Hoping for some good autographs to hit COMC soon!

My luck on MA17 has been really pretty bad. . . so initially I wasn't going to buy any BP. Also the only card I am looking for in the set is an Angela Bassett autograph.

Despite my MA17 luck I decided to pick up a couple of packs. . .

I opened one pack and got a silver foil.

I opened a 2nd pack and pulled this:



Not bad in 2 packs. Still looking for a Bassett autograph.

Jon

No one without seller information truly knows any data, but from the few buyers I do know and my LHS guy, I was told that the Black Panther boxes did not go over very well. That is not to say they might not have sold out, just that the people who opened them weren't especially satisfied with the value. The price was high, autographs were not guaranteed and the signing list had only I think 3 actors. The 2 male stars never were included.

So now here's the ePack release 3 months later, which everyone knew would come with UD. What I don't understand is why anyone would want the hobby boxes when you know that at least as much product, if not more product, will drop if you wait awhile. If nothing else, you know that the change in supply will effect price because it will go to satisfying demand.

To me this business of ePacks just hurts the integrity of the hobby boxes. How can you have faith that everything is in there in the same quantities? Because the manufacturer says so?

I know we have touched on this in other threads, but it still feels wrong to me. If ePack releases are a definite part of UD's distribution, then the initial release has to be scaled down from the full production run. If a product is popular and sells through everything in orders, would the ePack release be scrapped in favor of just putting it all out at one time? It doesn't look like it.

I just think it should all be one thing or the other. Distribute it anyway you want, but if you are doing boxes, do boxes. If you are doing ePacks, do ePacks. Don't make buyers wonder if they are being short changed because maybe they didn't pick the best way.

I think that giving people different ways to buy things is good.

I'm happy to be able to buy packs. If it weren't for ePack I wouldn't have bought any Black Panther, Thor Ragnarok, Spider-Man Homecoming, Fleer Ultra Spider-Man, Captain America, Daredevil, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Clerks, Doctor Strange, Alien Movie, Alien Anthology or a few other products.

Clearly Upper Deck is reaching people with ePack that otherwise would be left out of these products entirely -- I'm one of them.

I feel like we've discussed this ad nauseam.

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:
I think that giving people different ways to buy things is good . . .

I feel like we've discussed this ad nauseam.

Yes we have, but thank you webjon because if we weren't discussing it, who would be?

Someone made a comment that I read recently about Scoundrel's decline, which also mentioned Card Talk. They said Card Talk had the same few people always talking to each other. I kind of think that's fair, but it's not intentional. We have plenty of members and guest readers, but only the same relatively small group of posters keep coming up. I'm one of the guilty ones and so are you. It's not a bad thing. I'd be happy to hear what others think about ePacks and anything else hobby related, if they would only say.

And I agree with your point about having more options, I just don't want it to be at the expense of any specific option. Whether a card comes from a box or an ePack, there is a good chance it will eventually filter into the secondary market, which is the ultimate test of supply and demand and price setting. So it is the card collector who is not looking to sell that is most effected by choosing the right method of purchase and also which method he/she most enjoys. But enjoyment also means getting your monies worth, or you won't enjoy it for long.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
They said Card Talk had the same few people always talking to each other. I kind of think that's fair, but it's not intentional. We have plenty of members and guest readers, but only the same relatively small group of posters keep coming up. I'm one of the guilty ones and so are you. It's not a bad thing. I'd be happy to hear what others think about ePacks and anything else hobby related, if they would only say.

The trouble is that there are already several threads talking about the merits of ePack. . . If people wanted to join that conversation they would have. . . If every thread that mentions ePack becomes a topic about the merits of ePack it seems unlikely that more people are going to jump in to the discussion.

I was able to trade the dual auto I pulled for the Angela Bassett autograph I wanted -- sweet!

Now I'm super tempted to pick up more packs, but I really should stop while I'm ahead!