TLA Traders 2021 Official Thread

220 · Mar 3, 2021

Had a look again this morning at forecast supply is now showing we should receive 48 packs starters but only one box of cards and seven albums.
Wont know for certain what we are getting until the day before when we receive the delivery manifest, might check Sunday what is showing for Monday deliveries as wouldnt be the first time newsagents have received them before dealers.

Brendan_B · Mar 3, 2021

Battingticks84 said:
Seeing the new release of AFL cards further highlights just how average TLA is. Select’s lowest level of AFL product has better visual appeal than NRL Elite.

They really do look good. How nice are the game breakers and club acetate for low level inserts?

Matt26 · Mar 3, 2021

Is it just me or is there very little excitement about Traders this year?

Brandboy20 · Mar 3, 2021

Matt26 said:
Is it just me or is there very little excitement about Traders this year?

Nar, I feel the same. Select has mopped the floor with NRL card side of things. Everyone one is buzzing over AFL.

saintsforever · Mar 3, 2021

Brandboy20 said:
Nar, I feel the same. Select has mopped the floor with NRL card side of things. Everyone one is buzzing over AFL.

I like to look at them to see what they come up with, but thats it, i dont really care anymore, that should not affect anyone else.

Battingticks84 · Mar 3, 2021

Matt26 said:
Is it just me or is there very little excitement about Traders this year?

Last year the hobby was buzzing with priority and this year, I‘d suggest that priority, along with the general distribution of the product has almost been the hobby’s undoing. I speak for no one but myself, but I just can’t justify buying a case of traders that’ll be worth half price less a month after release, just to get access to a two decent priority cards. Plus, I’ve seen a number breaks that appear grossly overpriced just to get access to starters and priority. To me, this is not particularly appealing. I hope I’m wrong, but I think there’ll be a lot of stock sitting on dealer’s shelves this release.

Matt26 · Mar 3, 2021

Battingticks84 said:
Last year the hobby was buzzing with priority and this year, I‘d suggest that priority, along with the general distribution of the product has almost been the hobby’s undoing. I speak for no one but myself, but I just can’t justify buying a case of traders that’ll be worth half price less a month after release, just to get access to a two decent priority cards. Plus, I’ve seen a number breaks that appear grossly overpriced just to get access to starters and priority. To me, this is not particularly appealing. I hope I’m wrong, but I think there’ll be a lot of stock sitting on dealer’s shelves this release.

You have to ask yourself a question...... how does a product not have a lot of buzz about it when we are in a card boom?

Maybe I'm just old and don't get it anymore! LOL

Paul_Ambrey · Mar 3, 2021

Matt26 said:
You have to ask yourself a question...... how does a product not have a lot of buzz about it when we are in a card boom?

Maybe I'm just old and don't get it anymore! LOL

The boom is in the basketball cards at the moment.So no more $20.00 Jordans for you.

Sharks16 · Mar 3, 2021

Battingticks84 said:
Last year the hobby was buzzing with priority and this year, I‘d suggest that priority, along with the general distribution of the product has almost been the hobby’s undoing. I speak for no one but myself, but I just can’t justify buying a case of traders that’ll be worth half price less a month after release, just to get access to a two decent priority cards. Plus, I’ve seen a number breaks that appear grossly overpriced just to get access to starters and priority. To me, this is not particularly appealing. I hope I’m wrong, but I think there’ll be a lot of stock sitting on dealer’s shelves this release.

The team signature cards end up going for $100 , the legends sit at around $200-$250 and the predictors are lucky to fetch $50 as opposed to $100 plus in 2017 .Even if you got a couple of each which you don’t you’d still be behind. No where near as much value as elite for a tonne of base cards ?

Brendan_B · Mar 4, 2021

Matt26 said:
You have to ask yourself a question...... how does a product not have a lot of buzz about it when we are in a card boom?

Maybe I'm just old and don't get it anymore! LOL

I think that by saying TLA have failed to cash in on this boom is being kind, it just seems plain lazy. So much duplication and parallels, why do we need another level of authentic signature /58? It will only cause the authentics /116 to drop in value and when they change it again next year, this lower value will be the new norm, much like how the LSB from Elite are not holding any value.

In the last four years we have seen Authentics go from /100 to /170 back to /100 and now /116 & /58

Absolutely no promotion of the product from TLA (aside from dealers posting the sell sheet and checklist) as opposed to Select who released short videos each week for a month. I don't understand why you wouldn't build the anticipation. as I said, lazy !

I wonder if they have fixed the predictor issue this year to make sure ALL predictors are redeemable as either full sets or premiers? Or are we left with 75% of predictors being numbered logo cards and worthless at seasons end.

Also, Priority cases up from 40 to 60.

On face value, and without having seen AFL cards in hand, Select have absolutely destroyed TLA this year in every aspect. Brownlow, Premiership and Coleman Medal predictors, how cool.

Angry · Mar 4, 2021

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

dannybuoy · Mar 4, 2021

Brendan_B said:
On face value, and without having seen AFL cards in hand, Select have absolutely destroyed TLA this year in every aspect. Brownlow, Premiership and Coleman Medal predictors, how cool.

Unless you receive a decent Brownlow fancy, and a team that is a decent chance at the flag or the Coleman the rest are worthless - and they are case hits. Also you want to talk lazy, Select have decided to put the same team for the Premiership and Coleman in the cases, I repeat, CASE HITS! Imagine hitting Gold Coast or North Melbourne, or even Adelaide - YUCK!

Brendan_B · Mar 4, 2021

dannybuoy said:
Unless you receive a decent Brownlow fancy, and a team that is a decent chance at the flag or the Coleman the rest are worthless - and they are case hits. Also you want to talk lazy, Select have decided to put the same team for the Premiership and Coleman in the cases, I repeat, CASE HITS! Imagine hitting Gold Coast or North Melbourne, or even Adelaide - YUCK!

That case allocation does sound ordinary. I haven’t seen the AFL predictors in hand but the images I have seen look far better and somewhat more collectable for a team PC than the NRL versions.

kk84 · Mar 4, 2021

Brendan_B said:
That case allocation does sound ordinary. I haven’t seen the AFL predictors in hand but the images I have seen look far better and somewhat more collectable for a team PC than the NRL versions.

TLA does two things better than Select IMO and they are:

- bonus redeemable set for people who collect all team's predictors. I would love something like this in AFL. As said above, the premiership predictors are a case hit in Footy Stars this year yet there are realistically only 4-5 teams that can win it. Once prices settle the majority of these will be selling for $50 or less.

- numbered bonus cards in starter packs. We have never had this in AFL and it is awesome. Something extra to chase and adds a lot of extra value to starter packs.

Brendan_B · Mar 4, 2021

kk84 said:
TLA does two things better than Select IMO and they are:

- bonus redeemable set for people who collect all team's predictors. I would love something like this in AFL. As said above, the premiership predictors are a case hit in Footy Stars this year yet there are realistically only 4-5 teams that can win it. Once prices settle the majority of these will be selling for $50 or less.

- numbered bonus cards in starter packs. We have never had this in AFL and it is awesome. Something extra to chase and adds a lot of extra value to starter packs.

The issue with TLA / NRL premiership predictors is that only 50 (previous years, not confirmed for 2021) of the non-premiership winning teams are redeemable. The obvious issue has been once these 50 spots have been registered with TLA, the rest are useless. I think the predictors are /220 (or close) which leaves over 2,500 predictors that hold no value.

The bonus cards for non-premiership winning teams were 2018 team photo (/50 , foil numbered), 2019 team photo (/25, print numbered, very ordinary cards) and 2020 (Magic Moment, /50, print numbered). The latter was a step up but again, numbers on predictors don’t correlate to predictor card numbers, print numbering looks cheap.

I know that when Select were doing NRL all premiership predictors were redeemable as sets, this has obviously changed. The premiership set for the AFL was stunning last year and having a signature card, give me that over a team photo or Magic moment any day.

The bonus cards in starters are a good addition but same tired theme for 5+ years (startoons) and the starter packs have been searchable. TLA do so many numbered cards though, it has a tendency to cheapen them.

220 · Mar 4, 2021

Brendan_B said:
The bonus cards in starters are a good addition but same tired theme for 5+ years (startoons) and the starter packs have been searchable. TLA do so many numbered cards though, it has a tendency to cheapen them.

The startoon variations have only been in starters for 3 years, prior to that it was a milestone card 200, 250 300 games for various players, Last year you also had hobby starters that had the league leaders instead of startoons found in retail.

saintsforever · Mar 4, 2021

Brendan_B said:
The issue with TLA / NRL premiership predictors is that only 50 (previous years, not confirmed for 2021) of the non-premiership winning teams are redeemable. The obvious issue has been once these 50 spots have been registered with TLA, the rest are useless. I think the predictors are /220 (or close) which leaves over 2,500 predictors that hold no value.

The bonus cards for non-premiership winning teams were 2018 team photo (/50 , foil numbered), 2019 team photo (/25, print numbered, very ordinary cards) and 2020 (Magic Moment, /50, print numbered). The latter was a step up but again, numbers on predictors don’t correlate to predictor card numbers, print numbering looks cheap.

I know that when Select were doing NRL all premiership predictors were redeemable as sets, this has obviously changed. The premiership set for the AFL was stunning last year and having a signature card, give me that over a team photo or Magic moment any day.

The bonus cards in starters are a good addition but same tired theme for 5+ years (startoons) and the starter packs have been searchable. TLA do so many numbered cards though, it has a tendency to cheapen them.

Like ive been saying for years, way too many prallels, and too many numbered cards.
When you want to kill off collectors, keep mass producing.
Those team photos as a redeemable product, as just crap.
Buy a box for 130, or pay 50 to 70 for a predictor to get your team photo card.
When there worth $2 on the seconday market or $1 a few months later, makes it feel like you have been taken for ride to the cleaners.

Brendan_B · Mar 4, 2021

220 said:
The startoon variations have only been in starters for 3 years, prior to that it was a milestone card 200, 250 300 games for various players, Last year you also had hobby starters that had the league leaders instead of startoons found in retail.

Yes but Startoons themselves have been an insert in Traders since 2017 and there was an album variant that year, unnumbered. I was out by a year there, point is the Startoons set is a tired concept.

Brendan_B · Mar 4, 2021

But it is not all doom and gloom. I have highlighted what I think are the deficiencies but the continuation of Retirements is great, wonderful set. The Legends signatures are tremendous also. I will never understand why they didn’t do Legends case cards in 2019. The only year they didn’t !!

Sometimes a bit of consistency in numbering and a fresh idea or 2 goes along way. Less can often mean more !!

220 · Mar 4, 2021

Brendan_B said:
Yes but Startoons themselves have been an insert in Traders since 2017 and there was an album variant that year, unnumbered. I was out by a year there, point is the Startoons set is a tired concept.

So are legends signatures but collectors like the continuity from one year to the next. People obviously do collect the startoons and really it is a entry level subset that you can put together a numbered set for a reasonable cost.
I did prefer the league leaders in hobby starters from last year more than the startoons in retail. I guess one of the issues with what to put into starters is having a even distribution of cards between all clubs. Startoons is a easy one to do and keep a even distribution, with the shift to team collecting over chasing a master set a more even distribution would help sales.

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