2008 Upper Deck Documentary = Epic Fail

So, I realize that I'm about a month late on this. But this seems so silly that I'll hop in on the Upper Deck bashing.

Upper Deck Documentary was touted by UD as "The most extraordinary set ever to be completed." The set was described as a card for every game for every team. I think in actuality it worked out to 166 cards per team in the set. (I have no idea what the extra four cards are, and after opening up a box.. I really don't care)

Now, at first glance this is a brilliant idea. I honestly thought that this had the opportunity to be a really cool and memorable set that team collectors would love, and set builders would eventually work on. (ignoring the high MSRP) To turn this good idea into a great set UD had to do what every single collector in the world would have done, and expected UD to do. Feature on the card front a photo of the player who was important in the outcome of the game. Of course we would prefer the photo be from the actual game played.

What UD absolutely could not do is use the same stock photos over and over.

What would be unforgiveable is using the same players irrespective of their influence on the game.

So, UD, in what I can only assume was a feat of unbelievable laziness and stupidity, did exactly what no one would want.

The photos on the cards bear absolutely no relationship to the game that the card is purporting to represent. Greg Maddux is featured regularly on cards in which he didn't pitch. I pulled 6 Ichiro's out of the one box I've opened. The same photo is on each card.

Card 4690 represents the Giants 155th game. The photo on front is a stock photo of Tim Lincecum. Of course Tim Lincecum didn't start that game. If you are going to feature a Giant in that game feature Travis Ishikawa who had three hits, or Bengie Molina who had 2 RBIs. Not Lincecum who may not have even suited up that day.

I just picked up the last card in the pile.. that was it. I'm too lazy to pick out any more as examples.. but what's the point? It's clear that UD made no effort to match photos with the right card.

UD had the chance to create a memorable set, that could have turned into a yearly staple. Instead they put out a worthless and useless 5000 card set just for the sake of putting out a 5000 card set.

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Everything is running

Everything is running as it should, including credit card processing. If you have problems let me know.

Chris.

Logging in and Credit Cards

Two issues I've noticed after everything was moved over.

1. The Secured Certificate hasn't transfered to the new server. That should be rectified in the next day or so. We have taken down the credit card payment option until that is transfered to avoid exposing your credit card information to super nerds who somehow know how to capture that information when not properly secured.

2. I noticed that I was unable to properly log in on the new server.. Don't know why but the cookie from the old server doesn't update to the new one. It can be fixed in a few easy steps.

In IE:

1. Go to Internet Options (in the latest version it is Tools/Internet Options)
2. Under the General tab, Browsing History section, click Settings
3. Click view files
4. Delete two cookies the cookie for bargainbaseballcards.com and the cookie for www.bargainbaseballcards.com
5. Attempt to login. It should all work.

Any other issues just let me know.

Moving to a new server!

After a few weeks of inconsistent performance we are moving to a new server. What this means for you:

Tuesday evening at about 9 pm BBC will go offline. We will be changing name servers at that time. (not actually offline.. we will replace the current pages with the helicopter game... play it, its awesome.)
Starting at 9 we will feverishly move all the data from the old server to the new server.
The new name server information will propagate throughout the internets at whatever pace that sort of thing occurs. Eventually it'll get to your ISP.
When the new information gets to your ISP you will get BBC on the new server when you type BargainBaseballCards.com instead of the helicopter game. I would expect that by Thursday morning everyone will be pointing at the new server.

All of your account information will be moved. If you are a registered user your shopping cart should move too.

Email me with any questions.

Anticipated downtime

UPDATE 7:00 PM 4/27:

The website is running almost as it should be. I have opened the order checkout back up so you can place orders. If you have any trouble at all please let me know.

Thanks.

Chris.

UPDATE 2:30 PM 4/27:

Still nothing. At this point, I'm probably going to have to switch service providers. It is clear the current service provider doesn't appreciate the issues.

END UPDATE

UPDATE 8:55 PM 4/25:

The website is back up.. Unfortunately the ASP engine is a bit askew. There are issues with the "SUM" function in SQL. Long nerd story short: the shopping cart relies on this function. You can't place an order until we get to the bottom of the mystery. I'm working on it until its fixed.

END UPDATE


Due to the recent surge in traffic and subsequent server issues we are moving BargainBaseballCards.com to a new server this afternoon. Some may be unable to reach the site for up to an hour. I apologize for the delay, but this should ensure that we run much more smoothly in the future.

Thanks.

Chris.

We're Back..

With some reservations I'm happy to report that we are up and running. If you experience any issues please let me know.

Chris.

The website is down! :(

As many of you are now aware, our website (BargainBaseballCards.com) is unavailable at the moment, and has been for the most part unavailable since about 3 yesterday afternoon.

As best we can determine we are the victim of a DDOS attack. This is the second attack in the last 90 days. I find it odd that my site, a baseball card site, would be the target of a DDOS attack. But alas..

There are a couple of different emotions I feel on this. First, "Well, I'm pissed off Rick." (an hommage to South Park's Fat Camp) But once I've gotten over the frustration its a little bit flattering. We've become important enough to someone, somewhere that they spent the time and effort to attack us. If you are irrelevant that never happens.

So, I guess there's that. But I'm still pissed off.

An additional post will come when everything blows over. Last time it was only about a day.

The Specials Section at BBC.

Okay.. so I'm kind of a dork/incompetent scatterbrain.. If there is one thing I've been really good at over the years, its setting up a new feature that requires some ongoing attention.. providing that attention for about 6 months.. then um.. getting distracted. This blog is/was a prime example. (Though I've been really good over the past few months)

That was the fate of the "Specials" section of our website. The first handful of months I put that section up I faithfully updated the Specials each Monday morning with new specials. Then.. well, focus shifted elsewhere and I forgot to go back and update the specials. I'm pretty sure the same 3 specials that never sold out sat on that page for 2 years. (perhaps they weren't that special if they never sold out) Alas, I have resurrected that dead portion of the website, and hopefully have come up with a system that will prevent this same situation from occuring again.

On my desk is a box. In that box are all the cards that currently find themselves in our specials section. If I remove a card from that box to ship to a paying customer.. I must put a new card in that box. (so, you see, the box should always have cards in it.. cards that change regularly) But wait! There's More!

In addition to this, each Sunday I will review the cards currently in the specials section. If the card has been on the specials page for a week and hasn't sold, I'm going to lower the price. I'll do this every week until the card sells. (to make sure we keep fresh new cards rotating through the specials section.) Right now there are about 10 cards in the Specials section.. I hope to increase that over the next few weeks to about 20. At that point there should ALWAYS be about 20 cards on special.

So.. um.. buy one?