upperdeck versus tournament organizers

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jostam

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maybe this is the wrong forum,if so sorry for that.

i'm a yugioh tournament organizer in Belgium,and i find that Upperdeck should do more for its T.O.'s.we put a lot of effort and free time to organize tournaments,in Belgium we almost have to beg for prize support,sometimes they promise special prizes and when the time comes they cancel it!
is that in other counties too?
what would they say if al the tournament organizers cancel there tournaments?
what is your opinion?
 
I have heard about the problems in Europe with VS. I don't know of any problems with Yugioh as of yet. It's doesn't have anything to do with UDE here in the United States though. UDE Europe is the people in charge of all of your prize support and major tournaments. If anything you may want to write them a letter and let them know of your problems. I would encourage other T.O.s to do the same.
 
well, that sounds very wrong to me.
i'm also from europe,lv2 judge yugi, lv1 vs.
and i have heard and seen many times that the european players feel
neglected and treated "less equal" than USA players.

and someone always notes that UDE and UDE EUROPE is
NOT the same company?!
how can it be a different company?
where are the cards (re)designed & printed?
isn't there some big boss who's in charge of all UDEs? (including UDE Jupiter :) )
isn't someoone in UDE USA angry for UDE EUROPE's mistreating
players, thus giving all UDEs a bad name?
we want answers! 8-p
 
From what I understand, the cards are only distributed by UDE, but printed by Konami. (Correct me if I'm wrong here). Even American players feel neglected by the lack luster approach UDE takes to the game. But a large part of that falls squarely on Konami's lap. They're lack of concern for anything outside of their native shores is evident. We get inconsistent cards text, inconsistent rulings, inconprehensible promos and poor tournament prizes. This is really only a kids game to them and they've publicly said so. For as long as we've been complaining about it, for as long as we've been demanding change, all our protests have fallen on deaf ears. Until whomever has the reins of this TCG sees the error of their ways or the reins are handed over to someone else, we will never see the change that we desperately need.
 
Wow, it's really difficult to contribute something in this thread for me. o_O

UDE Europe is not UDE US.
You see that everywhere. UDE Europe has less money than UDE US, one of the reasons why VS support had to be cut down. UDE Europe can't pay 10k's when the players over here don't buy enough VS boosters. Sounds easy, but then the argument comes up: "Why do US players still get 10k's?"

Well, it's all about the benjamins, UDE US has more money so they can still afford 10k's. And away from that, US players buy more boosters (well, a lot of "American sales" are in fact "European sales", because imported boosters from the US are still cheaper than European boosters... -.- // not a lot people see that fact).

There are even more problems, because Shonen Jump holds a lot of the rights for YGO Promos and since the Shonen Jump is NOT distributed in most European countries, SJ does NOT allow European players to get Sneak Preview Promos and stuff like that.
So this all has something to do with Konami, UDE US, Shonen Jump and UDE Europe. UDE EU gets the least support from all parties involved, it seems.. :(

soul :cool:
 
What Soulwarrior said is exactly true. Just because a company shares the same name doesn't mean they are the same company. I work for a company here in the United States that works the same way. The main corporation is based in Germany. The only affilation we have with them is the name and the product we sell. If a customer in our region has a problem they don't call Germany they call us.
 
"Upper Deck" has several different "UD..." companies. Upper Deck Entertainment and Upper Deck International (or Upper Deck Europe BV) are just two of them. These are separate business entities of the same company (it's a bit more technical than that, but that's the basics without confusing anything).

Insofar as the tournaments: VS has ended in Europe as of this past February. At least as far as support and sales goes. I'm not exactly sure how the OP is working out on that front.

And don't get me to talking about why VS didn't "do right" in Europe. Only some of it was "lack of sales". And that was a small portion of it.

*zipping lips now*
 
Its surprising that it didnt do good over here. I mean everyone loves DC and Marvel heroes. Even the germans and Marvel especially makes them out to be evil with the Red skull and whatnot.

There was never really any advertising for VS in some countries. Like here in Ireland. We had almost no advertising here and what little we had went widely unnoticed because it was restricted to specialist game shops in back alleys. In fact the best place in the country for buying stuff like cardgames and anime and manga and stuff like that didnt even have the game on its shelves.

I have found one place that sells it here still. But like i said before about advertising this place is a back alley specialist place. Seriously. Its actually down a back alley in Templebar in Dublin. Its called Sub City.
 
it isn't just in Europe, though, that the advertising is bad. Here in Texas, I have never seen an ad or heard one that mentioned VS System. They had them when the game first cae out in 04, and that was only a couple of times. I think they are really banking on the Players to word of mouth it, and not do a whole lot of advertising. I tell you what though, if (and when) I get my shop open, I will be singing it from the roof tops here in san marcos!
 
VS isn't that big of a game in a lot of the world. Even here in North Carolina the only place to buy booster packs is at card shops. No major retailors have them. If Walmart, Target, or KMart had them the game would take off like Yugioh did. If there is no where to buy the cards then how are you going to play.
 
WalMart in Hickory used to carry them, but stopped at some point. I used to pick them up there. I'm fairly certain the ceasation was WalMart's, and the other respective retailer's, decision and not the vendor's.
 
I doubt it was Walmart. If they arent selling much, Walmart isnt taking a loss because I dont see them as getting much of the pie from the sale. More than likely they were already paid for the space to place the product up front.

If the location is bad, then its just bad and why continue to take a loss. As for Card Shops, they actually buy the product, rather than the Distributor relying on them to sell their Packs, so that would be much different than Walmart, Target, or anywhere else than a Card Shop.
 
If WalMart is anything like Kmart was, then the Store Manager can arbitrarily decide if he/she doesn't want to put a product on re-order. Sometimes that's even left up to the Department Manager, as he or she can simply not press the appropriate button on the EMT device when doing inventory checks.
 
Digital Jedi said:
If WalMart is anything like Kmart was, then the Store Manager can arbitrarily decide if he/she doesn't want to put a product on re-order. Sometimes that's even left up to the Department Manager, as he or she can simply not press the appropriate button on the EMT device when doing inventory checks.
But that's just it, I dont think they control stockage. The Walmart I used to live near, I knew the Vendor that stocked Yugioh related TCG material, ie, Tins, Battle Boxes, Deck Sleeves; not Toys and other products.

She directly controlled what came in, but not by ordering, only what she was supplied to stock. Walmart had no idea when she would be replacing product, nor did they have any idea how much she had on hand. They had no "control" over her Yugioh, and could not bring any product to the floor from the Stock Room, even if it there were more Blister Packs that could be sold.

Maybe it's different all over, but I dont think so. She also complained that Walmart would not provide her a larger space for her to put out her stock, and if you go to several different Walmarts, it's pretty much standard placement.
 
Well, sometimes Kmart comparisons are unfair. Over there management had more control over what did and didn't come in. Especially when it came to "repacks", which were just merchandise that we didn't have a full stock of, but didn't need to order a case for, so we would have another store repackage excess they had and send it our way. Even if it was only one item. I remember the Trading Card merchandise we used to get would come mostly in cases and when it needed replenishing, the UPC code would be scanned and palced on backorder. But since our Department Manager didn't know a box of Pokemon from a box of Jelly Bellies, we seldom had merch in stock when it was demanded. You still get merchandise come in from a standard scheduled order, but often stuff was forgotten or left by the wayside. It would be in our computer's database, but there would be no evidence that we had any or where going to get any anytime soon. All in all, I'd say it was a lousy system.
 
It is the vendors who decide what to stock at Walmart. I know this because my wife use to work there and I complained constantly. They did put some VS on the self once. It sold out in like two days and they never restocked. If I knew who the vendor was I would get in contact with them but I can't obtain that information. I'm down in Hickory about once a month and never seen it there either. May have missed it though.
 
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