Hi everyone,
Recently I had the opportunity to do a Q&A with Dave from http://www.footycards.com.au where we discussed the upcoming release of 2012 Football Draft Prospects.
1) Let me start off by asking you what your inspiration behind creating this ground breaking set?
There is much inspiration behind creating this set of cards, it’s difficult to find a starting point. Namely, having a product that offers collectors something of value. We receive countless amounts of communication from some of the most passionate collectors from around the country and have directly tried to address their needs, in providing them an option and adding some amazing cards to their collection.
Let’s be honest, the days of original ‘set-based’ collector is diminishing, whilst Player Collectors (PC) and team collectors are on the rise. Take the fact that the most sought-after cards are those of or from a player’s rookie or debut year. It’s common knowledge that these are the cards that may fluctuate most on the secondary-market. With this in mind, building complete common sets, is not the aim anymore, so we’ve tried to make them limited to begin with. The most avid collectors want to buy sealed boxes and be thrilled, without the ‘predictability’ of standard ratios, and want to see a product that contains legitimately rare cards such as low-numbered signature cards, memorabilia and inserts cards, and I think we’ve addressed that. Rather than produce and manufacture countless cards and buffer out a product, we’ve gone against that, and loaded them up, and created a unique product where the numbers produced was more customer and collector-driven.
At the end of the day, we simply took on board what collectors and our customers had been saying for years.
2) What's the feedback been like since you announced you were releasing this set?
The feedback directly to us, has been overwhelmingly positive and exceeded our expectations. Most have said they are looking to buy something new and refreshing to collect and add to their collections.
3) Were there any challenges you faced in making the cards?
Probably the project management side of this product. A number of new companies were involved, in various stages of production, which was something a little different. Working with other companies during the Xmas/New Year period didn’t do us any favours.
4) How did the players react when you approached them to appear in this set?
The players were overwhelmingly supportive and excited about being part of the 2012 Football Draft Prospects project, especially when they saw the packaging, and our previously-released cards. There was a real sense of anticipation when each of them arrived!
They enjoyed the Rookie Photo Shoot experience and were keen to see their cards come to life. From another perspective, it was quite an amazing experience to witness the first signatures of a future star, because as collectors of autographs know, the signatures of player can change throughout their career, and this will be their FIRST signature card.
5) How did the players react to the cards when they saw them?
So far, so good, in fact many of them have contacted us eager to know when they’ll be released, and when they’ll be receiving theirs!
6) The jerseys worn by the players is something we have seen in a lot of US sports cards, how do you think local collectors will react to these cards?
The look and feel of the card we think will rival those released memorabilia cards overseas. Remember, there are only 25 of these for each player, so they’ll be something pretty special but still very attainable because of the limited production run.
Another interesting perspective is that Guernsey collecting here in Australia, is receiving more and more attention. We felt having an exclusive Guernsey made for the product and then embedding it into the card might offer something a little different. Most of the players completed their signings and interviews wearing the Guernsey too.
7) There have been some comments in relation to these cards not being real first year cards of the players? Do you have any thoughts on this?
Perhaps, the release of the 2012 Football Draft Prospects has clearly challenged the products of other manufacturers?
I guess those who have profited in a monopoly market feel threatened when new products enter the fold.
The great thing is that collectors are smart enough to make their own judgements and they are the ones who will ultimately determine the classification and worth of any cards.
8) The release date isn't too far away, do you have anything in store for the launch of this product?
Yes, we’ll be running a competition to ‘Create-your-own-Advert’ for the 2012 Football Draft Prospects.
9) If you could get one message across to people who are interested in this set, what would it be?
From the moment that this product became more than an just a concept, the vision was to create a product that might actually try and grow football card collecting in this country. We wanted to see a product that is affordable, but limited and also rewarding that when you pull a key card from a box, it is not something that 100 or so others can obtain, and that’s the reason all the cards (besides the rookie cards) are individually-numbered to 50 or less.
As a retailer, we see and hear that there are many footy fans around the country that simply don’t collect for various reasons, perhaps this could be the product that gets them involved? Perhaps there are Australian collectors, who like football here, but rather collect the US sports cards, perhaps they might see the difference in this product offering, and get on board?
We hope that collectors will go outside of the normal constraints of their collection, and consider collecting the players or the inserts on their own merits. Nothing is more exciting than pulling a card of potentially a future star regardless of which team they were drafted by, or having a card of player move in value on the secondary-market because of success on-field. We would love to see this as the card that can reward collectors in the short and long-term.
10) Where can people find more information about this set?
Through our website – http://www.Footycards.com.au along with our blog for the latest (and less-formal) information that comes to light - http://footycards.blogspot.com.au
I hope you enjoyed the information that Dave has provided and as a added bonus, here is an image of the packaging that Dave wanted us to share with you all.
Cheers
Matt
Recently I had the opportunity to do a Q&A with Dave from http://www.footycards.com.au where we discussed the upcoming release of 2012 Football Draft Prospects.
1) Let me start off by asking you what your inspiration behind creating this ground breaking set?
There is much inspiration behind creating this set of cards, it’s difficult to find a starting point. Namely, having a product that offers collectors something of value. We receive countless amounts of communication from some of the most passionate collectors from around the country and have directly tried to address their needs, in providing them an option and adding some amazing cards to their collection.
Let’s be honest, the days of original ‘set-based’ collector is diminishing, whilst Player Collectors (PC) and team collectors are on the rise. Take the fact that the most sought-after cards are those of or from a player’s rookie or debut year. It’s common knowledge that these are the cards that may fluctuate most on the secondary-market. With this in mind, building complete common sets, is not the aim anymore, so we’ve tried to make them limited to begin with. The most avid collectors want to buy sealed boxes and be thrilled, without the ‘predictability’ of standard ratios, and want to see a product that contains legitimately rare cards such as low-numbered signature cards, memorabilia and inserts cards, and I think we’ve addressed that. Rather than produce and manufacture countless cards and buffer out a product, we’ve gone against that, and loaded them up, and created a unique product where the numbers produced was more customer and collector-driven.
At the end of the day, we simply took on board what collectors and our customers had been saying for years.
2) What's the feedback been like since you announced you were releasing this set?
The feedback directly to us, has been overwhelmingly positive and exceeded our expectations. Most have said they are looking to buy something new and refreshing to collect and add to their collections.
3) Were there any challenges you faced in making the cards?
Probably the project management side of this product. A number of new companies were involved, in various stages of production, which was something a little different. Working with other companies during the Xmas/New Year period didn’t do us any favours.
4) How did the players react when you approached them to appear in this set?
The players were overwhelmingly supportive and excited about being part of the 2012 Football Draft Prospects project, especially when they saw the packaging, and our previously-released cards. There was a real sense of anticipation when each of them arrived!
They enjoyed the Rookie Photo Shoot experience and were keen to see their cards come to life. From another perspective, it was quite an amazing experience to witness the first signatures of a future star, because as collectors of autographs know, the signatures of player can change throughout their career, and this will be their FIRST signature card.
5) How did the players react to the cards when they saw them?
So far, so good, in fact many of them have contacted us eager to know when they’ll be released, and when they’ll be receiving theirs!
6) The jerseys worn by the players is something we have seen in a lot of US sports cards, how do you think local collectors will react to these cards?
The look and feel of the card we think will rival those released memorabilia cards overseas. Remember, there are only 25 of these for each player, so they’ll be something pretty special but still very attainable because of the limited production run.
Another interesting perspective is that Guernsey collecting here in Australia, is receiving more and more attention. We felt having an exclusive Guernsey made for the product and then embedding it into the card might offer something a little different. Most of the players completed their signings and interviews wearing the Guernsey too.
7) There have been some comments in relation to these cards not being real first year cards of the players? Do you have any thoughts on this?
Perhaps, the release of the 2012 Football Draft Prospects has clearly challenged the products of other manufacturers?
I guess those who have profited in a monopoly market feel threatened when new products enter the fold.
The great thing is that collectors are smart enough to make their own judgements and they are the ones who will ultimately determine the classification and worth of any cards.
8) The release date isn't too far away, do you have anything in store for the launch of this product?
Yes, we’ll be running a competition to ‘Create-your-own-Advert’ for the 2012 Football Draft Prospects.
9) If you could get one message across to people who are interested in this set, what would it be?
From the moment that this product became more than an just a concept, the vision was to create a product that might actually try and grow football card collecting in this country. We wanted to see a product that is affordable, but limited and also rewarding that when you pull a key card from a box, it is not something that 100 or so others can obtain, and that’s the reason all the cards (besides the rookie cards) are individually-numbered to 50 or less.
As a retailer, we see and hear that there are many footy fans around the country that simply don’t collect for various reasons, perhaps this could be the product that gets them involved? Perhaps there are Australian collectors, who like football here, but rather collect the US sports cards, perhaps they might see the difference in this product offering, and get on board?
We hope that collectors will go outside of the normal constraints of their collection, and consider collecting the players or the inserts on their own merits. Nothing is more exciting than pulling a card of potentially a future star regardless of which team they were drafted by, or having a card of player move in value on the secondary-market because of success on-field. We would love to see this as the card that can reward collectors in the short and long-term.
10) Where can people find more information about this set?
Through our website – http://www.Footycards.com.au along with our blog for the latest (and less-formal) information that comes to light - http://footycards.blogspot.com.au
I hope you enjoyed the information that Dave has provided and as a added bonus, here is an image of the packaging that Dave wanted us to share with you all.
Cheers
Matt
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