ESP NRL Traders 2014 Thread - Checklist Added (Pg 18)!!!
- Thread starter Matt26
- Start date
Off to a slow start today. Two Starter Packs for a Tries Chart Topper, David Nofoaluma RTS & Andrew Fifita Indigenous.
Plus six packs from a box for squat.
So I can only opine on the cards I have in hand.
Base - plain & poor (quite a few with edge chips).
Parallels - likewise, and the variations are a waste of time & effort.
Chart Toppers - Very nice looking card and a huge step up from the previous set.
RTS - Very impressive, perhaps the nicest looking insert card I have seen in a decade (although the premise is obscure at best)
Indigenous - No, I was wrong! This is the nicest looking insert card I have seen in a decade.
More reviews as they come to hand, but there will be many more packs and some box breakage as well.
Overall rating so far - 7/10.
Plus six packs from a box for squat.
So I can only opine on the cards I have in hand.
Base - plain & poor (quite a few with edge chips).
Parallels - likewise, and the variations are a waste of time & effort.
Chart Toppers - Very nice looking card and a huge step up from the previous set.
RTS - Very impressive, perhaps the nicest looking insert card I have seen in a decade (although the premise is obscure at best)
Indigenous - No, I was wrong! This is the nicest looking insert card I have seen in a decade.
More reviews as they come to hand, but there will be many more packs and some box breakage as well.
Overall rating so far - 7/10.
Now that everyone has had a chance to review and reflect on the inserts this year what is everyone's opinion?
For me:
Parallel's - Underwhelming admittedly have never been a fan but at least in the Champions set of '09-'10 they used holograhic jerseys to make them look new and exciting but this series and others before just leaves me thinking why bother and with the black parallel's I have done a bit of maths it would take 15 boxes before you would have enough to complete a full set (have 176 black parallels) without buying straight from someone else.
Return to Sender - A nice concept but in the end it just support mediocrity. By using 2 players per club it means great returners are left out and poor returners can make the cut. ie if you are the third best returner in the league but the two players who are better than you are from the same club you miss out and 30 other players make it. If you are going to use a concept like this make it the 32 best in the league not the 2 best from each club.
Milestones - Once again good concept but why is the need for equality one player from each club. They should pick a figure 200, 250, 300 and any player from any club that reaches that number gets a card.
Galactic Stars - Terrible just horrible makes no sense.
Retirements - I like don;t have a list or retirees from 2013 but it looks like they got most of the well know players.
Indigenous - Another good concept but I don't get why it is 12. Given there was an all stars game last year they could have used all the players from the indigenous all stars team.
Brothers in Arms - I do like the 4 brothers card Sam Burgess is a bit of a grub and doesn't need to be but the card is nice. The signature card for the Sims brothers a nice card but to be honest I never knew Ashton had brothers let alone brothers playing in the NRL obviously there is no other three brother representation in the NRL which is why they are in but it would be nice to have signatures of players you have actually heard of.
Season to Remember Chart Toppers haven't seen them all but what I have are fine and a good set.
Magic Moments - Once again equality resulting in mediocrity some of the cards the moment is just lame and had been forgotten about.
Heritage Round - a subset for the sake of a subset nothing amazing about it at all.
Legends - Two great players very nice.
For me:
Parallel's - Underwhelming admittedly have never been a fan but at least in the Champions set of '09-'10 they used holograhic jerseys to make them look new and exciting but this series and others before just leaves me thinking why bother and with the black parallel's I have done a bit of maths it would take 15 boxes before you would have enough to complete a full set (have 176 black parallels) without buying straight from someone else.
Return to Sender - A nice concept but in the end it just support mediocrity. By using 2 players per club it means great returners are left out and poor returners can make the cut. ie if you are the third best returner in the league but the two players who are better than you are from the same club you miss out and 30 other players make it. If you are going to use a concept like this make it the 32 best in the league not the 2 best from each club.
Milestones - Once again good concept but why is the need for equality one player from each club. They should pick a figure 200, 250, 300 and any player from any club that reaches that number gets a card.
Galactic Stars - Terrible just horrible makes no sense.
Retirements - I like don;t have a list or retirees from 2013 but it looks like they got most of the well know players.
Indigenous - Another good concept but I don't get why it is 12. Given there was an all stars game last year they could have used all the players from the indigenous all stars team.
Brothers in Arms - I do like the 4 brothers card Sam Burgess is a bit of a grub and doesn't need to be but the card is nice. The signature card for the Sims brothers a nice card but to be honest I never knew Ashton had brothers let alone brothers playing in the NRL obviously there is no other three brother representation in the NRL which is why they are in but it would be nice to have signatures of players you have actually heard of.
Season to Remember Chart Toppers haven't seen them all but what I have are fine and a good set.
Magic Moments - Once again equality resulting in mediocrity some of the cards the moment is just lame and had been forgotten about.
Heritage Round - a subset for the sake of a subset nothing amazing about it at all.
Legends - Two great players very nice.
How could you have heard of Ashton sims and have no idea who Tariq & Korbin Sims are
My thoughts from the cards I've opened and seen is that I'm stoked there is hits in most packs whereas last year it sucked opening packet after packet and feeling let down getting so many of the same thing.
They put in a massive variety in these inserts - some will like some and others won't. My opinion is that esp have taken traders quite a step up - good variety for both team collectors and complete set collectors - not too easy to complete but not impossible either.
Like I was trying to say it wasn't so much the variety (yes there was a few I didn't like) but the execution.How could you have heard of Ashton sims and have no idea who Tariq & Korbin Sims are
My thoughts from the cards I've opened and seen is that I'm stoked there is hits in most packs whereas last year it sucked opening packet after packet and feeling let down getting so many of the same thing.
They put in a massive variety in these inserts - some will like some and others won't. My opinion is that esp have taken traders quite a step up - good variety for both team collectors and complete set collectors - not too easy to complete but not impossible either.
Return to Sender - Should be the best 32 in the league not the best 2 from each club.
Milestones - They should pick a certain number of games to pass and do a card for all players that pass that game number.
Retirements - While I like the series reviewing it having 16 like most other subsets seems a bit convenient so for this they could also elect a certain number of games and any players who pass that mark before retirement get a card.
Indigenous - Still confused as to why only 12 are they trying to say Manly, Dragons, Rooster and Tigers are racist not having any indigenous players. Why not make a set based on the Indigenous all stars team from 2013.
Magic Moments - Some years teams have a good season with lots of highlights other years they have a bad season with lots of lowlights. Once again rather than doing one card per club just focus on the best highlights regardless of club and do a card for each.
thenamesgould
OzCardTrader
This was undoubtedly ESP's intention.
Shame on you, Manly, Dragons, Roosters and Tigers!!!
All hail ESP for bringing this disgusting injustice out into the open!
I was super stoked as I got Campo in my albumI think the kids are going to love the album cards. Same design as the Galactic Stars but different material, rounded corners and a 3D effect to the card (it doesn't scan well).
at first I thought they all where the 3D style until I pulled one from a packet. I'll have to get a non 3D of Campo now I think if we had cards based on all the roosters and manly players being the top teams and that they would dominate - supporters of the bottom teams would be blowing up big time...
As for the return to sender... Same thing here - you look over the inserts from all others years and it's pretty fairly in a lot of cases to have ones from each team - club player, sketches, gems, double trouble, top prospects... Everyone wants to see their own club players appear on the cards and if they don't some would lose interest quick.
As for the racist comment... Seriously??
Sorry I don't ever post comments shutting anyone down on here but this struck a nerve.. If esp were racist doubt they would have even put the indigenous set in - nice set with nice design... You could have said it would have been better to have the whole team but to call them racist or saying they are making the teams out to be racist because of only using 12 players is a joke.
As for the return to sender... Same thing here - you look over the inserts from all others years and it's pretty fairly in a lot of cases to have ones from each team - club player, sketches, gems, double trouble, top prospects... Everyone wants to see their own club players appear on the cards and if they don't some would lose interest quick.
As for the racist comment... Seriously??
Sorry I don't ever post comments shutting anyone down on here but this struck a nerve.. If esp were racist doubt they would have even put the indigenous set in - nice set with nice design... You could have said it would have been better to have the whole team but to call them racist or saying they are making the teams out to be racist because of only using 12 players is a joke.
I wasn't calling anyone racist or trying to say ESP were calling any club racist as I said I just don't get why it is 12. There was an indigenous all star team but they elected to exclude 4 clubs by having only one player from 12 clubs.
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thenamesgould
OzCardTrader
You're complaining that every other set has the same amount of players from each team, but then complaining that the indigenous set doesn't have a player from every side ... I don't get it ...
I'm not complaining just looking for their reasoning.
