Hellhound
10-07-2007, 08:00 AM
"I will be glad to take full responsibility and credit for this story. I am the lead source and have numerous samples of defects. I just thought your readers should be aware of the situation.
The Special edition product Tactical Evolution is a total disaster. We have sampled 9 boxes from 4 geographic areas, and the results are the same. The big dollar cards in the TAEV packs (2 packs per blister, unlimited edition), namely the foils are almost a total loss, with line streaking and card bending on just about all the ultra rare cards and ultimate rare cards. Secret rare and super rare foils experienced similar problems, but not to as great an extent. Many cards in the packs were bent or rippled at the bottom or top, and there were other cosmetic defects such as scratches and dings.
Even more unbelievable was employee sabotage of the cards. We had one card with "adult" graffiti on it and one card appeared to be stabbed with a knife several times creating a star mark pattern. More problems occurred with the quality of the packs as well, with too few of cards, too many cards, foils or rare cards missing and more.
We had one pack with as low as 3 cards in it and one with as many as 12 cards in it. We received 3 foils out of one pack, which most people would be ecstatic about, but they were all defective and not sellable. We did not bother opening any Labyrinth packs, since the first pack we inspected, the cards were rippled from the stamping machine and the bottom, which you could feel the ripples in the cards right though the pack.
Anyway, here are the mind boggling details:
9 boxes = 360 tactical packs = 3240 cards inspected (assumes 9 cards per pack)
Total defective packs (missing/too many cards) 81 packs
Total defective cards = 2024
We have recommended to Upper Deck for a total recall of the product. Whether Upper Deck will do this or anything has yet to be determined. Our recommendation to all gamers is, if they experience these defects from opening the tactical evolution unlimited packs or Labyrinth packs is to go to ude.com for return instructions, or contact your local dealer for return help.
You may also email them at ude@upperdeck.com or call them toll free in North America: 1-800-873-7332
(Monday-Friday 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. PST) or Australia: 1-800-007-60
We have also recommended to all customers to stay away from Tactical Evolution Unlimited edition packs blistered by themselves or in the special edition blister. For now, only purchase 1st edition stock which do not have these problems. "
This has happened to me. I've bought a few of these, just to see if this would happen in my area, and EVERY holo I pulled (including Crystal Seer, Vennominon, Darkbright, and Gemini Elf) was RIPPLED or HEAVILY SCRATCHED, thus defective and almost completely untradeable. Even one of the Mask of Remnants I got was defective. (the foil square in the corner was stamped wrong)
This news has been out for a while, but no one had posted it on here, so I thought I'd let you guys know.
To reiterate:
DO NOT BUY THE TAEV SPECIAL EDITIONS! THE PACKS ARE DEFECTIVE! WAIT UNTIL UDE REMEDIES THIS PROBLEM!
The Special edition product Tactical Evolution is a total disaster. We have sampled 9 boxes from 4 geographic areas, and the results are the same. The big dollar cards in the TAEV packs (2 packs per blister, unlimited edition), namely the foils are almost a total loss, with line streaking and card bending on just about all the ultra rare cards and ultimate rare cards. Secret rare and super rare foils experienced similar problems, but not to as great an extent. Many cards in the packs were bent or rippled at the bottom or top, and there were other cosmetic defects such as scratches and dings.
Even more unbelievable was employee sabotage of the cards. We had one card with "adult" graffiti on it and one card appeared to be stabbed with a knife several times creating a star mark pattern. More problems occurred with the quality of the packs as well, with too few of cards, too many cards, foils or rare cards missing and more.
We had one pack with as low as 3 cards in it and one with as many as 12 cards in it. We received 3 foils out of one pack, which most people would be ecstatic about, but they were all defective and not sellable. We did not bother opening any Labyrinth packs, since the first pack we inspected, the cards were rippled from the stamping machine and the bottom, which you could feel the ripples in the cards right though the pack.
Anyway, here are the mind boggling details:
9 boxes = 360 tactical packs = 3240 cards inspected (assumes 9 cards per pack)
Total defective packs (missing/too many cards) 81 packs
Total defective cards = 2024
We have recommended to Upper Deck for a total recall of the product. Whether Upper Deck will do this or anything has yet to be determined. Our recommendation to all gamers is, if they experience these defects from opening the tactical evolution unlimited packs or Labyrinth packs is to go to ude.com for return instructions, or contact your local dealer for return help.
You may also email them at ude@upperdeck.com or call them toll free in North America: 1-800-873-7332
(Monday-Friday 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. PST) or Australia: 1-800-007-60
We have also recommended to all customers to stay away from Tactical Evolution Unlimited edition packs blistered by themselves or in the special edition blister. For now, only purchase 1st edition stock which do not have these problems. "
This has happened to me. I've bought a few of these, just to see if this would happen in my area, and EVERY holo I pulled (including Crystal Seer, Vennominon, Darkbright, and Gemini Elf) was RIPPLED or HEAVILY SCRATCHED, thus defective and almost completely untradeable. Even one of the Mask of Remnants I got was defective. (the foil square in the corner was stamped wrong)
This news has been out for a while, but no one had posted it on here, so I thought I'd let you guys know.
To reiterate:
DO NOT BUY THE TAEV SPECIAL EDITIONS! THE PACKS ARE DEFECTIVE! WAIT UNTIL UDE REMEDIES THIS PROBLEM!