Daniel McAbee of The Tangled Web of Spartanburg, South Carolina, discovered different official release dates for hobby vs. mass retailers for the Yu-Gi-Oh! Premium Pack 1 boosters and is disappointed with Upper Deck:
I have dialed back my rants and raves over the past year, but Upper Deck has really chapped my hide lately.
Upper Deck's Official Hobby Release date for Yu-Gi-Oh! Premium Pack 1 boosters is October 24, 2007. I have to qualify the release date with the term 'hobby' because apparently only hobby has that date. My local Wal-Mart (four blocks away) had these packs available for sale on October 5, 2007. I imagine they have been very popular there because we have fielded call after call from players wanting to purchase the packs at their 'friendly local gaming store' where each week we have about 40 to 45 players in our Saturday Yu-Gi-Oh! Tournament. They were at least trying to be faithful.
We have turned away everyone explaining that the product doesn't release until October 24th. It's hard to explain to someone that you can't sell them product because it hasn't released yet when they are holding that very product in their hands. For the last two weeks it has been even harder to explain that they also can't use those same cards in our tournaments for exactly the same reason. This past Saturday we had to throw out two players because they became belligerent about not being able to use these great cards that they bought elsewhere.
Apparently Upper Deck had already accounted for Wal-Mart when they updated Appendix A of their Official Tournament Policy on October 10, 2007. Appendix A shows the 'Retail Street Date' of Yu-Gi-Oh! Premium Pack 1 Boosters as October 10. Well, don't I look stupid? Thanks, Upper Deck! Thanks for taking your relationship with your supposedly valuable hobby stores and showing us how you really feel. I guess we can take heart in the fact that when the cartoon's popularity dies down and isn't on TV anymore (I'm guessing about the same time that Wal-Mart tells you that they aren't interested in your product) that you'll want to be friends again. You might even promise hobby stores equal release dates like you did them last time. Heck, you might get so desperate that you offer hobby stores preferred release dates.
Well, guess what Upper Deck? I'm done playing your game. I hope Wal-Mart has room for the 40 or so players this Saturday. I'm sure that Wal-Mart won't mind supporting what they sell. Let me know how that works out for you.
The opinions expressed in this Talk Back article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
