Another Select rant.....

I gotta tell ya - this company makes me scratch my head more and more everyday.

Today i have a friend contact me who sent and email to Select asking why they don't do patch cards. The response was "it would be to easy to tell which packets they are in and we don't want to do them by redemption". Like FMD - are you kidding. How weak is that.

Now a couple weeks ago i went for a coffee with Nath from Newcastle who is having a card trade day in November. So Nath contacts Select to ask for some support and after not getting past the first receptionist has a conversation with them where they say "we don't support things like this because we don't want people to buy older cards, we only want them buying the latest release". Once again are you kidding me......do Select not get that collectors collect? Do you understand that for the market in Strike to be healthy the secondary market in previous years releases needs to be healthy.

Now here comes the rant......

Unfortunately we are stuck with a company with a monopoly position in the card market. A lazy company that has no competition and thus no reason to innovate or try something new to bring new customers (us) into their business. As someone who is a financial consultant and gets paid to go into businesses like these and review operations its my belief that Select really dont understand their market and what their customers want. Cricket no longer gets anything and i guess we must be thankful NRL even got a second series this year - but they always blame the collectors/market for not buying. Maybe its your product that is the issue?

We all know they have absolutely no interest in feedback and listening to criticism from the people to pay to keep them in business. So whats it going to come too.....perhaps the next time the AFL or NRL contract is up for grabs a cashed up Pannini or Topps comes in and takes it from under them. Im sure they can survive making tags or bobble heads. I dont want to see another company come in but Select need to pull their collective heads out of their arses because their current attitude to collectors is nothing but a disgrace.

End rant.

Very depressing hearing some of this stuff, Select really should have a look at the Basketball cards and see what can be done in design/style etc...
Don't think it would be too hard to put those "dummy" cards in the packets that way you can't tell but hey what do i know....

Considering that series 2 hardly any are sold as loose packs, their reason for no patch cards is so weak, Also the other excuse of not having the machinery is lame ......err use a small portion of your profits for the betterment of your product..
The card shows though they are missing a massive opportunity. If they took over the signed cards people get from the guests, lots more people would put in the effort to go. The card show cards would be tripled in price if they were from Select. I for one just see them as they are now as homemade cards. They could get more players to attend i assume, but to the shows credit they do get awesome guests as it is. They could also set up an official Select stall and sell the most recent releases.
They really have no clue, Ignorance is bliss i suppose

I've always wanted to go to Souths and ask them to do a 40-50 card set each season - the top 25 squad, some NYC etc and then 10 previous players numbered 1 - 1000+ (the chronological list of player debuts) and maybe 1 signed legend.

All profits would go to Men Of League.

Would come in a nice binder and come with a packet of the old school chewing gum, just for laughs.

Other things have kept me from doing this.

Otherwise, I'd love to do a massive set each year like the 1980-1982 sets with the players head and shoulder shots. 15-20 cards per team, the like. I know people turn their nose up at it, but I betcha given an option, they'd still buy them. Hell, we bought em back in the day and sure tastes and standards change, but I like the classic posed looks, LOL!

Just some random story

1967Sharks said:

Considering that series 2 hardly any are sold as loose packs, their reason for no patch cards is so weak, Also the other excuse of not having the machinery is lame ......err use a small portion of your profits for the betterment of your product..
The card shows though they are missing a massive opportunity. If they took over the signed cards people get from the guests, lots more people would put in the effort to go. The card show cards would be tripled in price if they were from Select. I for one just see them as they are now as homemade cards. They could get more players to attend i assume, but to the shows credit they do get awesome guests as it is. They could also set up an official Select stall and sell the most recent releases.
They really have no clue, Ignorance is bliss i suppose

Click to expand...

I should add that Select also told Nath that they get worried about the older cards maintaining and increasing in value.

Hmmmm - so they dont want people to buy older cards but they want those older cards to increase in value......makes complete sense - NOT

Pretty pathetic overall. All Nath asked is if they had something he could give out to all the kids that come to the trade day.

Their attitude to collectors shows is nothing short of incredible. A show packed with their target audience, the perfect opportunity to get new collectors into the hobby, and they aren't interested because it encourages trading old cards?!

Maybe they are just scared of facing the criticism. No sane company would think like that.

The sad thing is, if they weren't a monopoly, they would fold in a year or two. Which we would all welcome. How can they be happy with themselves running a company like that?!

---------- Post added 24-08-2011 at 12:42 PM ----------

Most on jere could do a better job designing a set ... as shown in our well meaning positive thread full of suggestions, which Select threw back in our face by not even bothering to reply to.

Oh I forget, they did sign up and graced the site for a few days, telling us where to send their damaged cards for replacements. All hail Select!

Honestly I wish they would go bust, I'd rather have no cards than deal with this terrible company again.

They just dont get it and lets face it they never will get it. We can only hope another company takes over, however the problem is Im not sure a bigger company would be interested in the NRL. Can only hope.

I find it disappointing that a view shared by alot is only voiced by the same few people. Those people that think that the quality of cards we get are acceptable, maybe change your Ebay searches to worldwide and see what you can get for similar prices. End of the day we arent bagging Select for the fun of it, we just want major improvements for the hobby we love.
A closed mouth doesn't get fed.

I think we all know that for various reasons Select can't do everything that's done overseas, but the contempt they treat collectors with is inexcusable. That jersey patch excuse sounds like the dog ate my homework.

---------- Post added 24-08-2011 at 02:24 PM ----------

If you don't want people buying old cards, them wouldn't the logical thing to do be turn up and have a presence at the fair, and tell people about the NEW cards?!

They have zero interest in the hobby, they are just out to make a quick buck.

So what do you guys think they should be doing?

Let's not forget the NRL is to blame in regards to this too. But they just want the $$$.

What I'd personally like to see: a dynamic, multi tiered series ONCE per season including:
* 15 cards per team
* a parallel set
* a nice tiered range of chase cards for the low end AND high end collectors
* A wow chase card

I'm not having a go at Select...I actually am one person who really likes Team of the Year and Club Player cards...but seeing some of the non-NRL top notch chase cards is mind blowing. Select, if they are not doing it, should aspire to grow their market, encourage young & old collectors and get out amongst it with some interesting new things here and there.

That said, with sigs (esp Top Prospects) and photos, and player representation etc - I lay that at the feet of the NRL. How a set of NRL cards can miss Jamie Lyon, Sam Burgess, Gareth Ellis or Trent Waterhouse is staggering. The NRL would sign off on that and like everything else the fuggers do at NRL HQ, it's all half-ar$ed or just something they sign off on without caring. If I was Russell Crowe and my star athlete was not in a footy card set, I'd be pretty mad. But I guess we have to hope the Ind Commish sorts some of this stuff out.

I have emailed Select and voiced my opinion of their "Lack of imagination". Their responce was to my suggestions and issues were not to a standard I would expect from a company that wants my business, so in return I haven't bought another pack of Select cards since. Now, I would much prefer to buy my set cheaply on ebay and also buy my inserts there or from the Carrara Market card shop. Lets face it... why would I buy 3 packs of Strike for $16.50 when I bought a whole set for $15 + postage on ebay.

I used to buy 4 boxes, maybe more, per release but I have stopped and its all due to Selects lack of interest in me.

I know I am only one person, but how many of me are out there that are unsatisfied with your company... SELECT, If you want my business back. YOU CAN CALL ME.

---------- Post added 24-08-2011 at 03:15 PM ----------

ch0pzta said:

So what do you guys think they should be doing?

Click to expand...

Firstly... Take an interest in what your customers have to say. 9 times out of 10 they have their finger on the pulse. They are telling Select what they want and Select are ignoring it.

end of the day...'the customer is always right' we are the ones paying their bills so hopefully some of what has been said here is taken on board!
i liked the look of the new top prospects nd predictors from strike tho!
very muchly gettin over the sketch and gem cards tho....

I couldn't be bothered complaining anymore whats the point? they will never listen

I urge everyone to do what I am doing. Buy your cheap sets from Ebay.

BOYCOTT BUYING PACKS UNTIL THEY WAKE UP TO THEMSELVES

Select are a business, and their business is being profitable.
While I'm not a 'fan' of theirs, some perspective needs to be put into the argument.
If they included jersey cards, dummy cards, dual autos, triple autos etc etc, how much do you think a pack would be?
The complaints would be turned around from not being enough exciting inserts to "I cant afford any more than two packs".

The offsets for keeping prices of packs/boxes lower are reducing costs in production of these exotic inserts.
Their target market is presumably kids first, collectors second as there a lot more 'mum and dad' buyers who will spend $10 or $20 on packs for their
kids than there are case buyers.

If, as has been surmised, the NRL have final say on player imaging and rights usage, then they are also to be held equally accountable.
But who knows, maybe Trent Waterhouse's manager wanted crazy money for his client to appear on a signature trading card? A bigger
name like Cooper Cronk would theoretically demand bigger money than a journeyman such as Steve Turner. This would restrict the budget for other parts of the set.

If you sell a Darren Lockyer captain sig to someone for $600, are you going to actively take an interest in and aid what that person subsequently onsells it for to someone else two years later?
Probably not. Selects aim is to move as much of their current product in as short a time as possible, and then they would have an assumed safety mechanism agreement with their sole wholesale distributor, Cardzone, to buy the majority of the excess stock after a couple of months. Go back to the drawing board for Series 1 the next year, rinse and repeat.
If their products are continually getting close to sold out, then their business model is working for them, but not necessarily the consumer.

Anyway, just my two cents worth.

Unfortunatly you make some good points Wattsup. the primary target is kids/mums and dads. I seriously doubt there would be a large enough high end nrl market out there for a high end set. But at the same time they ddont have to put out player of the year and team of the year inserts every year either. A bit of imagination would be good. But if they are moving the crap they put ot and are making $$$ then of course they arent going to change. Which I think goes to show there are enough kids/mum and dad buyers out there to keep them going. So the short of it is i dont think they will change.

The game is only mainstream popular in 2 states, which when you think aboout it is not enough to support a high end release of cards, but having said that there is a lot of room for improvement in select

There is a serious disconnect between what Select think the market wants and what the marker is actually demanding.

In 2000 they produced 5000 hobby boxes of cards. This year we have 4800 hobby boxes in the Strike set. So over 11 years, at a time where the popularity of NRL has grown massively they have actually decreased the amount of product produced.

Look at how many NBA guys are on OCT - there is a massive potential customer base. However these guys are not going to collect the same old stuff year after year.

---------- Post added 24-08-2011 at 05:21 PM ----------

bdean_182 said:

Unfortunatly you make some good points Wattsup. the primary target is kids/mums and dads. I seriously doubt there would be a large enough high end nrl market out there for a high end set. But at the same time they ddont have to put out player of the year and team of the year inserts every year either. A bit of imagination would be good. But if they are moving the crap they put ot and are making $$$ then of course they arent going to change. Which I think goes to show there are enough kids/mum and dad buyers out there to keep them going. So the short of it is i dont think they will change.

The game is only mainstream popular in 2 states, which when you think aboout it is not enough to support a high end release of cards, but having said that there is a lot of room for improvement in select

Click to expand...

im not only referring to NRL here. You can add in AFL collectors and the poor cricket collectors into what im saying.

To there credit they did release a patch card this year in the hawthorn tin set with a piece of the premiership ball.
could be the start of something.