NHLPA restricts 2012-13 rookie class on cards

The Artifacts rookies will be made next year– Upper Deck stated that when they put them out that they would be made next year if they were not made this year.

Susan. When you find out could you please email me on what you find out. my email address is wildhcky659@yahoo.com. Thanks, Cole

This just gives ITG an advantage on securing first autographs of all the young players. License be damned…

I’m not a big rookie collector. I collect full sets (Score and OPC only) and team sets of my favorite team. But it really bugs me that if my team has a rookie that makes a big impact this season, I have to wait to get a card of him. Just don’t understand the logic here.

This is terrible news.

First, we had to survive the lockout and now the new crop of ‘good’ rookies won’t be available until the fall?

Sorry to say, but the rest of the 12/13 product calendar won’t be nearly as appealing now.

Here’s hoping 2013 Baseball & Football products will be enough to keep us afloat… *sigh*.

This is a potentially disastrous decision for small card shops, which rely on a steady flow of products to keep the doors open. What are those owners supposed to do when the number of products falls by two-thirds for the remainder of the year, and none of the better players are in those products?

Last night I stopped by Nick’s Sports Cards in Dallas to bust some SPGU with Nohands70 and Debbie comes out and shows us an email from Panini that they were cancelling a huge amount of future products. We wondered then why they were doing this??? Now we know! No new rookies which drives hockey sales, no need to put out new products that will sit on the shelf. STUPID move by the NHL and NHLPA Wonder how many collectors will say enough is enough and move on to another sport. How dumb can the NHLPA be??? STUPID, STUPID!!!!

This is the worst decision ever. Are you trying to kill this Hobby? Two thumbs down BIG time!!! I am so done with this year, what a JOKE!

I’m confused. Prior to this year we’ve been complaining about the card company’s terrible QA processes when it comes to card quality and hit assurance, 6-8 month redemption waiting periods & terrible customer service in addressing those issues. Now Panini is essentially saying they’d rather NOT put out a product then rush to put out a product where they don’t have the new RC auto’s, any GU [or ‘event worn’ materials and/or the [players’] time to host events to have the players sign the cards in house.
Are we really upset because Nail Yakupov won’t be on a 2012-13 UD Series II Young Guns, or are we actually upset that there’s not going to be a $800 AU/GU Cup card this summer [along with the other brand AU/GU RC cards]? I’m going to assume it’s the latter. At this point there haven’t been any events where the card companies have been able to get their own photos of the [new] RCs, they haven’t played any [NHL] games to get game photos. Without the photo events and with no games played so far, there’s no event-used/GU materials to put on the cards that don’t have photos, so there are no cards for the players to sign right this minute. [The card companies know how much we love to complain when high end product has stick-on autographs.] Once cards are produced, the shortened season & heavier travel schedule isn’t conducive to free time for new rookies to be sitting around signing hundreds of cards for Panini and Upper Deck. Which means lots of redemptions. And we LOVE redemptions right? And the more players who turn cards in late [like say at the end of the season], the slower the redemption process becomes. Which means we wouldn’t end up getting our cards until, I don’t know about the time next year’s product comes out.
Yes it sucks that we lost ½ season of the game. Yes it sucks that there’s only 3 decent guys to get on rookie cards. It does hurt the industry [my dad owns a card store, so I do understand both sides to this]. But a poor quality product that was rushed through production & is filled with redemptions which may take months to years before receiving also hurts the industry. I’m sure on their end the NHLPA had the [rookie] players’ best interest in mind, which is to focus on their game in the shortened season and not worry about photo shoots, signing events and deadlines for signing cards. And when the card companies agreed to delay the new rookie class with the NHLPA, they likely had their products’ quality and brand interest in mind and would rather wait to do things the way they need to then rush to put out a poor quality product with RC cards they know they won’t have in time. They also had their brand quality in mind when deciding to cancel product rather than put out a sub-par product that their customers aren’t going to like.

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?]

As a Brick and Mortar Card shop owner the NHLPA and the card companies have once again this year found a way to place a small business person in a serious situation. For any collectors that believe a card shop makes a ton of money they have lost sight of what eBay and the big card companies have done to the hobby. There was finally a light at the end of the tunnel for us folks in a year where passionate sports fans and hobbiests alike shared in the agony of missing an aspect of our Canadian heritage. I already have risk on every product every month while paying for Rent and every other Advertisent product that we are forced to buy form the ever empowered card companies, even with the rookie cards being included. Now this.

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!!!!!

Does this mean that most of the 2012-13 rookies cant even be redeamed even the #1 pick.wow then why are people still bidding on them.