I think we are going to miss Select, as their cards have been great over the years and have kept us collecting for the last 18 years, they must of been doing something right!
I'm fairly new to the game so I am unaware of the source of most of the angst directed at Select.
I must say that both Champions and Dynasty have been quite good sets in my opinion. Dynasty base cards in particular are very nice. It's going to be interesting to see what ESP bring to the table. Until then, it's difficult to swing one way or the other with any certainty.
They've been doing NRL cards since 2000, so it's not 18 years for me.
I won't miss their cost cutting + poor quality control, their non-release of series 2 in 2010, their keeping number one cards, their repetitive and boring Champions releases of the late noughties, their refusal to release game worn cards again after doing it in 2003, and loads of other things.
They've had some good releases - this year's series two is great imo. But the bad outweighs the good, for me. They've slapped NRL collectors in the face time and time again.
My mistake, they have had people collecting their NRL cards for the past 12 years, I stoped collecting in the year 2000 and started up again this year, as I have been catching up on the last 10 years I have found the cards to be pretty good except for 2010's release, which is only my opinion where as the 2010 release to someone else could look the best set ever.
For me looking at it, from a card collectors point of view and not knowing about all the problems that people have had I think Select have delivered a great product compared to previous card manufactures,
In Buissiness it's hard to make everybody happy, if we look at the recent Dynasty set it sold out from Select in 1 week a turned over close to a million dollars, now I think that is not bad for a buissiness and the amount of cards puched out you would expect some customer complaints.
'Congratulations! On the front of this card you will find a piece of jersey worn by nobody'
Anybody expecting game worn should remember esp do game worn in their large memorabilia, meaning they make alot more money than cards @ $600 x 250 ltd ed
Select will be missed because cards were their market and the had an idea. Esp wants to turn the hobby into full blown memorabilia market
I am well aware of the negative feedback that have damaged Select's reputation, particularly in these pages, and for the most part I can't defend them, but what we need to be looking at is whether ESP are going to be that much better. An early glimpse of the first ESP set has me wondering. Personally I will miss Select, for all their obvious faults (I know the list is long, I've heard it all before) they produced highly attractive and collectible cards for over a decade.
This time last year, i would be glad Select handed over the license.
Now, after a pretty good Champions and Dynasty releases from Select and looking at the sell sheet,odds of cards and price of ESPs "limited edition rep set" im about 50/50.
In saying that, im currently looking forward to the 2013 ESP NRL card season.
If your reading this ESP, you better blow us away!!!
Damn right we are. Everyone who bagged Select for whatever reason should remember that there has been faults with a lot of releases from the early 90's.....( remember Dynamic ??? ) I personally like a lot of there releases and i think they tried to change from year to year. I can see ESP flooding the market and not really caring about the collector. They, IMO will lose money doing cards if by the sounds of targeting kids & high end collectors is right. They i think will dump the collector on our bum and not care because they have the memorabilia market to fall back on ( i hope i'm wrong ) So i think we will all being wanting Select back before you know it.
Just quietly, id like for select to stay around another year, i have a feeling there will be plenty of dogs in team of the year and other inserts, DAMN. Plenty of cards for me to chase,
Just remember Select supporters they are the ones that "chose" to walk away from the contract according to their own fb page.
You all want to jump on esp and judge cards you have not even seen but fail to note the fact that without them there may be no release at all next year.
Anyone collecting Cricket this year.....that's right, Select walked away from that contract too.....
No not at all James, all good mate, No I never collected AFL but have collected the Cricket stickers & cards.
Even if ESP do blow us away next year, I will still miss Select as I have missed the Scanlens cards from the 80's which for some strange reason I still keep collecting them today
About Select walking away and handing over the contract back to the NRL is very hard to believe from a buissiness point of view, especially after they just turned over $900,000 dollars in a week,
I guess no one really knows why their not making cards for the NRL market anymore.
No not at all James, all good mate, No I never collected AFL but have collected the Cricket stickers & cards.
Even if ESP do blow us away next year, I will still miss Selects as I have miss the Scanlens cards from the 80's which for some strange reason I still keep collecting them today
About Select walking away and handing over the contract back to the NRL is very hard to believe from a buissiness point of view, especially after they just turned over $900,000 dollars in a week,
I guess no one really knows why their not making cards for the NRL market anymore.
I miss Dynamic myself. Everyone seems to hate them for whatever reason, but they were bringing out league cards when I first really got into them, and I thought their annual three set programme and their variety of cards was awesome!
Bottom line is we all have a passion for collecting NRL cards, as well as cricket, AFL or whatever. We want the best available product, we don't want quality issues or poor customer service. Granted, Select were at times off the pace in these areas. But if the product is good, if the supplier has an ear for their customer base, then we'll be happy. I'm going to be collecting the ESP product because that's my thing, and I sincerely hope it's as good as, or better than Select.
I will miss Selects customer service...the way Di responds quickly to emails and will make an effort to correct something that has gone wrong in the quality department.
My fear is that this will no longer be the case with ESP as it seems near impossible to get any sort of info out of them unless you come across a rep at a card show and corner him.