Lizard's Rant

After their recent Box Buster Video of the new 2007 Upper Deck Exquisite Football, many collectors think that the answer to that question is a resounding YES.

In the video you’ll see that Beckett’s staff has an extraordinary pull that makes you wonder about the box that they’re opening. Out of 12 cards, they pulled:

• An Adrian Peterson 1 of 1 autographed signature patch card
• A four-patch, ‘maximum patch’ Randy Moss card
• A four-patch, ‘maximum patch’ Chad Johnson card
• A 1 of 1 base parallel LaDainian Tomlinson
• A four-patch, ‘maximum patch’ Brian Urlacher card (the dude on the video pronounced ‘Urlacher’ ‘ur-la-shea’…glad your staff knows football Beckett)
• A four-patch, ‘maximum patch’ Chad Johnson card
• A dual legendary cut signature with Walter Payton and Brian Piccolo
• A dual jersey card with Walter Payton and Emmitt Smith

WHY would Upper Deck send Beckett a ‘loaded’ box? I can’t possibly imagine a better way for them to drum up interest in the product: collector watches box break pull a bunch of great cards, collector thinks to himself “wow, if I buy that box maybe I’ll get the same cards”, collector buys box. It’s the ultimate short-term deception strategy that leads to nothing more than a deterioration of the already shaky trust between collectors and card companies.

It appears that the collectors and dealers have had enough. Over on The Brill Report, the self-proclaimed originator of the online box break Dr. Wax Battle responded:

When I invented the ‘live’ video box break we included a thumbs up or thumbs down verdict. For a company like Beckett to produce videos they should just be infomercials — just display a range of what you can get. Beckett has a responsibility to the hobby if you are going to be the entity you say you are, leave the box breaking to collectors

The entire Dr. Wax Battle show that starts at 4PM tonight will be devoted to the topic.

There have also been a number of poignant video responses on YouTube:

UD Upper Deck Exquisite - AN ETHICAL DISGRACE

THE BIGGEST UPPER DECK/BECKETT SCAM EVER

Upper Deck acted swiftly and issued a quick response via Beckett:

The cards pulled in the Beckett Box Buster episode occurred because of collation inconsistencies that could have happened in any hobby shop in any part of the world. Upper Deck understands and appreciates collector concerns on this situation and we are announcing a program to deliver these cards back to collectors.

We are offering the cards in the second pack to collectors who have purchased Exquisite Football. Collectors who purchased the product can send the empty box or a receipt from the purchase to the address below.

Wow - very interesting. Beckett, Upper Deck, and other card companies better do something (more than just offering the cards from the pull to collectors) or the entire collecting community is going to turn against them. Where would that leave us?