What does a good product need?

masonphillip · Oct 9, 2009

I've been dissapointed with what we have seen thus far for Bowman Sterling and Bowman Chrome Draft. Similarly, I haven't been impressed with Panini's initial effort in basketball: Prestige.

It really got me to thinking, what are the commonalities between the products that we love? Why do we love both Exquisite and Bowman Chrome? Good designs, consistent products and simple parallel structures all seem to be similarities between those two.

What are the other rules to live by for card producers when they are manufacturing a product and building it?

I posted some more here at my blog, take a look if you so desire:

http://masonphillip.sportscardblogs.com/2009/10/09/so-what-does-it-take/

All In Cards · Oct 9, 2009

A simple design, a nice checklist which in MLB is hard to do. The rules are terrible for mlb cards. I would love a checklist that had HOF's, stars, rookies in it.

Viking4Alpha · Oct 9, 2009

Bugs.

masonphillip · Oct 9, 2009

Snyper said:
Bugs.

Ha! and maybe 300 year old hair!

rymflaherty · Oct 9, 2009

Snyper said:
Bugs.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

A couple things off the top of my head are - value beyond the 1-3 "hits". I know this is not always the manufacturer's fault, because it's up to the collector's to decide what is "valuable"...but there are plenty of mid/higher end products where you are essentially opening up pack after pack of base cards or uninspired parallels to get to the couple cards that make or break the box.....which isn't that much fun.
Building off that.....to add value and fun to a break, I think there have to be multiple types of hits, inserts, etc. I hate the trend of having a cool idea for an insert set and then building a product around it...these products tend to end up like the one's I listed above - and are the type of products where every break looks the same, just different players on the cards.

I don't know if either of those made sense :lol: and I'm sure I can think of more, but I'll shut up because I don;t want to write a 3 page response.

rico08 · Oct 9, 2009

Nothing from the following list: Things from extinct animals, batting box dirt, mound dirt, outfield warning tack dirt, other creepy DNA, Rip Card girl's autographs, scout autographs, game-used base pieces, game-used ball pieces, sticker autographs, redemptions.

rymflaherty · Oct 9, 2009

masonphillip said:
Snyper said:

Bugs.

Click to expand...

Ha! and maybe 300 year old hair!

The other day on the news they were talking about this huge Elvis auction that is going to happen, and how one of the big items is going to be his hair.....The first thing I thought was that it was going to be bought by some company and put into a product. ::facepalm::

masonphillip · Oct 9, 2009

rymflaherty said:
masonphillip said:

Snyper said:

Bugs.

Click to expand...

Ha! and maybe 300 year old hair!

Click to expand...

The other day on the news they were talking about this huge Elvis auction that is going to happen, and how one of the big items is going to be his hair.....The first thing I thought was that it was going to be bought by some company and put into a product. ::facepalm::

..and your first thought was probably right...

jeff550 · Oct 9, 2009

i was thinking. you know how plain white jersey cards are boring and there are tons of them. how about a set where the base cards have jersey piece there are no one color patch cards, and the hits are autos or patchcards. and last but not least some sick looking inserts. all that with a good design i think one sell very well

uniquebaseballcards · Oct 9, 2009

I would love to have a piece of a truly historic ball, not just some random ball.

rico08 said:
Nothing from the following list: Things from extinct animals, batting box dirt, mound dirt, outfield warning tack dirt, other creepy DNA, Rip Card girl's autographs, scout autographs, game-used base pieces, game-used ball pieces, sticker autographs, redemptions.

masonphillip · Oct 9, 2009

uniquebaseballcards said:
I would love to have a piece of a truly historic ball, not just some random ball.

rico08 said:

Nothing from the following list: Things from extinct animals, batting box dirt, mound dirt, outfield warning tack dirt, other creepy DNA, Rip Card girl's autographs, scout autographs, game-used base pieces, game-used ball pieces, sticker autographs, redemptions.

Click to expand...

I believe 2001 Leaf Rookies & Stars incorporate the kind of concept you are talking about.

HPC · Oct 9, 2009

I always wished companies would do this:

1) Use a simple, but effective design, not just rehash the same design from years past.

2) Less game used...and by less, I dont mean, a million variations of 5 players. I would not mind a 500 card set that every player in it has a game used card, if that card is #'d low (say 100 or less)

3) Parallels that are actually "rare"...like Donruss Crusades...awesome, awesome design and rarity. I hate parallel cards that use the same picture, change virtually nothing about the card, and make variations numbered to 250/150/100/99/50/25/10/5/1. If you are going to do that many variations, why not change the picture for each card, or the backround on each card, or make each variation have a different cut to it?

4) Per box, a good hit ratio is okay, but, I hate pulling 6 plainass game used cards of people. Why not decrease the amount of crappy game used hits per box and put more packs in it?

....and pretty much what everyone else said

NECpilgrims8 · Oct 9, 2009

masonphillip said:
uniquebaseballcards said:

I would love to have a piece of a truly historic ball, not just some random ball.

rico08 said:

Nothing from the following list: Things from extinct animals, batting box dirt, mound dirt, outfield warning tack dirt, other creepy DNA, Rip Card girl's autographs, scout autographs, game-used base pieces, game-used ball pieces, sticker autographs, redemptions.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I believe 2001 Leaf Rookies & Stars incorporate the kind of concept you are talking about.

Honestly, how do we know any piece of game used is actually from a historic piece, let alone an actual jersey the player wore. Sure, they have some documentation on the card backs, but how can you actually prove they are lying?

My idea for a better product?

Kill game used or reduce it by alot. Game used is dead.

Viking4Alpha · Oct 9, 2009

NECpilgrims8 said:
My idea for a better product?

Kill game used or reduce it by alot. Game used is dead.

Agreed. Make game used ridiculously rare.

card-treasury · Oct 9, 2009

A good product needs to deliver a fair amount of value (FMV) per box, and more than a chance breakeven value per case, while reducing the number of worthless hit cards.

masonphillip · Oct 10, 2009

NECpilgrims8 said:
masonphillip said:

uniquebaseballcards said:

I would love to have a piece of a truly historic ball, not just some random ball.

rico08 said:

Nothing from the following list: Things from extinct animals, batting box dirt, mound dirt, outfield warning tack dirt, other creepy DNA, Rip Card girl's autographs, scout autographs, game-used base pieces, game-used ball pieces, sticker autographs, redemptions.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I believe 2001 Leaf Rookies & Stars incorporate the kind of concept you are talking about.

Click to expand...

Honestly, how do we know any piece of game used is actually from a historic piece, let alone an actual jersey the player wore. Sure, they have some documentation on the card backs, but how can you actually prove they are lying?

My idea for a better product?

Kill game used or reduce it by alot. Game used is dead.

The only stuff that is alive is jumbo patches I think.

Austin · Oct 10, 2009

uniquebaseballcards said:
I would love to have a piece of a truly historic ball, not just some random ball.

No way.
Historic balls are one of a kind and should never be cut up.
There are tons of jerseys and bats used during a season, so cutting them up is no big deal.
But one-of-a-kind memorabilia that was used during a historic event, like a 500th homer or the last out of perfect game, should never be chopped up.

G $MONEY$ · Oct 10, 2009

masonphillip said:
NECpilgrims8 said:

masonphillip said:

uniquebaseballcards said:

I would love to have a piece of a truly historic ball, not just some random ball.

rico08 said:

Nothing from the following list: Things from extinct animals, batting box dirt, mound dirt, outfield warning tack dirt, other creepy DNA, Rip Card girl's autographs, scout autographs, game-used base pieces, game-used ball pieces, sticker autographs, redemptions.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I believe 2001 Leaf Rookies & Stars incorporate the kind of concept you are talking about.

Click to expand...

Honestly, how do we know any piece of game used is actually from a historic piece, let alone an actual jersey the player wore. Sure, they have some documentation on the card backs, but how can you actually prove they are lying?

My idea for a better product?

Kill game used or reduce it by alot. Game used is dead.

Click to expand...

The only stuff that is alive is jumbo patches I think.

vintage game used does very well also

kentuckyderby · Oct 10, 2009

masonphillip · Oct 10, 2009

G $MONEY$ said:
masonphillip said:

NECpilgrims8 said:

masonphillip said:

uniquebaseballcards said:

I would love to have a piece of a truly historic ball, not just some random ball.

[quote="rico08":3i1ni5yy]Nothing from the following list: Things from extinct animals, batting box dirt, mound dirt, outfield warning tack dirt, other creepy DNA, Rip Card girl's autographs, scout autographs, game-used base pieces, game-used ball pieces, sticker autographs, redemptions.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I believe 2001 Leaf Rookies & Stars incorporate the kind of concept you are talking about.

Click to expand...

Honestly, how do we know any piece of game used is actually from a historic piece, let alone an actual jersey the player wore. Sure, they have some documentation on the card backs, but how can you actually prove they are lying?

My idea for a better product?

Kill game used or reduce it by alot. Game used is dead.

Click to expand...

The only stuff that is alive is jumbo patches I think.

vintage game used does very well also[/quote:3i1ni5yy]

That's true, GU that may never exist again, like a Ty Cobb patch or something of that nature.

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