Upper Deck recently announced to its customers that its Yu Gi Oh Dark Revelation 2 product would not be available through hobby distributors, which caused some to question the rationale and Upper Deck's commitment to its hobby first shipping policy (see 'Upper Deck Changes Shipping Policies on Yu Gi Oh').  We caught up with Upper Deck Senior Vice President-Sales Rich Henry for the answers.  

 

Henry said that orders on Dark Revelation 2 had underwhelmed.  'Dark Revelation 1 was not one of our strongest sets, so we didn't get a lot of support on Dark Revelation 2,' he said.  Both Dark Revelation sets are reprint sets, with no new cards, with the planned second set drawing from a weaker set of releases.  The reprint products are actually designed to lower the cost of entry for new players. 

 

With weak orders in hand, Upper Deck contemplated canceling the product.  Instead, a limited quantity will be produced and the company will ship orders to its direct-buying tournament stores.  The packs will also be used as one component in a re-packaged clamshell assortment for a single mass merchant.  Dark Revelation 2 will not be shipped to hobby distributors, or to mass outlets (except as a component, above). 

 

Asked whether this limited distribution was a strategy the company planned to use in the future, Henry said, 'I hope not.  It's not a strategy we want to follow.' 

 

We also asked Henry whether the exclusive assortment Upper Deck was creating for a single mass merchant was a sign of things to come.   'We're continually asked by big box retailers for exclusives,' Henry said, 'But we try to avoid them.  And this exclusive item doesn't have any exclusive product in it, it's just a repackaging.'

 

We also took the opportunity to ask about the shipping of the first wave of Yu Gi Oh tins, which hit stores in late August and early September.  Some game stores reported that mass merchant stores in their area had the product on their shelves before it was available through the hobby distributor network.  On that product, Upper Deck shipped mass merchants and hobby distributors at the same time, and mass merchants were able to get it on their shelves faster.  Asked whether Upper Deck would look at shipping on the tins and consider incorporating the tins into its hobby first shipping policy, Henry said 'If the hobby were to say that it would make a difference, we might look at that for 2006.'