16 / 17 Tap n Play CA & BBL trading card review

[Brendan_B]

Hi all,

Time for the annual review! As always I encourage your feedback and thoughts as this will only help to make the next release better.

GENERAL OVERVIEW
Firstly I really like the increase from 24 packs per box to 36. I don't know if there is a packaging issue but I am still finding damaged cards regularly in these packets, more so than any other sports cards packet I have ever purchased. The big thing this year is the price increase, $4pp to $5pp. Big jump, is it worth it? Certainly the volume of cards, particularly inserts have increased to justify the price rise but their are aspects that needed to improve and haven't. I quite enjoy this product and am happy to pay the extra but I see the effect on the hobby and that is reflected on how little movement of this product there seems to be, particularly trade wise.


FOLDERS
Bright, colorful design, nice material however the sleeves are cheap and nasty. I can see the same issue last year with that last page folding under and damaging the cards in the right side. The folder cards are a good theme and glad that they continue. Price is fairly standard these days for a folder with sleeves so no complaints there and the delay couldn't be helped by sound of it.


BASE SET
200 cards is a big base and great to see the women get some BBL cards this release. The general design and bright colours of the BBL teams is similar to last year so I give these a solid pass. Moving forward I would like to see the Australian teams be 18 cards (logo and coach) and the BBL teams 9, 4 men, 4 women and a logo. This is purely so they are nice and uniform to look at. I would also like to see the old subsets within the common set make a come back as they did in the ARU release.


PARALLELS
Huge improvements from previous releases with the boring old coloured border now a distant memory. The jagged splashes on the BBL parallels look really good however the fact that the silver game cards can still not be used well over a month after release is a bit ordinary although credit for the initiative. These are really tough sets to put together, particularly the gold so moving forward perhaps the gold parallel set should be 100 cards or similar.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS
I like the theme but I think these still look very ''common" for an insert that is now three per box. A foil border or a raised logo, something to make them standout would be fine. I would like to have seen these also include test, ODI, T20 and Southern Stars MM's and an 18 card set.

AWARD WINNERS / BEST OF THE BASH
Still very plain looking but probably a bit better than last years AW's and they were 2 per case! Good to see all of the teams catered for, the Warner Test POTY and AB medalist should have been split to make the set into 18.

YOUNG STARS
I really like these cards! Fresh design and the foil board is really effective, an excellent example of what a box hit should be like and solid player selection.

MATCH WINNERS
I don't mind these either! Good player selection and I haven't seen this style of insert in an Australian sports release for some time (maybe AFL Champions Blue / Red Screamers). The only issue I have with these is the way they can bend due to the weight of the card, not sure if that is something that can be fixed. Another good example of a one per box hit.

JERSEY NUMBERS SILVER
Really good looking cards and great initiative. I like the landscape design and focus on the player and jersey number and the background faded. The fact that these are numbered is a bonus and the style of numbering where it is actually printed on the card instead of gold foil stamping looks quite smart.

AUSTRALIAN CRICKET SIGNATURES
I was glad to see the odds on these come right down because lets face it, everyone love on card signatures and this is a big reason I will continue to buy loose packets. A pretty good player selection, however I much prefer my signatures in landscape as it allows for plenty of room for the signatures and puts the focus on where it should be, the signature! The redemption's should also be numbered, it shouldn't be first in first dressed as so many collectors had to wait. The biggest issue I have had with these is they are still hand numbered! This looks very amateur and just plain terrible and for the price rise to have been a success these needed to be numbered properly.

JERSEY NUMBERS GOLD
I haven't held one of these in hand but from what I see they are also a nice looking card. Great initiative to have the card limited to the jersey number although the master set collectors might disagree! Maybe this is why collecting numbers for this release seem to be down, only one person can have a master of this release!

ULTIMATE PERFORMERS
As per the JNG I have not yet held one of these in hand but from what I see they look quite good. I like the fact that some of the BBL internationals get a card here and the nice low numbering is a bonus. Personally I would have liked to see these at 1:6 boxes and numbered to /120

SIGNATURE PATCH CARDS
Again I haven't held one in hand but huge tick for being in landscape style and foil numbering. Pretty good player selection as we all know that these kinds of cards are very dependent on the player giving up their shirts at the end of the match. Nice touch that the picture of Lyon is of him wearing the shirt patched into the cards.

CASE CARD
I think these are numbered....If so awesome if not they need to be as any case hit does! Good theme, hard one too continually replicate as not many players play all three forms and the one thing I like to see in a case card is a continued theme over many releases.

OVERALL
I like this release and believe it is a significant improvement on the previous two. Always room for improvement but TnP are on the right track! 7/10

 

[Mike_K]

Another excellent review @Brendan_B and very good points made.

I have struggled with this release and imo the release is over-inflated in terms of its size and over-priced. But in saying that I simply don't know what this release is attempting to be.

FOCUS?
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It seems to be trying to be all things for all people - covering the Australian sides, both men's and women's, and BBL and WBBL. In attempting to cover all bases it seems to do some things very well, but other aspects are somewhat average.

Case in point - the photoshopping of the players head into the different jerseys for the Australian men's ODI and Int'l T20 sides is simply diabolical.

The main focus of the release (and previous TnP's cricket releases) seems to be BBL. Which is fine if that's the strategy - but then it seems to be comprising that approach by also producing club issued cards for specific BBL team - Heat, Stars and Thunder.

Each of those club issued cards have different approaches/themes, but why comprise an existing release with further cards? Surely that just ends up reducing the sales of the main product, with people focusing their attention on collecting those cards instead.

PARALLELS / INSERTS
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The continued inclusion of parallel silver and gold cards also remains questionable, and having so many insert/chase cards apprears to cause a range of collation issues in terms of the spread of insert cards within a box, i.e a box can be dominated by insert cards from just a few teams.

The codes on the back of the silver card may be the way of the future, but as you have rightly identified, if the supporting technology hasn't been authorised for use by now why bother?

There would be nothing wrong with a simple base set, and then more attention giving to some very good quality higher end insert/chase cards. Some of the higher end chase cards in this release just don't justify the insert ratios.

But I agree - the Young Star cards are great - imo the best cards in this release in terms of design, look and feel.

The increased range of signature cards is very good, and it was good to see the players signing before the release to prevent any redemption delays. No doubt that takes a lot of pre-planning so congrats to TnP for organising that.

But then in going to all that effort for the BBL signatures it goes off on some different approach for the WBBL by getting those players to sign ips on their respective base card as part of a promotional strategy.
It's all got me buggered!!


YOU CAN'T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT....
...BUT IF YOU TRY SOMETIMES WELL YOU JUST MIGHT FIND YOU GET WHAT YOU NEED.
------------------------------------------------
clearly TnP have given more thought into this year's cricket release, and it hasn't been impacted with issues like the a-league release has (No doubt @Scooterboy will be doing his review of those cards in the near future)

End of the day, "it is what it is" - there are bits about this release that I like, and there are bits I don't like.
So I'll collect the bits that appeal, and give the other bits a miss- which is a bit of a shame as I'd like to have seen a well balanced release with overall appeal.

There is a saying "if you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one." That is the risk that TnP now face.
They obviously want a release that has popular appeal in the market place so as to generate sales, but we as collectors are wanting specific things. On that count I don't think this release hits that mark, and certainly not at the $5pp price tag.

But a popularist product with aspects that appease high end collectors shouldn't be too difficult. Maybe next release..."we get what we need"??

But of course the Rolling Stones also sung - (I can't get no) Satisfaction.

 

[Scooterboy]

Mike the A league review early new year just waiting for tap n play box in post....Brendan great write up of CA & BB cards for me cards like T20 game all over the park and no direction. l like a good test match slow and steady like a good Yorkshire opener that played in 70's still l haven't boycotted the card set entirely but will give them away at MCG today to any one who wants them....then again a guy handing out cards in orange can be a case of stranger danger...no worries on OCT

 

[Brendan_B]

Some great points @Mike_K

Perhaps there needs to be two releases? One CA based release for the first part of the summer and a second BBL based release for mid December.

 

[Mike_K]

Some great points @Mike_K

Perhaps there needs to be two releases? One CA based release for the first part of the summer and a second BBL based release for mid December.

Probably some merit in that, but with TnP being a one man operation it would probably just end up being a nightmare to co-ordinate, and I'm not sure there would be enough market to sustain 2 different releases to make it financially viable.

But certainly at the moment we have a release that is dominated by a BBL competition that is only 35 matches over 40 days.

My fear is that to split the release in two with a specific BBL/WBBL release could end up making it more a kiddy focused release. They have just started up this 'Crash the Bash' show on Ch 10/Nickelodeon. We might see cards with a players image on one side & SpongeBob Square Pants on the other lol

But maybe there would be a market for that - AFL Teamcoach have tapped into that market well, but still enough credibility to appeal to a wider audience.

I still think the 2012/13 SEP release was a good approach - a nice base set focussed on BBL and recognising the other traditional forms of the game with a foil aspect to those base card. (Others may think differently)

End of the day I think we all want a good base set with a good design to allow for ips.
I think the problem now being faced is the inclusion of WBBL and it is important to recognise that form of cricket.

Maybe we see a release that essentially a base release of BBL/WBBL and the traditional forms of cricket -men's test, ODI, int'l T20 and Southern Stars - become a silver (or gold) insert cards, but with a ratio that makes it fairly easy to collect them as a secondary base set (I.e like current silvers ratio).

The advantage of the BBL/WBBL cards is that we get some international players in the mix which is good for those who collect ips.

Maybe it would be nice to see TnP ask the collectors of the cards as to what we would be looking for in a release as opposed to just dropping a release into the market place and being hit and miss as to whether people buy them. But maybe they do that already.

Guess the future is going to depend on how long TnP has the rights for the cards and what ends up happening with the TV rights for the BBL which expire at the end of the 2017/18 season, with Channel 9 thinking they should have the rights to all forms of cricket.

Off topic, but the future of BBL is probably more digital - a very good article on that at
https://mumbrella.com.au/digital-ri...ague-broadcasts-ten-executive-predicts-396327