Digital Card Central

Its the MOST wonderful time of the year! The NFL is coming down to the nitty gritty and the playoffs are almost upon us. That means that its time to start peeling off those parts of your collection that dont have playoff relevance and stocking up to participate in the post season challenge. Although there hasnt been a formal announcement yet, its coming, trust me. If you are a points player, and have been playing along with the massive boosts that have come as of late, its time to start being strategic in the way you acquire new cards.

Well Balanced Lineup

If the previous years of Bunt and Huddle have any indication, you are going to need some of the cards from both a fantasy style approach and a grinding type approach. The challenge will likely be a combination of both, and with only one type of lineup in your pocket you will not be as prepared to finish among the top guys.

I would guess that there will be free and paid versions of both types of contests, and this is also a time where EVERYONE plays as much as possible.

Playoff Card Conundrum 

We know a playoff set will be coming, and we also know they will be highly boosted. The conundrum is whether they will be higher in boost levels than we already have with some of these crazy cards already in play, or if they will be well under similar to last year. Its clear that this is a time where Huddle goes kind of insane with the boost progression, meaning it might not even be worth your time to get in early, unless the player doesnt have a lot of cards to begin with. If you are buying in on Michael Crabtree, not a bad play. If you are buying in on Tom Brady? Not sure that’s the best thing, unless you are a Pats fan.

Contest Stack – Fantasy

For fantasy, high tackle count linebackers and high scoring QBs are easily the best plays. Sometimes you get guys like Zeke Elliott who will go off, but on the whole its best to stick to the right formula.

QBs touch the ball every offensive play, and even the small passes add up when you cant switch in the wide receivers to get max points. QBs like Dak Prescott and Aaron Rodgers, who will run for nice gains are a huge plus, especially if they can get into the endzone like Prescott did last week.

Contest Stack – Streaming

I love to stock up on WR and RB, because their points are much more lucrative on big plays than what we get out of QBs, even on significantly higher boost levels. Any pass play over 10-15 yards is better to play the WR almost across the board, and its easier to plan out your lineup switch when you have to use the new build. Its not as easy to really make single card switches, and mass changes are just a matter of double tapping until you get the full lineup notification.

I think if I am stocking up, I am going straight for the guys I know I will need in a big way. As mentioned above, this might need to happen after the playoff cards are released, but the usual suspects like OBJ, Zeke, Dez, and Amari are all guys I will chase.

Things to Keep In Mind

Remember, everyone is going to play at the beginning. There will be fierce competition, especially as more and more people join in. It will thin out by the Championship games, all before things go nuts again for the Super Bowl. If you are not ready to spend like crazy, its time to get your tradin’ shoes on.

When Playoff cards hit the sheet, you better have some serious coinage saved up, and even more inserts you are willing to give up as you go dupes for needs with the traders on the articles and feed. It can be done without a huge investment, but the time commitment to be successful will be exponentially higher. In those cases, its best to know exactly who you are going to need for your base scoring onslaught, and which of the guys you are going to take a flyer on.

Lastly, with each round of the playoffs only one game, you could invest heavily in a team to see them get blitzed out of no where. Teams like Dallas and New England will have a week off, but that also means they have one less week to be effective, especially if they get bounced in the divisional round by chance. Diversification is key, even if it goes against every fiber in your body to do so.

Have fun everyone, this is going to be a great few months!

I see it everywhere, Marvel fans want the opportunity to collect digital versions of trading cards from their favorite comics and movies. Because the movies are so popular, and have spiked a resurgence in comic book culture, its only natural that a digital card product would be extremely well received. Upper Deck’s e-pack format combining the physical ownership of the digital cards you pull through the application takes it to another level, and it should not be surprising that their investment looks to be paying off in spades.

Upper Deck owns the license for Marvel Trading Cards, and have released a number of awesome physical products that have premiered in e-Pack to enormous success. Building on those past wins, Captain America and Doctor Strange are the newest additions to the portfolio, with a 75th anniversary set for Cap that celebrates the run of one of the most popular super heroes ever created.

Coming tomorrow, they will be releasing a movie themed Doctor Strange product to e-Pack, which is paired with the physical product released earlier. Like we saw with Captain America 75th Anniversary, there will be special acheivements and set awards for collecting certain content within the set, including hoard related exchanges for special foil variants.

There are also opportunities to pull relic and autograph cards from the packs, which have proven to be insanely valuable cards if you land one of the big names from the checklist. Benedict Cumberbatch has quickly become a household name after some recent high profile roles, and Doctor Strange is proving to be right in line.

I absolutely love that Upper Deck is bringing Marvel to digital in ways that allow for exclusive content like we are seeing with both new sets, as well as giving access to the popular physical cards by generating physical counterparts to what is contained in the digital packs.

Although Im not a huge non-sport collector in the physical world, I have taken quite an interest in non-sport digital, as the card community is so fierce with its passion for the different offerings available. Adding in the sketch cards and other examples of unique content is awesome, especially with the quality we see in many of the one-of-a-kind collectibles.

Tomorrow will be a big day, as we are seeing previous Marvel sets getting a lot of action on the secondary trade market present within the e-Pack platform. Pulling top sketches and autos can get you a lot of different options to trade, especially if you want to pick up some of the content from previously released sets, or sports releases like Ultimate Hockey and Goodwin Champions.

I am definitely looking forward to seeing more content from Upper Deck that continues to increase their participation for Marvel in the digital world. Tying it back to physical cards adds an extra layer, and that makes it that much more attractive to me. As a fanboy for many years, this is what I have been waiting for since digital products first surfaced.

For the last few years, all of the Topps apps have come out with holiday content to drive free giveaways and some awesome content in the apps. We have seen some of the more creative based approaches during this time, and with the announcement on twitter of the upcoming 12 days of Topps, looks like we are going to get another go at holiday fun for 2016.

What to Expect

As we have seen over the holiday season previously, this is where the apps can offer some major limited content alongside some fun free packs and cards. In Bunt and Huddle we have seen them release holiday signature sets that have been some extremely limited cards that remain valuable through the rest of the year.

For Star Wars, the Holiday ugly sweater and corresponding holiday set went pretty fast last year, and I would expect that if they do something similar this year, the Rogue One and FA subject matter will be fun. The preview has a Boba Fett gingerbread cookie, which might be a fun set coming.

There are usually mystery cards as well, either wrapped gifts or other cards that wont be revealed right away, and they can range from extremely valuable to free giveaways, and it could be different across all the apps.

Lastly, in Huddle, we might finally see the release of Series 2 base, which will hopefully come before the final 3 games of the season. Its extremely odd that all the rookies and many of the new stars have no base cards, and with so few games left, we have been relying on inserts to provide playable content. I think this is a major miss going back to thanksgiving and before, and we are running out of time.

Other Fun Holiday Expectations

With the release of Rogue One only a few days away, I would hope that more special content is on the way, especially some of the premium inserts we saw for Force Awakens. I can imagine there will be some sort of program running across the app, and if the movie is as good as I am hearing it is, this could spark a resurgence in the community that is desperately overdue.

Similarly, the NFL at Christmas time is always a fun time for football, as the playoffs are closing in and more teams are locking up their divisions. There will be lots of contests and cards to be released, so dont go blowing your cache if you are looking to make a big playoff run.

Additionally, Im curious to see how Bunt really digs in for the offseason, as the winter meetings really got some interesting movement for a few top stars. Im curious if they will do some of the engaging stuff that Huddle kicked up as they went into the 2016 regular season, but I havent confirmed anything quite yet.

Most importantly, enjoy the holiday season and get ready for the most wonderful time of the year. Happy holidays to everyone!

Over the last few months, we have seen a shift in the way Topps digital uses boxes, some as a welcome change, others as a bit of a point for frustration. As a whole, I was a big fan of the box format, especially in Bunt, where cards per box were sometimes in the hundreds. Now that the format seems to be adjusted in Bunt, Huddle and Star Wars, with other apps like WWE giving up seemingly 100%, Im curious if the format still makes sense.

Why Boxes are Awesome

To start, as a collector of physical cards, I have been accustomed to the format for most of my life. Breaking boxes is not only fun, but is a way that most physical collectors participate in the hobby. In digital, where we saw a lot of sister products created to match their physical counterparts, the natural desire to break the boxes is a no doubter.

Additionally, there was usually readily available access to rare and great looking cards, with a huge opportunity to pull them without ripping through 10,000 packs. Even though the cost was something that needed to be considered up front, some of my best pulls in any app have come from these boxes.

Creating themes has worked exceptionally well on Huddle, with Legend Boxes and Draft Boxes being among my favorite releases ever in the app’s history. If you are willing to spend the money, it gave unprecedented access to 1/1 cards among other rare sigs and boosts.

This also gives the app a chance to highlight some players that maybe dont get the insert treatment as much, as many of the physical checklists were 300 and 400 players deep. It was quite impressive to see, and as much fun to open.

Where Boxes Fall Short

At first, the functionality was a bit clunky to say the least. Glitches were everywhere, and it caused more problems than the format was worth in a lot of ways. Once the issues were fixed, it wasnt as much of a problem, but it was definitely something that has enough impact to hurt the economy in a significant way.

Similarly, with so many rare cards in every box, the novelty of having a 10 count sig or insert wasnt as high. Most traders put box cards into their own category to say that they werent worth as much as some of the other pack pulled goods. This goes back to a few of my previous articles talking about user revolt against super premium direct purchase, and that has a lot to do with this I think.

Additionally, if you look at Huddle as the best example, the box cards clog the top of the card sheet, where most users want their best wares to be showcased. Because there is no “showcase” to put your best stuff, it can cause a lot of issue.

The cost of participation is also insanely high, with most boxes in the highest echelon of pricing for any release in the app. Although you are guaranteed nice return for some of the releases, others have left users with a terrible taste in their mouth – especially for the glitches that have happened.

Suggestions for the Future

First off, releasing the boxes in waves is really hard to stomach. Although it is done to get more purchases out of us, the wave approach creates a ton of bad reactions, especially in trying to trade to complete sets. One of the main reasons that the boxes dont retain value is because of some of these things, and creating a feeding frenzy is definitely where its at.

Make sure there is super premium, low numbered content to accompany the high price to participate. This is not the opportunity to release unlimited card count cards. All of the main box hits should be limited, and it should be like that so users can find value in the ways in which we buy in. Without limited cards, the point of buying in (especially buying in multiple times) is gone.

Separate box cards into a special section. Make sure its easy to search for and easy to find on the sheet. Trading is what makes most of these boxes fun, and throwing them in the mix with everything else is annoying.

Keep boxes big, even if it means that they dont happen as often. Its a terrible waste of time if there are only 40 cards in a set. This is something that limits buying potential, and limits the collectability of the release. Larger sets mean lower count awards and more fun to open.

Make the rewards worth while. When you collect a big set, the reward should be just as big. If the player selected for the reward is a mid tier guy, the whole thing is devalued significantly. Give the perks to the people who spent the time.

As a whole, I am still a fan of boxes and want them to continue to be a part of the apps. At the same time, I want there to be much more of a focus on execution and finding ways to be innovative.

If you remember back a few months ago, Bunt became the first digital platform to release a sister physical product. Although there were some MAJOR hiccups in the release, the achievement was no less important. First, because it signaled the commitment that Topps has to increasing the reach of their Digital platforms, but also because it gave physical collectors increased exposure to what they might be missing on the digital side.

Now that the SWCT physical checklist is here, we are getting a bit more info about what is going to be included. From what it looks like, the product should function in a similar target market to what we saw with Bunt, as a cheap and fun pack ripping experience. More importantly, the focus on delivering fan favorite sets in a physical form has a lot of attractive qualities.

We also see that there will be digital autograph redemptions that start at 25 copies and have parallels down to 5 copies. These are likely going to be code cards like we saw with some of the insert sets in Bunt, and will be VERY difficult to get your hands on. Going to be interesting to see how secondary market performs on some of these cards, as Bunt had a bit of a dud factor due to how little information was provided to the physical collectors who were the ones mostly opening the packs.

Also interesting that all parallels will have codes for redemption in app, and although it might not be a code specific to the card in hand, it could still unlock product specific content in the app. This is a new thing different from what we saw in Bunt, and that is really intriguing to say the least. This is one thing I think went really wrong with the previous product, as there was so little content that was able to be unlocked in the app through code cards, it made things really hard to follow. I wanted more card for card unlocks and less pack based stuff. I hope there is some method to this madness.

If I am Topps right now, I am pushing as much info out to the shops and collectors in every way shape and form I can. I already see they posted on the blog – here – but that cannot be the end of the communication. They need to document and divulge as much info as possible and start peppering people with expectations ahead of time. Then, as we saw with Bunt, those expectations need to be coordinated among the teams. Both Physical and Digital need to cooperate on this, and make sure what is promised is actually delivered. This was a MESS with Bunt, and hopefully the team was able to learn from the mistakes.

I have confidence that things will be better and trust the people executing this on both sides. The original SWCT base cards with new characters alone is worth a look, and seeing our favorite SWCT inserts and marathon getting the love they deserve is also really cool. I absolutely love that the Reflections cards are included, as they are definitely a subset I will want to collect. Hopefully they are a bit rarer and more valuable, but you never know when its a lower end product.

Bottom line, this has the makings of something awesome, especially with pack redemptions and code cards included. Even with the fiasco, I bought a lot of Bunt, and will definitely be in for a few boxes of this too.

Click here for the checklist from Topps.

Over the last few days, and likely continuing tomorrow, the Topps Apps have delivered more content than we usually get in a few weeks. For apps like Huddle, this is usually among the biggest events of the year, so its not uncommon to see them really break out the big guns. For other apps like Star Wars, they are approaching a fork in the app crossroads with the release of the first ever non-trilogy movie. Everyone was on high alert, and I think the content was definitely worth the wait.

Star Wars

Being that Base series 4 just got going, they continue the tradition of offering special base variants, similar to what they have done in previous years. They also came through with a quad signature, which was offered for completing the set that was released on Friday. Honestly, I wasnt expecting much out of Star Wars because they havent ever really gone nuts over the holidays, but this was a fun chase.

NHL Skate

Much like Huddle, Skate was looking to make a splash and did some really cool cards and deals that I found myself trying to chase. Not only did they release another dual signature of the Dallas Stars top guys, but the Blackout marathon was really well done in a way like we had seen in previous years with Bunt. Im quite sad there wasnt another marathon offered in any of the other apps, as the hour by hour chase was something that kept me going last year while my wife was shopping for shoes and purses.

WWE Slam

In addition to a themed Thanksgiving set, they offered the first signature cards for the Rock, who has become America’s top paid actor. Its kind of crazy to think how far he has come, and the signature design for these two cards was absolutely awesome. They also started a new set with Splash, that might be one of the better looking insert sets I have seen in the app. Again, as Slam is a newer app, they did the right things to take advantage of a growing following.

Topps Bunt

As always, the holidays are a big deal for Bunt, and they did a really good job keeping us on the hook for the entire weekend. Allen & Ginter Black was released in 6 waves, with some great award cards, and due to the size of the set, they should be pretty rare. We also got a new legend die cut set, which looked really cool, and was the first die cut I have seen in a really long time. The gem of the week was the annoucement of the low number Limited set, which looks to be planned as a weekly release counting down from 15 to 1. I love this idea, and with a similar release in Huddle, its cool to see they arent depriving the community of their favorite low numbered players.

Topps Huddle

As mentioned above, Thanksgiving in football is as big of an event as the Super Bowl in a lot of ways. They really went completely nuts on packing the weekend so full of new cards that I probably spent more money than I have ever spent in any of the apps at one time. They literally pulled out all the stops and generated constant content for the entire scope of the weekend. Like the other apps, there was a thanksgiving set that looked as good as ever, and a Black Friday set to match. That was only the beginning, as a ticket system was introduced to deliver special content that wasnt available through packs. Tickets were given out for picking games correctly, completing sets, and buying bundles, and there were some awesome cards to work towards, including the first Legend sigs of Payton, Favre and Brown.

They also didnt skimp on the sets, as Inception, Turkey Red and Allen & Ginter both made their digital only debut for 2016 in Football. As I have talked about a number of times, Topps is no longer making physical NFL cards, and these sets were designed specifically for the app.

Huddle also put out special dual signatures for the teams playing on Thanksgiving, including a Deion Sanders / Deion Sanders dual for his time on both the Redskins and the Cowboys. I absolutely love the dual sig design in Huddle this year, and these cards were some true gems with a current player paired with a legend.

In terms of contest, they really went to the extreme by delivering a full slate of contest cards, contest sigs, GO Boosts, and a set of season long boosts that corresponded with the games played on Thursday. Functionality for the new build and contests isnt as great as I would like, but the contests were still really fun.

Things That I Really Liked

Overall, I loved how much free content was delivered on the apps. Although there were a lot of direct purchase and heavy spending involved with the really limited cards, there were a lot of opportunity to get a taste for free. Huddle offered free tickets at least four times, which would provide access to almost all the cards in the exchange. Bunt offered free insert packs. Star Wars offered free packs and free cards. Everyone had an opportunity to get something.

I also loved the mix between easy sets and super premium releases throughout all the different brands. If you werent a big spender, there was going to be a set you could chase through minimal ripping and some trading, and if you were a big spender, there was definitely a lot to chase. This balance had been missing in a lot of ways, and I thought they did some good work. I also saw that Huddle wasnt as much direct purchase as it had been in the past, as just about every set had coin packs for people to burn through all those extra coins that were saved up.

Design as a whole across all titles was a highlight, as usual. Its clear that Topps has a lot of great digital artists at their disposal and have not been shy about making sure the apps were stacked with great looking cards all around.

Things I Didnt Like

Bottom line, there needs to be more communication all around. I saw a lot of releases and quite a few questions, but not enough information in some cases to plan out approaches for the weekend. I think they could have gotten more people involved if the communication had improved, as its clear that our heads were spinning in a lot of different ways. I saw some mistakes and some typos get some really negative reactions from the community, and for such a big event, these types of things need to be planned out much more on point.

I also think the cost to participate in some of the premium sets across the apps was overstated, and the paywalls seemed unnecessary on sets when there were so many coins floating around. If you were a spender, you were spending, it wasnt needed to ask even more when a good portion of the spending population was in overdrive.

As we approach Cyber Monday, which Topps has embraced in the past, I think there are a lot of fun things still to come. Stay tuned for more coverage.

For a long time, card count has dominated the way users value cards. The more rare a card is, typically the more value it has on the market. Now that we are getting our look at a great looking 2016 Inception set, we are also seeing serially numbered cards for the first time as well.

History

Serially numbered cards have existed on the physical side for more than two decades. This isnt actually the first time we have had serially numbered cards in digital either. Quidd has offered cards with specific edition based numbering since its beginning, and they do it in a much better way than Topps does it, even with this release.

How it Works

For Inception, Topps created a single “1/1” ten times for each inception patch auto. These individual cards have a specific number listed on the front that corresponds to a different serial number. Although the card is the only one with that numbering, it sells out as soon as it is pulled.

Although I think it was a risk to do this type of a setup, its actually a pretty interesting concept that I think needs to be used in a few different ways. As more and more of these “box” type sets come along, this is a great way to set the cards apart.

What Works 

First of all, these cards are really cool looking, which helps bring value above and beyond the serial number. Inception is a fan favorite type of set, and to be honest it would work with or without a new type of gimmick like this.

Similarly, since all the cards are technically ‘1/1’ – it puts them in a place of prominence at the top of the sheet, regardless if there are 10 of them or just the one you manage to own.

It adds a layer of collectability to the cards knowing that you can own specific version of the card that isnt replicated by increasing card count.

What Doesnt Work

This was the opportunity to model this release even more like physical, and change the patches on all the cards. All the cards have the same patch, and it would be cool if Topps took the time to make each one unique.

The fact that they have to release all the cards as 1/1s is clunky, and it would be interesting if there were 10 different versions of the card, but you couldnt see the whole set on the sheet like they were all 1/1s. There has to be a way to do this with unique patches and unique serial numbers, but without showing all 1o on the sheet.

As more low numbered stuff continues to be released, would love to see them develop this in a similar way to what we are seeing with the physical side of the cards. Star Wars would serve to be a great vehicle to showcase rare cards with specific serial numbers.

Similarly, for the sports apps, would be cool to make the serial number of the jersey the player wears to be a special version, like Gold or some sort of variant.

These are the ideas that Topps needs to go to more and more frequently. Its been so much of the same for the last few years, this is a change that is welcome. Give us something special and use these gimmicks to add some pizzazz.

More commentary to come on the weekend within the apps, but this one caught my eye specifically.

Other than the Super Bowl, there might not have been a bigger event in Huddle than Thanksgiving and Black Friday last year. There were so many different amazing cards released that it literally set the tone for the rest of the year. Although there is no guarantee its going to be as big this year, I cant help but wonder what is on tap. Here are some predictions.

Thanksgiving Set

There are six teams playing tomorrow, including my Vikings, and I would expect a base set with a bunch of subjects. This was a bigger set last year with a focus on delivering boosted cards for the games that are being played, and I wouldnt hestiate to believe that it will be back again this year. Cant wait to see the design.

Thanksgiving Sigs

I would highly expect to see another go at the Sig set again, with a special focus on players who will be the top guys on the teams that are playing. This could be the first opportunity we get for a Dak Prescott single sig, and Ezekiel Elliott is likely on tap as well.

Retro Set

Last year we got our first look at Ginter and Turkey red, and I would love to see that tradition continue this year with some fun checklists and possible high end cards. Although last year’s cards needed a bit of help on the player list, the cards were great to have and were rare examples.

Special Contests

Expect a contest for each game, with special prizes likely in place. We will likely see heavily boosted GO boost cards, and that’s just the beginning. This might be a great opportunity to also introduce cards like Gametime, or even some of the more high end boosts that are thanksgiving specific.

Inception

I was looking through the card sheet earlier today and stumbled across a Dak Prescott auto patch card that looks to be limited to 10 copies. I would guess this is the first of many cards that will hit the sheet, and if they all look as cool as the example already published, wow. Just wow.

Black Friday Marathon

For the last couple of years, Huddle has had a group of special cards that are released on an hourly time schedule through the weekend, and I literally cannot wait to see what they come up with. It could be anything from old designs with new players or new designs with old players. It could be legends or rookies, who knows. That’s the fun.

I hope you guys are ready, because this has the makings of another wild ride. Gentlemen, start your engines.

I feel like I write this post every other month, so Ill just resign myself to keep on writing this post until something comes of it. Now that the eminent domain of the new build is spreading to all the apps, its time for Topps Digital to get going on doing something with the showcase to display a set number of cards that we treasure and want to show off.

My main beef is that we are expected to spend hundreds of dollars on cards that have no tangible existence, and yet, we are not afforded the minor functionality necessary to be able to show off the cards we want the world to see above all else.

I have made this a strike issue over the last few years, and I will continue to mention this as much as possible so that it stays top of mind. I want this to be added and soon.

Background

As I have stated now four times before, the showcase is something that was “part” of the apps back in 2013, before Bunt went to its current setup. Because of the way the play mode was set up, users were able to display 9 cards in their profile, and all trades, contests and everything else flowed through the profile page. This meant that when the games werent going, you could display cards in your profile for everyone to see. We frequently saw “cards in profile for trade” posted on the fan feed, and it was easy to show everyone the goods you had from different years worth of the game.

When Bunt updated and put the starting lineup in the contest section, all of that went away. We could no longer showcase our top cards anywhere in the game, and most times, those amazing pulls from previous years were buried in set filters that people never ventured to look at.

We have lost the ability to swing a big stick if you have nice cards.

Solution 1 – Locked Cards

My first solution, as I have mentioned before is to add a space on the card sheet that displays locked cards at the top, regardless of what year they are from. Even if a user has a filter set to display this year’s cards only, this new feature will show the cards you have locked at the top of your sheet whenever a trade is initiated.

Obviously, this isnt the fix that goes 100% of the way, and might actually take up a lot of space if users have 100s of cards locked. At the same time, with easy scrolling, that might not be a big deal. For hoarders on SWCT especially, this is a good way to show your hoard and signal others which cards you are looking for.

Solution 2 – Change the Outbound Profile

When someone initiates a trade, it would be really interesting to direct things back towards an outbound profile page, similar to 2013. Although this would add an extra step, its something that could be shown when the user touches the user icon from the fan feed or article to start the trade process. Instead of showing the menu, launch a pop up profile that displays the goods and gives those same options.

Allow for a certain number of showcase cards to be displayed, and give users a place to show off all the things they have in their collection. It might actually be a good thing for team collectors to give a bit more explanation of what they collect, and ensure that the different users who engage their profile see what is going on.

Solution 3 – Change User Display in the Fan Feed/Articles

Instead of changing the profile or the card sheet, they could theoretically change the way a user is displayed as they post. There is now more space to display pictures in every post, but that doesnt necessarily mean that it wont look crowded or hard to decipher when the user profile is posted with each comment. Its an option, but in the end, I think its probably best to change the trade cycle or user profile itself than to go this direction.

Why the Showcase is Important

In the end, we need this. We need to give users more ways to showcase the way they go about competing within the app, especially if Topps has given up on recognizing top users organically. More and more we are seeing users left to compete among themselves, and that is what creates things like Hoarding in the first place. Users need to be incited to compete, in every level of the apps. This is more than just contests or monuments. This is every last little aspect to give a competitive fire.

Additionally, it will ensure that your value for past year’s worth of purchases wont be marginalized by new filters and new seasons that are introduced frequently. We want an opportunity to let people know we are the top collector of X, or the top hoarder of Y. We want to show that we have been around the block and been to a few rodeos. If we are new, this is an opportunity to recognize that.

Above all else, it will add value to all those old cards that are collecting digital dust in the back pages of our collection. Really too bad. This is a big miss to have gone this long without the digital equivalent of a man cave for all your goods.

Right now, Huddle is encouraging people to dive in deep on a certain Topps NOW card with the understanding that the top fans in a number of categories for collecting will get special prize cards. I have actually talked about doing stuff like this in previous posts, and I absolutely think it needs to be done with other sets in the future. Although I think Topps NOW isnt really the best vehicle to use, its interesting to see how the counts stack up.

I think one of the most interesting parts of releases that have a hoarding contest attached is the way the trading economy reacts to the different aspects. If a card is easier to obtain, it makes it even more intriguing to watch, as you see the people who are participating much more willing to overpay for cards that get them closer.

We saw this really take hold in Star Wars when the first Darth Maul monument card was hinted. The whole “contest” element was born out of a few users trying to see who could come up with the largest hoard of one of the easier cards in the game to obtain – a white base card. It has bred a crowdsourced play element to the app, and one of the only reasons I still see a lot of people sticking around who would have normally left.

I have said so many times before that recognizing the user base for certain accomplishments is something that Topps did well originally, but has really failed to measure up in recent months. Users continue to participate in the apps because we want to be the best at something. We want to showcase our wares, and we want to be recognized for it. Not just with the apps, but with other users. I have seen Upper Deck try to implement a portion of this in e-Pack as I mentioned prior with the Ultimate Collection Quest, and I think Topps needs to get back on the horse.

Obviously, a small contest around Topps Now isnt the full spectrum of what could possibly be available, but think about the feeding frenzy that could occur if the right parameters were applied to the mechanics. Its worth mentioning that this is more of a community based win scenario – NOT a way for Topps to monetize things further. Give us a reason to chase above and beyond bundles and pack ripping. We need to feel like there is a way to accomplish things by being a good member of the community through trading, commenting, and participating.

The best combo is a top reward with minor monetization, like we saw back when this first started, and its up to Topps to figure out the ripples on how they can put in the effort to build this, and still get the ROI necessary through passive or active purchases. Let us have our fun, and hopefully the ripples will be sizable enough for it to be a continued part of the game.