Why so many secrets?
The first product to come out under the Leaf brand will be Leaf MMA,, which is set to release next month.
But what is in this set?
That’s a good question. There are eight packs per box and each pack will have eight cards with one autograph and seven base cards, according to the company’s website. Some autos included in the set are Fedor Emelianenko, Brock Lesnar, Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, Forest Griffin and Gina Carano. Here is the sell sheet for the set.
The picture is from the company’s website, which also has two other shots of base cards if you want to see them.
According to the site, over 100 fighters will be featured in the release, 40 of which will be making their trading card debut.
But who are those people?
Another good question. But this time I have no answer. The checklist for this product has not been released. Perhaps it was Leaf finalizing cards or maybe the set isn’t ready yet.
But it looks as though it‘s neither. Leaf is apparently protecting its assets.
Brian Gray wrote on my favorite message board Freedom Cardboard:
“Honestly, one of our competitors as (sic) been calling around to distributors trying to get our checklist for MMA in an effort to make last minute additions to have the first ever autographs of some fighters which we have. We have purposely (sic) withheld that checklist to date, in an effort to perserve (sic) our status as first autographed cards of many athletes.
“I do feel comfortable letting that list roll in the next 10 days… I can assure you that the checklist of over 100 fighters autographed is very strong. Ill make sure you guys know when we post it to the website, leaftradingcards.com”
The checklist is coming soon, but it seems Leaf just wants to keep that to themselves right now keeping it a secret for as long as possible while other companies who create MMA cards are left guessing.
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I think you've struck a nerve with this one. Why can't card companies tell us (the collectors, the ones who pay their salaries) what is in their product, before we buy it? Is that too difficult to ask, or are we asking too much?
I don't trust anyone who has three typos in the first three sentences.
I don't have any problem with the secrecy. In fact, it's smart. People will buy the product, checklist or no checklist.
Hobbyists aren't very smart consumers – they'll head to the LCS to buy the latest hobby box o' crap just to have something to rip, all this without even doing homework on a product. I suppose the price points aren't significant enough to a hobbyist to do some research first unlike if they were to do a purchase of a large HDTV set or a car.
If people would smarten up and refuse to buy the product without a checklist, then the manufacturers would get the point that there won't be very good sales of their product and they are hurting their valued retailers/LCS's by not having a checklist available.