quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
So from a production side it seems like e-packs would be problematic. I mean, these are digital cards that equal produced physical cards. Right?

Yes and no. There is an element where you collect cards and can upgrade and turn them into physical cards, but that's just certain ones I think. When it comes to the inserts and premium hits that have published ratios you are dealing with physical cards that have specific production.

When you buy an ePack one of the cards is guaranteed to be physical, the rest are digital. So that Waltz autograph as an example is supposed to have been seeded in exactly the same ratio in sold ePacks as it was in the traditional boxes and when all of them have been pulled its gone. Of course you have to redeem the physical card through either UD direct or a COMC account, which is another step, but you will get whatever physical cards you pulled as long as you pay the shipping. Millions of base cards are probably not worth the shipping and I would assume languish at COMC some place.

Now there's a question to ask, how is COMC keeping track of all these accounts and the actual cards they are holding? Like everything else its easy to start, but what happens in ten years? They're going to need a bigger boat.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Raven,

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
So from a production side it seems like e-packs would be problematic. I mean, these are digital cards that equal produced physical cards. Right? Typically I tend to think of them in terms of autograph or material cards but what about the rest of them? Does UD have to hang on to a physical supply forever? What if some off card becomes valuable 10 years from now and a demand for redemption sky rockets?

The presumption is that all the cards are already produced and stored somewhere -- likely COMC.

When you pull a bigger hit on ePack you see the scan of the actual card you pulled. Low end hits or base show a sample image.

There are a couple interesting things about base cards. First you need to combine several digital base cards into a physical card -- I think the least I've seen is 5 and the most is 20. Also the physical ePack cards are different than the physical base cards that come in boxes.

Taking X-Files as an example. There are 20 packs in a box. There are 8 cards per pack, and it takes 10 digital base to make a physical (5 SP base and SSP base, but I'm just estimating on those because math). In your box you are going to wind up with 20 physical cards + 160 digital cards -- assuming everything is perfect a full box of cards in X-Files is only ~36 actual cards -- a full case is only about 450 cards (432 + some extra for SP/SSP combining). Effectively at this rate a 5000 count box could hold over 10 cases of product. ePack X-Files base are 'black parallels'

Ultimately from a production side ePack is much better for Upper Deck, and it's actually better for the value of base cards too as there are far fewer produced. A physical X-Files box contains 120 cards, a case 2400 -- as well as actual wrappers and actual boxes.

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:

Also the physical ePack cards are different than the physical base cards that come in boxes.

I never knew that, when you say diffrent do you mean picture or color etc.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:

Also the physical ePack cards are different than the physical base cards that come in boxes.

I never knew that, when you say diffrent do you mean picture or color etc.

Same pictures -- different border/color -- they are parallels.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
Now there's a question to ask, how is COMC keeping track of all these accounts and the actual cards they are holding? Like everything else its easy to start, but what happens in ten years? They're going to need a bigger boat.

Yes, this was partly what I was thinking when I asked the question. It would seem to me that part of the benefit of epacks from the corporate side is to be able to sell cards without actually having to manufacture (and ultimately store) all of them.

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:
There are a couple interesting things about base cards. First you need to combine several digital base cards into a physical card -- I think the least I've seen is 5 and the most is 20.

So let me make sure I understand this.

1. It requires a preset number of digital base cards to allow for a physical card redemption. I'm assuming you select which physical card you want and submit 5 or 20 random digital base cards for it.

2. The physical card, when received is actually a parallel card. Are these the same parallels that come in the physical set or something different?

3. In spite of not having a 1 for 1 digital to physical transfer, a digital box has the same inserts as a physical.

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:

So let me make sure I understand this.

1. It requires a preset number of digital base cards to allow for a physical card redemption. I'm assuming you select which physical card you want and submit 5 or 20 random digital base cards for it.

2. The physical card, when received is actually a parallel card. Are these the same parallels that come in the physical set or something different?

3. In spite of not having a 1 for 1 digital to physical transfer, a digital box has the same inserts as a physical.

1. You need to collect a certain number of copies of a specific digital card to exchange it for that physical card.

2. From what I have seen when you combine cards they are ePack exclusive parallels. I don't follow these that closely though so that might not be a hard and fast rule. If you look at base cards of X-Files on COMC they are black parallels -- the base cards in packs are white bordered.

3. I'm not really sure on the inserts -- I typically only collect autographs and sketches and don't pay much attention to anything else.

Also an email came out earlier today indicating that Bond will be on ePack on 8/28.

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:

1. You need to collect a certain number of copies of a specific digital card to exchange it for that physical card.

2. From what I have seen when you combine cards they are ePack exclusive parallels. I don't follow these that closely though so that might not be a hard and fast rule. If you look at base cards of X-Files on COMC they are black parallels -- the base cards in packs are white bordered.

3. I'm not really sure on the inserts -- I typically only collect autographs and sketches and don't pay much attention to anything else.

When I say insert I mean anything that has an insert ratio such as autographs. (i.e. 1:245 packs). If a physical box has two autographs, and a sketch or a costume card then the digital has the same.

Wow same card? Reminds me of the old Wild Card gimmick back in the day.

Don't think epacks will ever be my jam but thanks for the info.

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
When I say insert I mean anything that has an insert ratio such as autographs. (i.e. 1:245 packs). If a physical box has two autographs, and a sketch or a costume card then the digital has the same.

Wow same card? Reminds me of the old Wild Card gimmick back in the day.

Don't think epacks will ever be my jam but thanks for the info.

I think the autograph/sketch insertion ratios are generally the same.

It doesn't feel gimmicky. . . When you open a pack you'll get say cards 4, 67, 39, 12, 15 and an insert. . . Once you get the required number of copies of card #4 you can redeem it for a physical copy of card #4. This is where a lot of trading happens on ePack.

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:
It doesn't feel gimmicky

I guess, I'm just stating that Wild Card did the same thing with striped cards that had a number across it. For example if you pulled a stripe card with the number 20 on it, you could redeem it for 20 single cards with no stripe. You could also reverse the process and submit 20 singles for a single striped card. Also designed to spark trades.

I can see how the epack model works for trading.

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:
Also an email came out earlier today indicating that Bond will be on ePack on 8/28.

It is 8 hours in on the 28th and no sign yet. Of course I am talking Uk time which is only 5 hours ahead so its 3 hours in.

Usually the new sets post on ePack around noon or early afternoon Eastern time.

Bond is live on ePack.

I opened 3 packs and hit:

12 digital base cards

Physical Cards:
3 SPs
1 SSP
1 Tier 1 Bond Legacy
1 See the World

Packs are $5.99.

Have i got this right. Those physical cards are real cards, you just need to pay the postage to have them sent to you.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
Have i got this right. Those physical cards are real cards, you just need to pay the postage to have them sent to you.

That is correct.

They ship through COMC, and I believe COMC will ship overseas.

Bond is 4 digital base a pack so you need 250 packs to get a 1000 digital base to combine for a 100 card base set. Comc charge you $0.25 a card plus postage to have your cards sent to you. So a 100 card base set will cost $25 plus your chosen postage rate to have the cards sent to you.

quote:

Originally posted by sittin9duck:
Bond is 4 digital base a pack so you need 250 packs to get a 1000 digital base to combine for a 100 card base set.

There are much more cost effective ways to put together a set than buying the packs -- although if you do buy the packs you'll also pull lots of other stuff.

quote:

Originally posted by sittin9duck:
Bond is 4 digital base a pack so you need 250 packs to get a 1000 digital base to combine for a 100 card base set. Comc charge you $0.25 a card plus postage to have your cards sent to you. So a 100 card base set will cost $25 plus your chosen postage rate to have the cards sent to you.

Having to pay for shipping sucks, especially for things like base sets.

But being able to consolidate a lot of purchases in to a single order is cheaper than shipping each order individually.

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:

There are much more cost effective ways to put together a set than buying the packs --

How can you get a base set without buying any packs?

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
How can you get a base set without buying any packs?

You could buy the individual cards from COMC.

Or you could buy some packs and trade for base cards. Base cards are available for trade for far less than pack cost.

Or if you are on sites that allow buying and selling I'm sure you could buy the base cards from people on ePack, have them transferred to your ePack then ship them home. That's probably the most cost effective way . . .

Base cards on COMC for X-Files UFOs are selling for as low as $.27. COMC takes $.25 of that -- so sellers are selling the base cards for as little as $.02.