Wow, I have been out of the loop with nrl. First I heard about this new set was 20 minutes ago when I stumbled across this thread. My intial excitement and grand plans to return to NRL collecting had the handbrake applied when I saw 3-400 of each signature card. I fear that if future releases go this way they will water down the market and make top players signatures worthless. 400 signatures each of Inglis/Smith/Marshall/Thurston etc in this one release alone - and who knows how many in future releases could kill the value. Is the NRL market big enough to support this? Maybe, I dont really know. I just hope they dont flood it and kill it, sounds like they are planning a lot of releases.
Pretty much every signature card was from a top calibre player from memory looking at that checklist. Players of this calibre should have limited numbers when it comes to autos. What they needed to do was include lower end player signatures. Have higher number 4-500 sigs of lower end guys from all star and indig teams, with more limited numbers for the big guns.
I still think this is a step in the right direction. There are some great signs here, great ideas. Select is the reason I quit NRL collecting, so Im excited to see what ESP can do, may bring back to NRL.
I still remember a thread on this site from a few years ago where the vast majority were screaming for patch cards, state of origin cards, game ball cards - which sounds like they have planned for future releases, and we have it, so I dont quite understand why people are saying tbhings like I miss select already. Sure I understand there are select fans, but surely a fresh approach isnt a bad thing, Select have produced the same set of cards for the last 15 years. How many Club player of the year and team of the year sets do you want?
I also like how it looks that the signatures will be on the jersey itself, very cool. But I just hope they dont flood the market and kill the value. One only has to look at Topps and the UFC to see how they managed to water down the market there, way too many signatures of the top calibre guys, takes a bit away from the hobby in my opinion. Im sure basketball has the same problem.