getting your money's worth out of UD

last time i felt like i got my money's worth was back in 2019 when a box of series one had a petersson yg and a pionk clear cut young gun. the only reason i keep buying product is bc there continues to be staple products that are less than 200 a box whereas with other sports you are hard pressed to find anything less than 300 dollars even with the world going back to normal.
 
Probably Tim Hortons, MVP, Team Canada Juniors, and O-Pee-Chee are the only products that consistently provide good value every year. Series 1/Series 2 used to be pretty good, but the massive price increase coupled with the massive production increase means you need to hit big name YG Clear Cuts/Exclusives/High Gloss to feel you'll have a chance at getting your money's worth.

Derek
 
Upper Deck is truly hit or miss. Living in Texas, no Tim Hortons down here but generally UD1 and UD2 are close to value, O Pee Chee is a fun break for the price, and I have had amazing success breaking Synergy and boxes are only $108. USD at our local.

Ice and OPC Platinum were close to value but not this year so they might be a push if you are lucky. I opened 10 boxes of Platinum this year finished the set but not a decent autograph or color card out of the break. Glad to have the set but for the money spent, not even close.

For the last couple of years, I got crushed on breaking SP Authentic, Artifacts, Ultimate, and some other products. NOT worth it at all, not sure if I will ever buy these again. SPA was the worse. The one autographed patch from a case of SPA I opened was from a previous years release and I checked closed sales on eBay and some other poor collector had pulled the same patch and didn't even get a bid at $35.00 And on the Future Watch autos from the case there was not a single auto of a guy you would really want. Certainly none of the better autos.

As for the Cup, I gave up on that product years ago. You want to lose money on about 90% of the tins buy Cup, so done with Cup.
 
I get good value on finding Upper Deck Series 1/2 on sale. A lot of the stuff drops a lot. Sometimes as low as $30-35 USD for a retail box. With those odds you can speculate and come out quite a bit ahead. For example, I bought 10 of the 2017/18 series 1 boxes for $30 USD each. Pulled a few Tage Thomspon YGs, got those graded, and sold for $500 each.

Buying new stuff and coming out ahead? You can slightly come out ahead with S1/S2 on release date. For example, Dazzler inserts will sell for a premium, but the set collectors get their sets and the premium dies down quickly.

Any other product? Not a chance. With every product but S1/S2, you're guaranteed to get less than 50 cents on the dollar. It's shameful how little value UD puts into their product when compared to what collectors of other sports get. And UD keeps upping their prices!
 
Products across the board for all sports is terrible. Mass produced, prices increased, mostly no name rookies that don't have a chance and vet content that is of players that no one cares about. Case in point. I love Finest baseball and used to be able to get 3-4 boxes every year, but over the past couple of years I only got 1-2. My boxes last year had 4 scrubs autos and two of them were Luis Gil. Fine, he's a yankee but will never amount to anything. The hobby is a gamble that it has ever been and that's just the way it will stay until prices go back to normal. I also agree that Tim Hortons is a fun break where value isn't so lobsided, but how long before these packs are $5 a pop?
 
Just wait until next year and buy Series Two. If Bedard has a good start the his NHL career his YGs will sell for good money. Seeing as they are one every 8.33 boxes there is a high chance of pulling one. Pull one and it will cover your box and more. Plus then the possibility at other big cards.

It is all about timing with a good rookie or rookie crop.
 
habscards said:
Just wait until next year and buy Series Two. If Bedard has a good start the his NHL career his YGs will sell for good money. Seeing as they are one every 8.33 boxes there is a high chance of pulling one. Pull one and it will cover your box and more.
Click to expand...

I think we'll see when the S2 pre-order listings start. As far as I know, they're not out yet, but I expect they'll be more expensive than S1. It's a matter of how much. Everyone knows Bedard is coming in S2.
 
chakhae1 said:
Products across the board for all sports is terrible. Mass produced, prices increased, mostly no name rookies that don't have a chance and vet content that is of players that no one cares about. Case in point. I love Finest baseball and used to be able to get 3-4 boxes every year, but over the past couple of years I only got 1-2. My boxes last year had 4 scrubs autos and two of them were Luis Gil. Fine, he's a yankee but will never amount to anything. The hobby is a gamble that it has ever been and that's just the way it will stay until prices go back to normal. I also agree that Tim Hortons is a fun break where value isn't so lobsided, but how long before these packs are $5 a pop?
Click to expand...

Timmies is a rare product that can benefit from economy of scale without significantly harming the appeal or value of the product. It is literally MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of packs. Approximately equal in size to the McD contract back in the day - and that contract made whichever company that held it the biggest manufacturer of hockey cards.


Part of the price increases are attributable to increased costs. The rest? All of the companies took the same lesson out of the pandemic: They're never leaving money on the table again. Ever. They don't care. They are charging every last nickel that they think the market will bear for wax.
 

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