Upper Deck Avengers Infinity War this Summer?

[Carrbeaz]

Originally Posted by DrGhostbuster

Will the signers happen? Let's just stay positive and say I sure as heck hope so.

I agree with you, but when FOMO hits people their fallback is to trash a product they missed out on or sold too cheap too early.

[kerg]

Originally Posted by zonacats8

Honestly... they should just hold off on this set until Avengers 4 and make it a bigger/better set like they did with AC.

The licensing agreement may not allow for that. UD might need to put out a set for this.

The cold hard truth about these type of sets is that money is the bottom line. The person that provides the license wants their payment for the use of the license and UD wants to make money for buying that license. If I hold the license and tell UD (Crypto, Topps or whomever) it is $25K upfront + 10% of sales of at least 500 cases @ 900 per case and you'll release 1 product a year, at the end of the year, I want my check for $45K.

Sure, as a collector you want the best product with the best signers, but the company is not going to willingly take a loss and not put out product because they couldn't get a certain person to sign. Honestly, with all the approvals and different personalities with movies/TV shows, I'm surprised any movie or tv sets are made.

[Carrbeaz]

Originally Posted by kerg

The licensing agreement may not allow for that. UD might need to put out a set for this.

The cold hard truth about these type of sets is that money is the bottom line. The person that provides the license wants their payment for the use of the license and UD wants to make money for buying that license. If I hold the license and tell UD (Crypto, Topps or whomever) it is $25K upfront + 10% of sales of at least 500 cases @ 900 per case and you'll release 1 product a year, at the end of the year, I want my check for $45K.

Sure, as a collector you want the best product with the best signers, but the company is not going to willingly take a loss and not put out product because they couldn't get a certain person to sign. Honestly, with all the approvals and different personalities with movies/TV shows, I'm surprised any movie or tv sets are made.

The thing is.. Rittenhouse time and time again does this with set after set. They get nearly ALL the main actors for their sets.. Look at the recent Twin Peaks set as an example. And they are all ON CARD.

And Rittenhouse is a smaller company with not near the experience as upper deck but seems to get the job done.

[kerg]

Originally Posted by Carrbeaz

The thing is.. Rittenhouse time and time again does this with set after set. They get nearly ALL the main actors for their sets..

I was strictly talking about comments related to cancelling a set, not doing a set or don't do it if you don't get X person. A business isn't going take a loss if X person doesn't sign.

However, agree, their execution of sets is severely lacking lately. Most logical explanation is they are going light on autos to make more profit (or to even turn a profit)

[AceGambit3]

Originally Posted by Vargaman

Well people kind of ran UDMatt out of town after Black Panther, but if he's still employed and forum interaction is part of his job, then he should be replying here.

Topps has changed plenty on their own as well. IMO there shouldn't be mock-ups for hits, those should be finalized before sell sheets go out.

Also, how about not pre-ordering then? You really can't complain when companies know they can pull this crap and you're locked in already. Just look at the video game industry, which is even funnier since games NEVER sell out with digital copies nowadays. The only incentive is a download code for something likely useless anyways.

If they see people stop pre-ordering without confirmed sell sheets or a checklist, they'll have to change or risk going out of business.

only products I pre-order are from cryptozoic because I know that they're never going to pull this type of s***. So yes I can complain and I will continue to call Upper Deck and Topps out for their shady ass piece of s*** practices day in and day out. I got no problem when they release a good set or it's a junk set but are on the up-and-up. But the constant excuses that UDMatt brings to the table and the crap they peddle most of the time is absolutely ridiculous. I agree with Webjon when he said really the only time to deal with Upper Deck is on E- Pack and most of that's when they have the buy one get one free.

And people sitting here talking about well they got to make their money and the contract and they got to pay for this and whatever yeah that's fine but no one said you had to do it shady as hell.

[kerg]

Originally Posted by AceGambit3

And people sitting here talking about well they got to make their money and the contract and they got to pay for this and whatever yeah that's fine but no one said you had to do it shady as hell.

Once again, I was only speaking about cancelling a product because they don't get X person to sign which is a popular line people bring out for any product, not just Upper Deck.

Didn't mention the practice of putting out samples that never make the product which I agree is crap and I'm surely no fan of UD's practices or their sets lately so, don't turn my statement into some UD fanboy comment or think I'm excusing their actions.

[Sharard]

Seems much easier to get tv series stuff than recently released movie stuff.. I mean look at upper deck daredevil. That seemingly under appreciated set had great autos. I don’t think fair comparison... need compare tv to tv release.. Movie to Movie release.

Now please don’t think that I think upper deck shenanigans is ok and understand they really haven’t put out a quality release since a few years ago. But with Disney taking over, they certainly haven’t helped the situation.

[ifish73]

Originally Posted by Sharard

Seems much easier to get tv series stuff than recently released movie stuff.. I mean look at upper deck daredevil. That seemingly under appreciated set had great autos. I don’t think fair comparison... need compare tv to tv release.. Movie to Movie release.

Now please don’t think that I think upper deck shenanigans is ok and understand they really haven’t put out a quality release since a few years ago. But with Disney taking over, they certainly haven’t helped the situation.

Rittenhouse did with Star Trek Beyond and Cryptozoic did with the Hobbit releases.

Not sure which one but Rittenhouse also had one of the Bond releases with most of the big names in it.

[Sharard]

Originally Posted by ifish73

Rittenhouse did with Star Trek Beyond and Cryptozoic did with the Hobbit releases.

Not sure which one but Rittenhouse also had one of the Bond releases with most of the big names in it.

Good examples but non Disney. I just think Disney has made things lot more difficult with these types of releases.

Hobbit was years ago but admit great release, beyond is a great example too. But around those times had guardians one release and Thor, both regarded as decent releases. So we can’t forget those when comparing movie to movie.

[ifish73]

Originally Posted by Sharard

Good examples but non Disney. I just think Disney has made things lot more difficult with these types of releases.

Hobbit was years ago but admit great release, beyond is a great example too. But around those times had guardians one release and Thor, both regarded as decent releases. So we can’t forget those when comparing movie to movie.

Just as old as Hobbit and LotR was the early X-Men and Wolverine releases that Topps and Rittenhouse put out. I didn't include them because I consider that the infancy of superhero movie sets along with Iron Man 1 and 2. Autograph lineups were very strong in those releases. Never opened any so not sure how hard it was to pull any one particular person but they most of the main cast.

[DrGhostbuster]

Off topic, but speaking of LOTR, I just rewatched the extended edition in theaters this past weekend. I never opened any LOTR card products so I was researching all the different sets. Man, the Topps Fellowship set was loaded with top notch signers. I would have loved to opened a case of that product at MSRP.

I would love to see a new LOTR set. Is the license with Crypto now or does Topps still have it?

[oldgoldy97]

Poor UD. They try so hard but their hands are tied.

[tier1dc]

Originally Posted by Vargaman

Well people kind of ran UDMatt out of town after Black Panther, but if he's still employed and forum interaction is part of his job, then he should be replying here.

UDMatt bounced on May 1 when he realized he wasn't going to be able to spin the turd of Black Panther in this forum. Speaks to the lack of interaction and pride with the product. Just doing a job with no regard to the consumer.

Originally Posted by DrGhostbuster

I agree that the way to send a message is to not pre order. However people are still going to pre order in hopes that said product will be the 1 out of 10 set that is amazing.

Right now this product is sitting around $1.5k for a 16 box case. If Upper Deck was to throw a hail marry to get fans back on board and nabbed the dream team of signers, the absolute top ten signers including the likes of Robert Downey Jr and Tom Holland, the case price is going to absolutely skyrocket.

Will the signers happen? Let's just stay positive and say I sure as heck hope so.

how many times will people continue to 'hope' that Upper Deck turns it around? they will never do it. it's not in their DNA and are incompetent from top to bottom. 'hoping' that a 10% chance of a $1.5+k case will be a worthwhile product is just crazy.

Upper Deck will never, ever get RDJ to sign. It's pretty obvious from all the previous deflection and excuses from the previous Black Panther set that they have NO intention of actually resolving their signers list problems. They just take whatever is given to them by the Disney and say thank you. There is no effort on their part, either in the quality of the set or the drive to include real top level talent.

They're lazy and regard these movie IP products as requirements to fulfill a contract. When EVERY auto is a sticker on EVERY product it shows how little they try.

Originally Posted by oldgoldy97

Poor UD. They try so hard but their hands are tied.

UD doesn't try, at all. Rittenhouse & Crypto try. Upper Deck is lazy and needs to be absorbed by another company or dissolved.

[PoPCulture]

Hope is not a business plan!

The fact that “hope” is all that UD has to offer while soliciting their non sport sets these days tells everything you need to know about the company’s integrity.

[robomole]

Even if they snag big autos in this set, without the costume cards where will the value come from? I know costumes don't really sell for that much these days, but it was the best hit we had that was consistent in every box. I feel like we're gonna get more and more boxes with only manufactured hits. Unless you hit it big with a huge auto or sketch, it seems like this set is gonna be a money pit.

[gdelan1]

i saw black panther boxes for $60 during labor day weekend and they still were not selling. Imagine how amazing it would be if Rittenhouse got the MCU license. I wonder why no DCEU cards have surfaced anywhere?

[UpperDeckMatt]

Originally Posted by tier1dc

UDMatt bounced on May 1 when he realized he wasn't going to be able to spin the turd of Black Panther in this forum. Speaks to the lack of interaction and pride with the product. Just doing a job with no regard to the consumer.

My attendance to these forums is a contradiction of your statement. My presence here, however, is entirely optional as my job priorities are in product development. I was here as a courtesy to anyone who frequents the boards as they do provide feedback and insight, not just for UD products, but for the hobby as a whole. And with most things that are optional in life, I have a choice, and I have chosen to stop posting (with the exception here and yes, I see the irony in that...).

I can give explanations and insights in regards to decisions made or our approach to problems from the company stance, within reason. I can even give first hand info about what to expect for upcoming products as well as clarifications to questions. But what I can't do is change peoples opinions formed from incomplete data. Data that I either can't reveal (internal), or data that I don't have (external). Yes, I understand that you are upset with something, and we will do everything we can to fix it in the future, but the fix will absolutely not come over night. If you want to assume that UD is simply not trying, that is YOUR opinion and you have every right to form one, but that is simply not true. Some products will be better than others regardless of what is in it. Especially when different people want different things. I have seen some people state that the lack of wardrobe for Infinity War is a turn off for them. That was a decision on our end to focus time and resources elsewhere. Does that mean that these customers may not buy Infinity War when it releases? Quite possibly, but that is a risk we are taking. Once Infinity War releases, I'm sure everyone will post their thoughts here as well as other sites. If you are upset about a certain factor of the hobby, that is fine. We want that feedback and we will try to adjust going forward for future products and try to help. What we can't help with is factors that are beyond our control, but we will try our hardest to make it right. Assuming that we don't "try" to the best of our abilities as a company is a straight up falsehood.

TLDR: I chose to not participate in the forums anymore. Rather than becoming a conduit of information as I was hoping, I became more of a focal point of hostility. Spending hours debating a company decision or trying to essentially explain myself for factors that I/UD do not have control of was not beneficial to anyone. We should try to work together to make the hobby better as a whole as that will benefit everyone. I say this as a collector more than a UD employee. I will still lurk the forums to see what's up from time to time.



And yes, you can expect Tom Holland to have auto cards in Infinity war with new & returning signers.

[DrGhostbuster]

UpperDeck Matt, thank you. I apreciate you on here and missed your postings of late.

Also thank you for confirming Tom Holland.

[glorbgorb]

Originally Posted by AceGambit3

... it's best to spend our money elsewhere unless we're really going for random background autograph bingo and waiting to see NYC Street Pedestrian #2 Matthew Zuk Autograph.

My cousin, Matthew Zuk, told me to tell you 'thanks' for mentioning him on a forum posting.






(Kidding, but he's probably got a cousin somewhere out there that would be proud)

[Sharard]

Thank you Matt. I really took a bath on a Black Panther but it’s part of the business. But I do appreciate the updates and info. I’m hoping this release will be a step in the right direction of what we can expect going forward. I’m really hoping upper deck proves the vitriolic responses here wrong. The trust will not come in one release but sure can help.

[Vargaman]

Originally Posted by UpperDeckMatt

My attendance to these forums is a contradiction of your statement. My presence here, however, is entirely optional as my job priorities are in product development. I was here as a courtesy to anyone who frequents the boards as they do provide feedback and insight, not just for UD products, but for the hobby as a whole. And with most things that are optional in life, I have a choice, and I have chosen to stop posting (with the exception here and yes, I see the irony in that...).

I can give explanations and insights in regards to decisions made or our approach to problems from the company stance, within reason. I can even give first hand info about what to expect for upcoming products as well as clarifications to questions. But what I can't do is change peoples opinions formed from incomplete data. Data that I either can't reveal (internal), or data that I don't have (external). Yes, I understand that you are upset with something, and we will do everything we can to fix it in the future, but the fix will absolutely not come over night. If you want to assume that UD is simply not trying, that is YOUR opinion and you have every right to form one, but that is simply not true. Some products will be better than others regardless of what is in it. Especially when different people want different things. I have seen some people state that the lack of wardrobe for Infinity War is a turn off for them. That was a decision on our end to focus time and resources elsewhere. Does that mean that these customers may not buy Infinity War when it releases? Quite possibly, but that is a risk we are taking. Once Infinity War releases, I'm sure everyone will post their thoughts here as well as other sites. If you are upset about a certain factor of the hobby, that is fine. We want that feedback and we will try to adjust going forward for future products and try to help. What we can't help with is factors that are beyond our control, but we will try our hardest to make it right. Assuming that we don't "try" to the best of our abilities as a company is a straight up falsehood.

TLDR: I chose to not participate in the forums anymore. Rather than becoming a conduit of information as I was hoping, I became more of a focal point of hostility. Spending hours debating a company decision or trying to essentially explain myself for factors that I/UD do not have control of was not beneficial to anyone. We should try to work together to make the hobby better as a whole as that will benefit everyone. I say this as a collector more than a UD employee. I will still lurk the forums to see what's up from time to time.



And yes, you can expect Tom Holland to have auto cards in Infinity war with new & returning signers.

On a side note, it's be a cool insert set design to have a 7 card set, using acetate cards that you'd layer to form the infinity gauntlet.

So like one card would be the gauntlet with the holes/clear spaces, and then there would be 6 stone cards related to either the movie they're from or character they're tied to (i.e. Loki w/ Tesseract or Red Skull with Soul Stone) and then if you stacked all 7 you'd have the stones shown in the gauntlet!

[AceGambit3]

One thing UD can control.....using made up images to presell cards. Great UDMatt confirmed Holland, how difficult is it to have the sell sheet include the actual card? As stated before it's not like this set is dropping in time for the movie release (theater or home) so waiting to have a proper one would have been a step in right direction.


Btw Vargaman- I like the acetate stacking idea.
The acetate cards in Thor: TDW were my personal favorites in that release.

[Vargaman]

Originally Posted by AceGambit3

One thing UD can control.....using made up images to presell cards. Great UDMatt confirmed Holland, how difficult is it to have the sell sheet include the actual card? As stated before it's not like this set is dropping in time for the movie release (theater or home) so waiting to have a proper one would have been a step in right direction.


Btw Vargaman- I like the acetate stacking idea.
The acetate cards in Thor: TDW were my personal favorites in that release.

Thanks!

And I wonder how much power/control the license owner has when it comes to these sets. Kind of like how Topps had to remove the Death Star relics last minute (or so they say) from MW2. Could Disney say on the day before boxing that all Holland autos need to be shredded? Or once they approve the card is it full steam ahead?

[webjon]

Originally Posted by UpperDeckMatt

TLDR: I chose to not participate in the forums anymore. Rather than becoming a conduit of information as I was hoping, I became more of a focal point of hostility. Spending hours debating a company decision or trying to essentially explain myself for factors that I/UD do not have control of was not beneficial to anyone. We should try to work together to make the hobby better as a whole as that will benefit everyone. I say this as a collector more than a UD employee. I will still lurk the forums to see what's up from time to time.

I can certainly understand why you stopped putting yourself out there on the forum after all the comments. . .

I think it is very unfortunate that you've effectively been pushed out of the forum.

For what it's worth I've been a fan of what Upper Deck has been doing, especially on the ePack platform.

Looking forward to this release!

[daviswr7]

Originally Posted by UpperDeckMatt

My attendance to these forums is a contradiction of your statement. My presence here, however, is entirely optional as my job priorities are in product development. I was here as a courtesy to anyone who frequents the boards as they do provide feedback and insight, not just for UD products, but for the hobby as a whole. And with most things that are optional in life, I have a choice, and I have chosen to stop posting (with the exception here and yes, I see the irony in that...).

I can give explanations and insights in regards to decisions made or our approach to problems from the company stance, within reason. I can even give first hand info about what to expect for upcoming products as well as clarifications to questions. But what I can't do is change peoples opinions formed from incomplete data. Data that I either can't reveal (internal), or data that I don't have (external). Yes, I understand that you are upset with something, and we will do everything we can to fix it in the future, but the fix will absolutely not come over night. If you want to assume that UD is simply not trying, that is YOUR opinion and you have every right to form one, but that is simply not true. Some products will be better than others regardless of what is in it. Especially when different people want different things. I have seen some people state that the lack of wardrobe for Infinity War is a turn off for them. That was a decision on our end to focus time and resources elsewhere. Does that mean that these customers may not buy Infinity War when it releases? Quite possibly, but that is a risk we are taking. Once Infinity War releases, I'm sure everyone will post their thoughts here as well as other sites. If you are upset about a certain factor of the hobby, that is fine. We want that feedback and we will try to adjust going forward for future products and try to help. What we can't help with is factors that are beyond our control, but we will try our hardest to make it right. Assuming that we don't "try" to the best of our abilities as a company is a straight up falsehood.

TLDR: I chose to not participate in the forums anymore. Rather than becoming a conduit of information as I was hoping, I became more of a focal point of hostility. Spending hours debating a company decision or trying to essentially explain myself for factors that I/UD do not have control of was not beneficial to anyone. We should try to work together to make the hobby better as a whole as that will benefit everyone. I say this as a collector more than a UD employee. I will still lurk the forums to see what's up from time to time.



And yes, you can expect Tom Holland to have auto cards in Infinity war with new & returning signers.

Thanks for chiming in Matt!! As as a Brick and Mortar shop owner, and a member on BO, I very much appreciate any insight that I can pass along to my customers regarding these Non-Sport products. It does help.