wade miley... RAZOR EXCLUSIVE

[Bob Loblaw]

Don't kid yourself Jeff.

The inclusion of the aflac autos was a direct action to adapt to a different type of competition.

So, Donruss, the economy, and the 08BC debacle had nothing to do with Topps kicking it up a notch?

THey wouldnt' have had to do this if Razor hadn't made most of the players exclusive. Imaging what BCDP would have been had there been no Razor.

 

[Bob Loblaw]

I don't think I'll get in trouble for this, but if I do, it is worth it.

Get the hell off of Brian!!

He is here trying to make the hobby better. Probably the LONGEST it would take to get a response from him might be 60 hours (from Friday at closing until Monday morning). How responsive are Topps and UD whenever something comes up? Do they respond quicker? Do they try and make things better in the end or just try and get you to shut up?

I've dealt with Customer Service at Topps and UD and I know from MY experience, Razor has a CLEAR advantage over them at this point.

You can call me biased because we won the uncut sheet or because we opened two boxes of Razor Signature Series (we do still needs cards #2 & 68 to complete our second base set) and the boys had an absolute BLAST opening the boxes. But I don't feel it is right that we have such HUGE expectations from Brian. He's already come through big, but we always expect more.

That's my say.

David

Do you truly believe he is trying to make the hobby better? Is that what you TRULY believe?

I'm not knocking the man at all for doing well at his business, but he is hardly doing this for the hobby.

Do exclusive contracts make the hobby better?

Was 08 bcdp a better product because of razor?


Absolutely.

You have to look at what you lost before you see what was gained. Yes, because of Razor we got the AFLAC's and a smaller checklist, but the players that could have been in chrome had Razor not signed exclusively would have make the CL INCREDIBLE. I'm not complaining, I think both are great products, just saying.

To get the best players, you have to compete with other companies that also want the players. Capitalism, what a concept!

Without Razor, there are no other companies that also want the players exclusively.

 

[cgilmo]

Well, now that razor has paid these athletes do you think future Boras clients will be willing to settle for the peanuts that other companies give them for autographs? Do you think that other star draft picks will be happy with 2$ an autograph? 2008 changed all of that.

 

[Bob Loblaw]

Do you truly believe he is trying to make the hobby better? Is that what you TRULY believe?

I'm not knocking the man at all for doing well at his business, but he is hardly doing this for the hobby.

Do exclusive contracts make the hobby better?

I'm naive....I TRULY believe that he is trying to make the hobby better.

I believe he's trying to make money, isn't that what we're all hoping to do with work? But I believe he's trying to make money BY making the hobby better.

David

What's he doing to make the hobby better?

He's giving you what you want in a product, but how does that help the hobby AS A WHOLE? Again, I ask, do exclusive contracts make the hobby better?

 

[Bob Loblaw]

Well, now that razor has paid these athletes do you think future Boras clients will be willing to settle for the peanuts that other companies give them for autographs? Do you think that other star draft picks will be happy with 2$ an autograph? 2008 changed all of that.

Which means that in the end, the consumer will have to pay more for a pack of baseball cards.

 

[AKA Coastal]

Well, now that razor has paid these athletes do you think future Boras clients will be willing to settle for the peanuts that other companies give them for autographs? Do you think that other star draft picks will be happy with 2$ an autograph? 2008 changed all of that.

How long can one company afford to do this? Bowman/Topps might just wait it out.

 

[kentuckyderby]

I agree with Jeff N (Holy Smokes)
Brian is a businessman. He isn't in the industry soley for the collectors or for the hobby. He is in it to make money. Not ripping on him for it. That's life. he seems to care about the hobby and the collectors but I can see what Jeff means. Based on the previous post it made it seem like BG is a martyr or something.

Also, I also agree that the exclusivity might not make it better for the hobby side of it (true collectors now will have less opportunities to get players they want, future potential selling of contracts might be costly to collectors, etc). Investors might like the exclsuivity but not the hobby collector

Regarding whether or not Razor made BDP 08 better? Possibly. I am not sure we can say absolutely. Did BDP change its checklist 100% based on Razor appearance? Do we know that or are we assuming that? If Topps/Bowman can admit that they did change it due to Razor, then it becomes an absolutely.

 

[AKA Coastal]

Well, now that razor has paid these athletes do you think future Boras clients will be willing to settle for the peanuts that other companies give them for autographs? Do you think that other star draft picks will be happy with 2$ an autograph? 2008 changed all of that.

Which means that in the end, the consumer will have to pay more for a pack of baseball cards.

+1

 

[dethomas07]

What's he doing to make the hobby better?

He's giving you what you want in a product, but how does that help the hobby AS A WHOLE? Again, I ask, do exclusive contracts make the hobby better?

He's adding competition. With competition, Chrome and other products will have better designs and more of what collectors want. With the exclusive contracts, he's going to force the other companies to rethink their methods of doing things in the past.

I think that, should things continue as they are, the hobby will be much more collector-friendly in 3-5 years. Overall, I think that Signature Series was very affordable and could help bring in younger collectors.

David

 

[beefycheddar]

Regarding whether or not Razor made BDP 08 better? Possibly. I am not sure we can say absolutely. Did BDP change its checklist 100% based on Razor appearance? Do we know that or are we assuming that? If Topps/Bowman can admit that they did change it due to Razor, then it becomes an absolutely.

I do have some knowledge on this from Topps point of view, and honestly I think that Bowman Chrome's failure changed BCDP more than Razor. I do think Razor made them rethink some, but think more of it was the horrid reception of Chrome.

 

[kentuckyderby]

What's he doing to make the hobby better?

He's giving you what you want in a product, but how does that help the hobby AS A WHOLE? Again, I ask, do exclusive contracts make the hobby better?

He's adding competition. With competition, Chrome and other products will have better designs and more of what collectors want. With the exclusive contracts, he's going to force the other companies to rethink their methods of doing things in the past.

I think that, should things continue as they are, the hobby will be much more collector-friendly in 3-5 years. Overall, I think that Signature Series was very affordable and could help bring in younger collectors.

David

Maybe I am used to buying packs for under $3 for my nephews but Razor is not a product for younger collectors. Packs range from $8-12 (I think $12 was the initial SRP in the first thread on Razor). For a young collector paying that for five cards of players they have never heard of is not ideal. I am not ripping on Razor since I myself bought 17 boxes. I am just saying that it isn't an ideal product for a 7 or 8 year old kid. They have no idea who the players are and cannot afford packs that reach double-digits. Razor is definitely for the investor.

I invision pack prices increasing across the industry if contract-wars begin in next 3 years and that doesn't seem fun for the hobby collector

 

[Bob Loblaw]

Regarding whether or not Razor made BDP 08 better? Possibly. I am not sure we can say absolutely. Did BDP change its checklist 100% based on Razor appearance? Do we know that or are we assuming that? If Topps/Bowman can admit that they did change it due to Razor, then it becomes an absolutely.

I do have some knowledge on this from Topps point of view, and honestly I think that Bowman Chrome's failure changed BCDP more than Razor. I do think Razor made them rethink some, but think more of it was the horrid reception of Chrome.

:twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

 

[beefycheddar]

Regarding whether or not Razor made BDP 08 better? Possibly. I am not sure we can say absolutely. Did BDP change its checklist 100% based on Razor appearance? Do we know that or are we assuming that? If Topps/Bowman can admit that they did change it due to Razor, then it becomes an absolutely.

I do have some knowledge on this from Topps point of view, and honestly I think that Bowman Chrome's failure changed BCDP more than Razor. I do think Razor made them rethink some, but think more of it was the horrid reception of Chrome.

:twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

I don't know how to take that response......

 

[Guest]

What's he doing to make the hobby better?

He's giving you what you want in a product, but how does that help the hobby AS A WHOLE? Again, I ask, do exclusive contracts make the hobby better?

He's adding competition. With competition, Chrome and other products will have better designs and more of what collectors want. With the exclusive contracts, he's going to force the other companies to rethink their methods of doing things in the past.

I think that, should things continue as they are, the hobby will be much more collector-friendly in 3-5 years. Overall, I think that Signature Series was very affordable and could help bring in younger collectors.

David

Maybe I am used to buying packs for under $3 for my nephews but Razor is not a product for younger collectors. Packs range from $8-12 (I think $12 was the initial SRP in the first thread on Razor). For a young collector paying that for five cards of players they have never heard of is not ideal. I am not ripping on Razor since I myself bought 17 boxes. I am just saying that it isn't an ideal product for a 7 or 8 year old kid. They have no idea who the players are and cannot afford packs that reach double-digits. Razor is definitely for the investor.

I invision pack prices increasing across the industry if contract-wars begin in next 3 years and that doesn't seem fun for the hobby collector

I support Razor and what Brian is attempting to do, but I agree with this statement. No way this product is for younger collectors. I would find it hard to throw down $12 for a pack of cards.

 

[cgilmo]

And there are products out there for the younger collector.

 

[dethomas07]

Maybe I am used to buying packs for under $3 for my nephews but Razor is not a product for younger collectors. Packs range from $8-12 (I think $12 was the initial SRP in the first thread on Razor). For a young collector paying that for five cards of players they have never heard of is not ideal. I am not ripping on Razor since I myself bought 17 boxes. I am just saying that it isn't an ideal product for a 7 or 8 year old kid. They have no idea who the players are and cannot afford packs that reach double-digits. Razor is definitely for the investor.

I invision pack prices increasing across the industry if contract-wars begin in next 3 years and that doesn't seem fun for the hobby collector

A box was $84 and it contained 10 packs. For my boys, they enjoyed the fact that they didn't know the players. It allowed us to spend time and look things up about the players. It helped us spend time together doing what we love.

With the one auto per pack, they really liked getting those. For us, it was a very fun and educational break. It was well worth the $84 per box delivered.

David

 

[dethomas07]

And there are products out there for the younger collector.

See, I really view this as a product for younger collectors. The boxes are inexpensive compared to many other products. They get an auto per pack. This gives the kids a chance to follow their careers as they proceed through their organizations.

Maybe I'm crazy because I'll take the time to look up around 100 different players with my kids.

David

 

[[email protected]]

I wonder if anyone outside of this board really gives two craps about Razor. Yeah their product sells, but is it just the downright homerism of this board, that makes it out to be bigger and better than it is.

 

[cgilmo]

I wonder if anyone outside of this board really gives two craps about Razor. Yeah their product sells, but is it just the downright homerism of this board, that makes it out to be bigger and better than it is.

It was highly anticipated at every hobby shop I visited including those where I do not have any influence.

 

[[email protected]]

I wonder if anyone outside of this board really gives two craps about Razor. Yeah their product sells, but is it just the downright homerism of this board, that makes it out to be bigger and better than it is.

It was highly anticipated at every hobby shop I visited including those where I do not have any influence.

Well a lot of releases are highly anticipated. I just don't see the drama on any other board than here, and it is because of the blatant razor pimping. Besides, I have been to shows and shops and haven't heard much buzz on Razor. I still stand by my original statement, this board needs to really chill out on both bashing Razor and kissing BG's ass.