability of your collection is a monster conflict of interest. Not only is there the manipulation of getting a "hole" in your collection filled through their algorithm's. If you don't think that Topps is not data mining a mountain of collector behavior information from this thing, you can go stick your head back in the sand.

Plus I tried to get a digital card signed at a convention and it just jacked my phone all up!

I don't think I am opposed to a digital copy of NSU but that means I pay half of what it's going for now. I get IT and server costs but I shouldn't lose out as a customer because of it. This is a hobby for people who collect paper. HELLO!!!

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
If you don't think that Topps is not data mining a mountain of collector behavior information from this thing, you can go stick your head back in the sand.

I'm sure they'd love to do data mining on their consumer data, but that would require substantially more competence than they have available.

quote:

Originally posted by tangent:

I'm sure they'd love to do data mining on their consumer data, but that would require substantially more competence than they have available.

Hahahahahaha!

It never occurred to me to see NSU to people in jail. Saw this during a Google search ...

http://www.inmatemags.com/6047...on-Sport-Update.html

I would only consider a digital version, if the paper magazine was no longer available.
I do like PDFs in general and I don't mind reading them. In fact I would hope that if the
day comes that it's just not cost effective to print the issues, NSU would continue in
digital form.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
As far as I can tell just be reading collector forums, the appeal of e-Packs seems to be waning. It is kind of a social networking experiment if you want to buy, trade, vault and upgrade E cards, with the goal of getting physical cards. Seems like a lot of work when you can just buy the cards online.

Digital NSU? Nope.

Are you talking about ePacks or digital cards? Two different things. . .

Digital cards may be waning, although to my knowledge at least on the non-sport side there isn't a possibility of physical cards.

ePacks are traditional releases, that have popularity cycles, as new releases come out interest will grow, as the release ages interest falls. ePacks typically have at least one physical card per pack, and there really isn't a social networking aspect to them at all. ePacks have some significant advantages over regular packs. 1st -- I can actually buy them (no where around me sells packs), 2nd I don't have to worry about packs being cherry picked, 3rd trading the cards I don't want is free and easy -- no postage fees to worry about. On the negative side generally I don't find the packs to be a great value (which, I guess really isn't any different than when I was buying packs at comic shops and they were costing over $5 a pack out the door), and you have to pay to get your cards shipped to you, which is kind of a bummer.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
Seems like a lot of work when you can just buy the cards online.

10 years ago people said "seems like a lot of work when you can just buy cards at comic shops."

Sorry webjon, you are losing me with your post, so if I don't respond well, its because I don't understand what you are driving at.

You are saying ePacks and digital cards are two different things. True, but ePacks contain mainly digital cards. Kind of like saying a non-sport card box is not the same thing as a non-sport card. True, but you got the cards out of the box. When I remarked that the appeal of ePacks appeared to be waning, I meant the whole experience of buying, trading and collecting digital cards.

Now I do believe you can get physical cards in non-sport ePacks, although you didn't think so. I am sure that there were physical cards when Alien Anthology was released as ePack because some autograph cards only were released then and were not even seeded in the hobby boxes. Doctor Strange had physical cards in ePacks. One of the hornier questions about ePacks to me is, how many premium hits are available and not making it into the hobby boxes that I am buying because they are being held back for the ePacks? I don't know the answer, but I do know that you can no longer compute a general production range of a card based on the stated ratio to the number of boxes/cases produced when you know it will also be released as ePacks at the same time or a little later. You may calculate that the card has 100 copies by the ratio to boxes and then it gets dropped in ePacks and now you have 300 copies.

So that's one thing I've noticed that I as a traditional buyer don't like. Your statement that ePacks are traditional releases is not correct. The title/cards/product may have a traditional release because they are available through a traditional distribution system, but once they are ePacks and once they contain digital cards the product and the distribution become non-traditional. Now I fully agree that if you have a physical in the end, unless it is an exclusive card to a box or an ePack release, there is no way to determine where that card came from because there are no stamps or markings that indicate an ePack card. At least I think there are none, the physical card if you get one in an ePack looks the same. You can correct me it this wrong.

So are ePacks and/or digital cards waning? I think people who engage in them should jump in now and give their own opinions. My opinion is from what I read on other forums and from the posts what I take away is that it is no longer new, its activity is slowing down, trading has a lot of drama, premium hits are not being found in enough numbers and physical common cards aren't worth the shipping costs, among other complaints. This is a very different world and card companies, especially UD, have established whole platforms for digital cards and ePack buying.

Finally, I don't get the comment about "seems like a lot of work" and vanishing card shops. Are you saying that card collectors went to internet buying so the hobby stores closed up and I contributed to that?

I can assure you I did not. I was one of the last card collectors to go internet, I liked the work and the face to face buying. It was when I couldn't get cards anymore at stores or shows that I had to go internet. eBay, nearly single handedly at the time, destroyed nearly all the collectibles markets, not just trading cards. Comic shops were not selling cards either, they were going out of business too. Do you think it would be good for collectors to turn to ePacks, when the opposite result would be that traditional boxes/cases would not be bought? Then you really won't need card shops or comic shops or anywhere else to sell hobby boxes because there won't be any hobby boxes.

Again, maybe I don't get the point you are trying to make. There is a good article written by Harris in the new NSU about ePacks, UD in particular, so people might want to read that for some background. I do hope other collectors chime in, since we have started this conversation.

quote:

Originally posted by wireside:
I would only consider a digital version, if the paper magazine was no longer available.

Which is very plainly their aim.

I bought a few ePacks. I found it convenient for the times that I wanted to open a pack. But reading that I needed to pay to have the cards sent to me was a bummer to learn about. Haven't bought too many recently because there's a card store relatively close that carries some boxes and I'll look for singles online. I guess if there was a product in the future that I really wanted to open that I'd get more ePacks.

As for the product distribution between physical packs and ePacks, I read somewhere on BO that the "hits" were going to be divide evenly. Of course, there will be ePacks exclusives like the achievement awards. I'd guess that there will still be late returning sketch and autograph cards would be ePacks exclusive since they wouldn't make it in time to be inserted into physical packs.

Raven-

Apologies for the confusion -- I was referring to ePack specifically as Upper Deck ePacks, trading card releases with both digital and physical cards, and releases like Topp's Walking Dead and Star Wars Card trader as digital cards -- these are only digital and to my knowledge have no path to physical cards.

As for my last comment '10 years ago people said "seems like a lot of work when you can just buy cards at comic shops."' It's simply a reference to times changing.

Jon

quote:

Originally posted by Heroes For Hire:
I bought a few ePacks. I found it convenient for the times that I wanted to open a pack. But reading that I needed to pay to have the cards sent to me was a bummer to learn about.

Yeah, it is a bummer, and a crappy 'hidden' cost. I bought a bunch of Clerks ePacks, then had a bunch of the cards transferred to COMC -- bought some singles on there and when I had the hits shipped it cost me about $33 to ship 34 cards. In fairness I could have had them shipped cheaper, I opted for top loaders on all the cards, plus priority shipping. The cards were shipped on time and packed well so I felt I got what I paid for, but yeah. . .

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:
Raven-

Apologies for the confusion -- I was referring to ePack specifically as Upper Deck ePacks, trading card releases with both digital and physical cards, and releases like Topp's Walking Dead and Star Wars Card trader as digital cards -- these are only digital and to my knowledge have no path to physical cards.

As for my last comment '10 years ago people said "seems like a lot of work when you can just buy cards at comic shops."' It's simply a reference to times changing.

Jon

No need to apologize, I get how you were breaking it up now. I was being general and you were being more specific. Thanks for clearing it up.

Yes, the times are always changing and although some things have been lost in the hobby, if you view it objectively, non-sport cards look better than ever and we still want them or we wouldn't be here talking about it.