Monday, February 9, 2009

Upper Deck Answers YOUR Questions

As I have mentioned a few times here on SCU, I have been conversing on and off with Gregg Kohn, Football Brand Manager for Upper Deck, for the last six or so months. Our first Q and A session is viewable here (link).

Gregg is a great asset to UD and to the customers themselves, and I have been continually surprised by the transparency that he has brought to the table. His help has been invaluable to my personal footprint in the hobby, as well as to this blog, and what follows is hopefully your chance to get involved in the awesomeness. Gregg has graciously offered to answer some questions from readers here on the blog, and I am really excited to see the kind of discussion we can get going.

Here is what I want to do:

- Post your questions below in the comments
- Gregg will read the questions and respond via the comments as needed
- He will answer what he can, we all understand that not everything is able to be shared
- Please give him proper time to respond, he is a busy guy
- Feel free to give feedback on products and UD Football in general, but I will warn that all nasty comments will not be approved

I encourage you to ask whatever is on your mind, this is your chance to get some insider info straight from the manufacturer.

Thank you again to Gregg for helping us to get that inside view we crave so much.

14 comments:

  1. This sounds like a great opportunity. I think it would be interesting to know what "management" THINKS collectors like and want to buy. In other words, what type of things/gimmicks are done to appeal to each of the different collecting demographics that Upper Deck has indentified.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Because I just experienced this, I will ask it.

    How do collation issues occur? I recently bought 4 boxes of SP Authentic with a friend of mine and 2 of them didn't have the auto/patch of any kind (rookie of veteran etc.).

    While I realize that the scale of which yall are packing products is massive, it's still an issue that frustrates collectors to no end. Not only because of the let-down, but also because of the hurdles that lay ahead to get it rectified. And even then, you know you aren't going to get one of the top guys in return.

    Part of the alluring charm that is opening wax is the chance at pulling a big card. Well, if that chance is taken away by the fact that you are shorted, it is also taken away by the fact that you know in return you are probably getting a Lorenzo Booker.

    To get specific, please take us through the process of how an SP Authentic Patch (or any product you choose) goes into packs and then those packs into boxes and cases. It better help us understand how in every product, there are the same collation and shortage problems from manufactures.

    Thanks you for your attention to your customers.

    -Voluntarheel

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sorry if this was ever discussed before, I'm fairly new to the card blog scene. But a long time collector.

    Do you, or have you collected? If so, what is the "gem" of your collection you'll always hold on to?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Gregg, thanks for doing this, Im excited. Here is my question:

    The redemption process seems to have slipped lately in terms of the 45 days. Are you guys still going by that standard, and if you are, what are you doing for the people who are still waiting those long amounts of time?

    Thanks!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for the questions, I have sent an email to Gregg. Hopefully he can answer soon.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Gregg, you are awesome for doing this.

    A recent hot topic on the blog has been the cost of maintaining the autograph content of a product due to the costs charged by the players. Can you comment on what this is like for UD football?

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have a question you may be able to answer, maybe not.

    With the economy today, are you guys at all worried about Exquisite and the possibility of sales not being anywhere close to where you expected? Im excited for it, but sadly I cant buy any due to my money situation. Im sure there are a lot of people out there like me.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Gregg>

    Q1:
    Since there was 0 cards of Kenny Phillips with "event worn" Giants gear in 2008, will there be in 2009? He had a great year and was a first round pick. I really hope to see some jerseys/patches/auto cards of him in the Giants uniform for 2009, he had such a great season.

    Q2:
    For next year, if Exquisite is coming back, don't you think that for that price the customer should get gameused rookie cards? Since Exquisite releases after the whole season is played, isn't there a possibility to use the gear from the rookie season? I think that "even-used" can be ok with low-mid end products, but anything for like $400+ and that releases so late in the season you would think should give something extra.

    Thanks,
    Lars

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi. I've noticed that no gold versions of SP Authentics base cards exist on Ebay yet. What's the reason for that. So far I've only seen gold parallels of the rookie patch autos, but not of the regular rookie autos or base rookies.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Why is the price difference on Upper Deck Base so vastly different between the Hobby and Retail versions (per pack here) when the differences do not match up?

    18 cards vs 20
    1 'hit' vs 3(?) hits
    $3 vs $6ish.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Gregg just sent me an email saying that he will try his best to answer tonight.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Internally, what role are manufactured patch cards supposed to play in a card set? Some manufactured patches, like the non-auto'ed cards from UD Premier, seem like just a way to take up the space of something cool you'd otherwise be getting. Other ones, like the SP Numbers Signatures in this year's SPA, seem like an interesting way to add a little bit of class to a card.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Guys, I apologize for the wait on your answers, gregg is in the middle of packing out Exquisite football right now, and he said he will get to the answers quickly. I hope that is the case. Again, so sorry.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Ask Gregg what he listened to on his iPod while they packed out Exquisite. Packing out Exquisite BK was bizarre only because of the 70's music that was cranked out from his iPod.

    ReplyDelete