Regional distribution

Reljac

I heard a dealer ranting the other day about how the major card manufacturers had moved towards a more regional approach to distribution. It's the first I've heard of this. Based on what he was saying, although you could still get any rare insert or limitted Rookie card print, there was a great number of those sent to the region in which that player's home team is.

In other words, he suggested that living here in Houston, the chance of getting an Astros rookie auto was a lot greater than lets use Stephen Strasburg as an example. However if you lived near DC you'd see more big hits that were Strasburg than some rookie from another region.

Has anyone else heard of this? He specifically named Panini with this approach to marketting, but also implicated Topps.

I'm curious partly because lets say, I buy a box trying to get a Jason Heyward. Should I care about where I'm ordering this box from now? Should I go to the Atlanta Sportscard shop that markets on Ebay...

akuracy503

If the factories and distribution centers are spread out across the country i'd believe this scenario.
If the factories producing and packaging cards are done exclusively in one region I'd suspect it'd take a lot of effort to plan regional marketing strategies.

I certainly hope it's a random distribution.