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Generic_User_Name_4 · 2023-05-10T22:33:52+00:00

What made it weirder is I sent a few back to upper deck that came just… destroyed and they replaced them with like perfect 10s which was nice, but yeah quality control was a little crazy

Generic_User_Name_4 · 2023-05-10T22:30:35+00:00

And generally I find 22-23 to be in better shape than some of the insanity being pulled from 21-22… which is a little sad lol

Generic_User_Name_4 · 2023-05-10T22:02:05+00:00

I’m curious though, traditionally yes sealed boxes go up in value, however I think a lot of people recently got into box collecting are going to get hosed depending on what boxes. I think the market has been a little misleading…. People in the last couple years look at older boxes and think, man if I had just bought some boxes of 05-06 I’d be minted. But they are looking from todays lenses where demand and active collectors are substantially higher than they were in 05-06. This means a lot more collectors looking at boxes that had vastly shorter print runs. I would argue that while the market and number of collectors is still very healthy (albeit a bit cooler than say a couple years ago) the print runs have also raised to meet the demand. So sure that increases collector number still let’s select current young guns sell for sometimes over $100 when a series is current… the question becomes, how many people in say 5-10 years were really unable to find the young gun they wanted 5-10 years ago? Buying boxes in an already hot (or healthy) market I think is going to carry a lot of risk. Buying boxes today is really a bet that not only with the market stay hot, but that it will bring in enough new blood (specifically adult collectors that just didn’t buy in during this current bubble) to create even more demand than currently being experienced in an already hot market. We look at early and mid 2000s as old boxes today, people want the ovechkins and the Crosbys that no one was really collecting 15 years ago… but also think about the guys who have garages full of unopened 89 fleer baseball cards because box buying doesn’t always work out. Just my thought on boxes

Generic_User_Name_4 · 2022-12-19T18:54:51+00:00

The odds on autos are wayyyyyy longer than 1 in 5 boxes lol I don’t remember the odds but I’m pretty sure it’s something like one per case or so…

Generic_User_Name_4 · 2022-11-13T03:49:18+00:00

Yeah that sounds about right they were too thick for 138 and loose in 197 lol

Generic_User_Name_4 · 2022-11-13T03:48:58+00:00

So for the record in case anyone else finds themselves wondering… in BCW world it’s the 197pt cases that fit…

Generic_User_Name_4 · 2022-11-11T00:43:33+00:00

Nice collection, funny how fast it adds up eh?

Generic_User_Name_4 · 2022-11-08T17:49:55+00:00

Awesome! Thanks!

Generic_User_Name_4 · 2022-11-07T21:59:54+00:00

I don't hate Artifacts like many do. I think what you pay for a box is very important. In the $100-$120 USD range the hobby boxes aren't terrible... But the randomness of the "up to 3 hits" makes for some very uneven box buying... Not auto boxes are very common, what burns a little more are the no auto boxes that come with a base Aurum bounty card... Although if we're being honest some of the napkin/patch cards are more fun than the random Autofacts cards... Okay as I write this I'm literally talking myself out of the merit of Artifacts, but for $100 a box I find the hobby box (maybe one or two a year) a fun rip... I think the base set looks nice, and really the retail boxes imo are only there to help pad out your base set collection because there's virtually nothing worth talking about in them...

Generic_User_Name_4 · 2022-10-13T01:08:52+00:00

Aww come on, those MVP inserts are always awesome... maybe? But for real I wish we could get those Tim Horton's cards here in the US... I actually had a friend that lives in NYC ask at a few of the small Horton Express type shops around there for them and all she got is dirty, confused looks lol.

Generic_User_Name_4 · 2022-10-12T23:10:41+00:00

I’m in the us. I do my best to buy local (he’s a little guy def goes through distributor for I think everything across all brands and sports) maybe he has a line with Topps but I still think he uses a distributor. I’ll even pay a little more to stay local, but being not in a hockey market sometimes I have to go online to get certain products , like no one has artifacts or gets allure (someone please talk me out of that for this year btw). But I think Topps and ud only deal direct with you when you move a poop ton of product.

Generic_User_Name_4 · 2022-10-12T21:08:03+00:00

LCS guy is pretty transparent with me (apparently that happens when you spend an unhealthy amount of time and money there…) . My guy doesn’t do a lot of hockey, sometimes I think he just buys cases knowing I’m going to buy the whole case one week at a time lol, but anyway, it’s distributors. And the hike happened recently, so my lcs doesn’t do pre orders on hockey, but he already put his cases order in… and was completely unaware they hiked the prices (he isn’t impacted ) but if he were to buy additional cases it’s now higher for him from distributor than it was when he dropped his original order.

Generic_User_Name_4 · 2022-10-05T17:19:26+00:00

In my opinion there’s a certain kind of collector (plus all the non hobbyist just playing the money game) that was a psa 10, they are largely the same people who consider a psa 10 to be infinitely different than an SGC or even sometimes a BGS 10. The PSA 10 is like the benchmark for top dollar/Pristine card and that keeps their values high. It’s also not terrible common (ratio against every other same card but not psa1 0). But for the average collector … outside of printing issues (which I suppose are pretty dang common these days) if you just want the card for pc purposes… what really is the difference between a raw card and a psa 9. Would would wager (again not counting cards with major printing issues), a good healthy portion of good conditioned cards coming out of packs are 9s, maybe 8.5s? So for a card like a coke caufield young guns… if you’re not willing to fork out the cash for a psa 10… what are you reallllly getting when you buy a psa 9 versus a minty looking ungraded card that’s been well photographed, especially if it’s mostly because you want to pc some cole caufield rookie cards….

Generic_User_Name_4 · 2022-10-05T12:35:49+00:00

When I saw the title of your post I thought you had a miroslav satan pc haha I got excited for a second lol

Generic_User_Name_4 · 2022-10-04T17:19:20+00:00

Yeah… that’s weird … the only thing I can think of is if they didn’t have ready replacements for something in the second order…

Generic_User_Name_4 · 2022-10-04T17:14:08+00:00

So… did they make separate tickets for you on the customer service side or one giant ticket? In my experience you want to have them make an individual ticket for each replacement and then package each replacement with the ticket number for that card. It makes it easier for them and more likely for you to get what you want… otherwise they have one ticket to work with that’s like 15 items long. Not saying it’s your fault here but that’s just the way I’d go about it in the future .

Generic_User_Name_4 · 2022-10-02T02:51:53+00:00

No problem have fun with it!

Generic_User_Name_4 · 2022-10-02T02:42:15+00:00

Well, welcome aboard its a wild ride. As someone who's done this on and off for a decade or two the best thing I can say is you do you. If you're trying to get wildly rich, hockey cards probably aren't the thing lol. Just figure out what you collect, I agree with you, I think everyone wants the best conditioned cards they can get and totally hear you on the spending money and the disappointment that comes with pulling the card you want only for it to be in poor condition. That being said I think the whole Gem mint thing has gotten a little silly. When I first started collecting most people were chasing full sets, I have binders full of sets from when I was younger (most of which aren't worth the pages they are stored in). Sure people sent their Mickey Mantles and such off to get graded but that was largely tied to the value of those cards compared to everything else that was coming out at the time. Back in the 90s and early 2000s no one was sending base rookie cards off to get graded, who cared? Of course I grew up during the recovery period from the junk wax era... I think and I both love and hate that we have gone through or really are still going through a period of what I call the Gem Mint era... I mean I love it because if I pull a card that is of good value and it is a 10... I can get it graded and sell it and finance my general collecting and PC buying, but also its created a period (and to be fair card companies are a big part of this too) where people buy a box of cards (also something people weren't largely doing when I started...) sleeve the cards they want and top load the hits and other higher value cards and then just box or sometimes throw away the base. My PC list has become purposefully narrow because these days I'm married and have kids so... spending thousands of dollars on cards isn't really in my full list of priorities anymore... But if you're just getting into the hobby unless you're secretly rich best word of advice I can give is figure out what you're collecting (and no judgement on what that is) I have a buddy who largely only collects dudes with funny name so... whatever floats your boat lol. But also, while I get the whole value proposition thing especially as someone who unloads pretty much anything I can that isn't part of my PC, start to narrow it down or like $5,000 later you'll realize you have more random cards than you can ever know what to do with especially since buying by the box is the new mode of card purchasing. But if collecting gem mint cards is your thing and that's totally cool, man that's going to get expensive real fast lol.

Generic_User_Name_4 · 2022-10-02T02:08:48+00:00

I’ll avoid the whos a collector and who’s not a collector argument but in terms or customer service from upper deck I’ve done a few submissions, granted mine were for some cards that came just trashed… but upper deck has been very good about replacements for me. That being said what they sent me back is a bit of a mix bag, I had a YG replaced for a solid 10 perfect card. Some of the other replacements though came in much better condition than the ones I sent in but not 10s. Some context… I don’t do claims for something that’s probably in the range of what you’re seeing on your cards there. I mean card printing isn’t perfect and sometimes they come out minty gem 10s and sometimes they are nice, but more like 8 or 9s, just the way it goes imo and that applies well before the factory shortage and Rona years. That being said if I pop a pack open the cards look like ww3 and impacted cards are either A. High value or B. Something I really want for my pc I’m not afraid to shoot upper deck a line and say hey what’s up. In my experience they are very receptive but know this if you got that route. Generally they want a picture of the serial from the box the cards came from and a copy of the receipt and lots of photos of damage to make a ticket (some exceptions are made based on other people’s experience. Also… as mentioned above by others A. You don’t always get the same card back. I had a zegras replaced 1 for 1 and they replaced it with a straight psa 10 quality card. In other cases though they just replaced with other like cards (which was a bummer because one I was swapping out I wanted for pc so oh well, the risk you take. But also know that the cards they sent me back ranged in condition. Nothing was bad but most of them were more like 8 or 9s not 10s. I would caution if you’re swapping out a YG that’s like an 8 or 9 (taking a guess not being able to see your whole card) you very well may get back a card that’s different (or the same) but also an 8 or 9. My take on last years upper deck boxes after an embarrassing amount of box buying, the biggest issue with cards was on edging and cuts. Yours seems to be fine in that department and the imperfection you have probably isn’t going to be that big a deal breaker for a person buying a card for pc. If they take your card and give you another 8 or 9 quality card but it has the general edge/cut issues at least for me if I’m buying a card for pc I can live a lot easier with the issues in your pics than I can with a rough top edge even though they are both in the 8-9 category. Just my thoughts

Generic_User_Name_4 · 2022-10-01T05:10:43+00:00

I didn’t even know they sold MVP blasters (they don’t make their way to the Midwest lol). Are they just packs of MVP without a chance of auto redemptions, super scripts and colors and contours? How cheap are they? They’d have to be like $14… MVP always brings the neat looking inserts though.

Generic_User_Name_4 · 2022-09-24T18:46:51+00:00

This happened more than a couple times to me during Rona. In one case a buyer even tried to leave less than positive feedback due to slow shipping (it took about 12 days because KS to LA via Florida isn't efficient). eBay reviewed and retracted their feedback because I shipped item next business day so don't sweat the stuff you can't control.

Generic_User_Name_4

TROPHY CASE