For those who know me/us, our card shop is a hobby and has been since 1989 – but not for my employees. We can only operate at a loss for so long before being forced to addressing the bottom line.

When the NBA decided no new RC’s, the people we had in our area who did collect BK never came back. ZERO. We now have people saying the same thing about collecting hockey and they are now selling off their collections. The NHL is missing the

Many collectors that have been in the hobby have not only said they are not collecting any more this year, but are now selling their collections. It is so sad that a group of people that are over-paid, ego driven individuals are making the little guy that is promoting their brand (ie. NHL, NHLPA, Panini and Upper Deck) suffer.

There are a lot of people that were hurt this year by the strike, but it appears it is the card collectors and the card store owners that will continue to hurt. Such a disappointment, maybe it is my fault in being so surprised. Only thing to do is to cancel pre-orders and hope we can ride it out. We opened our doors because we loved the hobby, It is painful to listen to our customer’s frustration when there is nothing we can do for them. We already have to reduce prices to below or meet cost just to sell it. So, once again the collector’s values go down.

Anyone thinking this is about quality in relation to redemption packing etc. Explain to me quality when companies like Upper Deck do nothing for a customer with damaged product. Where their customer service group disappears for months. This is more about money. Just think, your first box of Upper Deck Series One next year will be $80 the second $150. And be assured for those asking your store owner the question next year, they are making no more money…..and probable less just to keep a customer. Ask yourself who gets that money. Upper Deck’s The Cup EVERY YEAR is a great example of this logic. It’s joke, a creul, creul joke. Hurting collectors and store owners a like. I wish other card collectors much luck through this, I wish I had the answer to make them hears us. The only action I have is to cancel. Oh wait, they already cancelled most of it for us by not even making an effort to produce ulternate options. They only had 113 days!!!!!

Panini and Upper Deck lose money when they cancel brands/product lines. They control the quantities of their products so they sell out of virtually everything they produce, so cancelling a product line costs them money. As a collector, I’d rather see the card companies cancel a line then put out a bunch of junk for the purpose on meeting a product line requirement. While it hurts dealers this year, it says a lot about changes in product quality the card companies are taking. Those changes are what’s going to keep the industry alive for the years to come in the future.

For those products which are being delivered, Panini and Upper Deck seem to have taken the lack of rookies into consideration for many of their product lines finding other creative ways to ensure collector’s value is received from the product. I don’t even collect most of the RC cards [I like the goalies] but I know if I buy a case of something, I’m going to need to a good AU/GU RC out of it if I want to get my money’s worth out of the case. The Autographed Emerald Cards in Black Diamond were pretty cool. I got a /10 Emerald Bobby Hull in a case of BD I opened. That was kind of cool. I got a piece of the Stanley Cup Finals Net [/25] in my SPGU case. And how cool were the little ‘goalie pulls’ from the Certified?

My point is this decision seems to be made due to the lockout-shortened season and isn’t an independent decision being made for the sole purpose of screwing over collectors and hockey fans. It’s one more residual effect of the lockout that we need to deal with. As of right now the card companies have no pictures, no jerseys to cut up, no cards for new RCs to sign. The new RCs don’t have time to be going to photo shoots/events or need to be worried about deadlines for signing cards so we’re not going to get any new RC cards any time soon. The alternative to the decision made is to put out 2012-13 product filled with redemptions for RC cards that we wouldn’t see for months. And if we’re not getting the cards for months after the product’s been out, does it really matter if they say 2012-13 or 2013-14 on them?

Someone brought up concerns with the Artifacts redemptions. I’m pretty sure I got my 2011-12 Artifacts RCs just a few weeks before 2012-13 Artifacts came out. [I’d forgotten about them and had no idea where they’d come from]. They weren’t even signed and didn’t have any memorabilia on them, so I’m not sure what that delay was all about, but at that point, it didn’t really matter what year was on the cards. I’d rather see the RCs delayed if it means less redemptions, more hard-signed AUs, more MEM cards & a better quality product. And I’d rather see product lines cancelled then buying a case something to have it turn out to be some junk product that I can’t get my money’s worth out of.

While I’m sure it’s would be no big deal to have Nail Yakupov on a 2012-13 UD Series II Young Gun card, if you think about what’s involved in all of the other aspects of the ‘Rookie Class’, the NHLPA thought it more important for their rookie class to be focused on the remainder of the shortened season and the card companies decided to wait until they could properly produce the new rookie class without rushing a poor quality [redemption filled] product to market. It sucks, collectors lose out, card stores lose out, but it says a lot about the dedication to quality that company’s are putting into their products.

PS: On the topic of QA has anyone else noticed seen 2012-13 SP Game Used card #TC-33. That’s NOT Simon Despres. I noticed because his tongue wasn’t sticking out. [Has anyone seen a picture of Simon Despres on a card where his tongue ISN’T outside of his mouth? ] I’m pretty sure it’s Erik Gudbranson. Which leads me to wonder who’s jersey swatch is actually on the card?

PPS: On the topic of creative ways to make up for the lack of the rookies, I did NOT appreciate UD Artifacts idea of using a limited number goalie subset in lieu of an extended rookie subset. I am SO glad I did NOT buy a case of that product. Who the heck wants to spend time open a case of packs with no goalies to look at on the base cards? [And what was the deal with Certified leaving Carey Price out of their base set? Jhonas Enroth gets to be on a Certified base card but not Carey? What’s up with that?]

Are they hoping that it makes 2013-14 products loaded just as it was in 2005-06, the season after the last lockout. Sorry, won’t happen. Yakupov is no Crosby (or even Ovechkin), and doesn’t have the draw of either.

As a card store owner, this year was looking pretty sad, but it looked hopeful with the end of the lockout. Series 2 UD would sell well, and even redemption product from earlier would still sell. Well, not anymore. I am cancelling my order of series 2 (since there will be dick all for rookies), and cutting backk all the other orders.

Also, does this mean that if Yakupov and the rest of the class do play this year, they are ineligible for the Calder trophy? Probably not, but I sure hope so. 1) Why give them a trophy, when you can’t make a card for it? 2) They’ll have to fight it out with next years RC Class if they want the Calder.

They might as well have stayed out the rest of the year, because that’s the same thing from my point of view.