2017 Fleer Ultra Spider-Man

[DarthRogahn]

These look great! Well done!!

[Spider-Fan]

Originally Posted by RonimusPrime

I know I'm probably a minority, but serial numbers mean jack and squat to me. I don't care if I get 'base card but with a number on it'. To me, serially numbered inserts are not any different from non-serially numbered inserts. A sketch outweighs any level of that kind of artificial value because of its nature as a unique work of art. It doesn't matter that the market is 'flooded' so long as the sketch is unique- and UD has always been good at not letting things get by in those terms, unlike, say, Topps and their TFA shenannigans.

Serial numbers mean squat to me too.

The next installment of Marvel Premier will provide plenty of sketches. Until then, contact your favorite artists and buy some sketches direct. Everybody wins!

Not every product is going to make everybody happy. It's okay. Variety is better for everybody.

[IndySportsCards]

Originally Posted by richo

The size of the checklist and the addition of bronze tier for PMG is still a concern

Bronze Tier PMG's are the participation trophies of card collecting.

[DarthRogahn]

I do find it a little odd that certain artists are "e-pack" exclusives.

[IndySportsCards]

Originally Posted by DarthRogahn

I do find it a little odd that certain artists are "e-pack" exclusives.

This way they can give the impression of more hits and move more packs on a dying product or product they need to liquidate asap, IMHO.

[Xazark]

why are some sketches gold foil and other silver foil?

[Gambit C10]

Originally Posted by Xazark

why are some sketches gold foil and other silver foil?

To differentiate Epack from hobby? If so that is a nice subtle touch. Not sure if it'll add value.

[dd316]

Originally Posted by Xazark

why are some sketches gold foil and other silver foil?

Could just be the lighting. It's very easy for silver foil to look like other colors.

[UpperDeckMatt]

Originally Posted by Gambit C10

To differentiate Epack from hobby? If so that is a nice subtle touch. Not sure if it'll add value.

All sketch cards were printed with a silver foil. It could just be the lighting in the image or it is possible that an artist colored over the foil. I have seen both scenarios.

[IndySportsCards]

UpperDeckEpack.com

when trying to transfer cards to COMC am getting this message

Sorry, an error has occurred.

[dave23]

UpperDeckMatt:

Thanks for all the info so far. Is it possible to know which artists are exclusive to hobby or epack? I collect many specific artists, so it would be useful to know which version of the product I should purchase to try and pull them. Thanks.

[richo]

I will be very annoyed if the best artists have been cherry picked to push epacks.

[Carrbeaz]

Originally Posted by richo

I will be very annoyed if the best artists have been cherry picked to push epacks.

That means Terenishi will be for the epacks then right

[UpperDeckMatt]

Originally Posted by richo

I will be very annoyed if the best artists have been cherry picked to push epacks.

This is absolutely not the case. Some artists turned in cards faster than others. Any late artists that missed the packaging for the hobby release were used in e-Pack. This is not a standard practice and something I try to avoid. All prior hybrid releases between hobby and e-Pack had a split of all sketch card artist to be present in both. Our goal is to have an even representation of all artist across all product releases regardless of Hobby or e-Pack.

[Carrbeaz]

I just want to know why companies, both Topps and Upper Deck are guilty of this, think it is ok to put terrible sketch products in their product. And I am not talking about Terenishi, some of his work is rather nice. But I mean those sketches that quite honestly look like they put zero effort into, or don't have any real talent. Why would they put such poor work in a product they consider to be high end.

[Half Vaped]

Well, I just paid off my pre-order to DACW, so hopefully my case will be delivered by Friday.

I also picked up a promo card for this set, which was a surprise in that it looks to be every bit as quality as the card stock for MM16, unlike the crap quality card stock they used for MM16 promo. One bonus I really like is the minimal intrusions on the front's artwork. Absolutely no borders/ribbons and the character title and branding are completely non-obnoxious.

I hope the artwork on the final base cards are also minimally molested. If the artwork on all the inserts are anywhere near the artwork released so far for the base, this should be a very beautiful set to collect.

But at about two to four times the volume of MM16, I just find it hard to believe that this set will sell as well. But I'm hoping for the best.

[richo]

Originally Posted by UpperDeckMatt

This is absolutely not the case. Some artists turned in cards faster than others. Any late artists that missed the packaging for the hobby release were used in e-Pack. This is not a standard practice and something I try to avoid. All prior hybrid releases between hobby and e-Pack had a split of all sketch card artist to be present in both. Our goal is to have an even representation of all artist across all product releases regardless of Hobby or e-Pack.

Ok thanks for clarifying!

[HiltonL]

Originally Posted by UpperDeckMatt

This is absolutely not the case. Some artists turned in cards faster than others. Any late artists that missed the packaging for the hobby release were used in e-Pack. This is not a standard practice and something I try to avoid. All prior hybrid releases between hobby and e-Pack had a split of all sketch card artist to be present in both. Our goal is to have an even representation of all artist across all product releases regardless of Hobby or e-Pack.

Well, this certainly puts UD in a pickle. Why didn't UD consider redemptions or a brief delay to packaging the hobby release?

I am by no means a card industry insider, but it seems that your largest competitor uses redemption cards pretty liberally when they don't have hits in hand at packaging time. Probably a bigger deal to push back packaging, but products have been pushed back schedule-wise before, especially when your actual release date coincides with a giant hype-machine release like Star Wars 40th Anniversary. You should at least have been cognizant of the May-the-4th significance.

It's clear to me that UD did not have confidence that the sketches would be received AT ALL and so by accepting late sketches, they proceeded to add the late arrivals to e-packs, thus loading that product. This is a terrible outcome for physical product collectors.

[aggie4ever]

Originally Posted by HiltonL

Well, this certainly puts UD in a pickle. Why didn't UD consider redemptions or a brief delay to packaging the hobby release?

I am by no means a card industry insider, but it seems that your largest competitor uses redemption cards pretty liberally when they don't have hits in hand at packaging time. Probably a bigger deal to push back packaging, but products have been pushed back schedule-wise before, especially when your actual release date coincides with a giant hype-machine release like Star Wars 40th Anniversary. You should at least have been cognizant of the May-the-4th significance.

It's clear to me that UD did not have confidence that the sketches would be received AT ALL and so by accepting late sketches, they proceeded to add the late arrivals to e-packs, thus loading that product. This is a terrible outcome for physical product collectors.

Just because Topps uses redemptions, even in their non-sports products like Star Wars, doesn't mean it's a good idea. We've already seen Topps replace sketchagraph redemptions (worth $100+) with regular sketch cards (worth $20), a few Masterwork redemptions replaced with other autos since the actors didn't sign, and rumors of a few fairly new redemptions being already depleted (which, how exactly can that happen??? there should be as many actual cards as redemptions; pretty sure it was Adam Driver in Tek 2 that happened with, right?). And we haven't even hit the expiration date yet on any Star Wars products, since Topps just started doing that in the past year or two. Once we do have expired redemptions, that's really going to be a big hit on sealed wax. Especially since it's typically only the big name autos that are redemptions.

[UpperDeckMatt]

Originally Posted by HiltonL

Well, this certainly puts UD in a pickle. Why didn't UD consider redemptions or a brief delay to packaging the hobby release?

I am by no means a card industry insider, but it seems that your largest competitor uses redemption cards pretty liberally when they don't have hits in hand at packaging time. Probably a bigger deal to push back packaging, but products have been pushed back schedule-wise before, especially when your actual release date coincides with a giant hype-machine release like Star Wars 40th Anniversary. You should at least have been cognizant of the May-the-4th significance.

It's clear to me that UD did not have confidence that the sketches would be received AT ALL and so by accepting late sketches, they proceeded to add the late arrivals to e-packs, thus loading that product. This is a terrible outcome for physical product collectors.

Redemptions (at least for the non-sport side) is something we try to avoid at all costs. I will be the first person to admit that we have done it before, but it is not a standard from our perspective. It is even more challenging for sketch cards.

This is not loading the product to favor e-Pack over Hobby. If you end up with 1 sketch in every 6 boxes for hobby, you end up with 1 sketch in every 6 boxes for e-Pack. Boxes are not more favorable or "loaded" with better content in hobby or e-Pack. We no longer separate Hobby and e-Pack with similar yet different content. The hobby and the e-pack should have the same odds, percentages, and content as each other (excluding Achievement Cards). If you buy 2 random boxes on e-Pack, you have just as good of odds of pulling the same content as 2 random hobby boxes.

[HiltonL]

I'm not judging on whether or not redemptions are "good", but why give final greenlight to a physical product when you are anticipating an unknown number of hits being late? Unless there is rebalancing that went on between physical and e-pack that Matt is not telling us.

BTW, UD did sketch puzzle redemptions for MM16.

Edit: thx for the clarification, Matt.

[UpperDeckMatt]

Originally Posted by HiltonL

BTW, UD did sketch puzzle redemptions for MM16.

Edit: thx for the clarification, Matt.

The sketch puzzle redemptions for Masterpieces had a unique reason associated with. We wanted to make sure that in packs that include sketch cards also include the two other cards (Base, What If, etc), but the problem was if there was more than 3 cards in a pack, the foil wrap would bulge indicating additional cards and were very easily searched. Redemptions were used in order to combat the thickness associated with the puzzle cards and make sure you received all additional cards.

And not a problem Hilton

[Sharard]

Upperdeck Matt what is the period between epack release and physical release.

That info alone will tell if people that used their money to tie up pre orders with their physical retailer was a bad idea. I'm sure a lot of here like to hear when this epack release will happen. Thank you

[vaderccg]

ditto Sharad. wasn't sure if Matt answered that comment the other day.

thanks

[UpperDeckMatt]

Originally Posted by Sharard

Upperdeck Matt what is the period between epack release and physical release.

That info alone will tell if people that used their money to tie up pre orders with their physical retailer was a bad idea. I'm sure a lot of here like to hear when this epack release will happen. Thank you

TBD. The only information I currently know is that there will be an e-Pack release.