Author Archive
Michael Jordan Still Has A Leg Up On Other Athletes
Posted by: | CommentsI have been working with Upper Deck since 1997 and in that time I have been privileged to know a great many passionate sports fans. Being a sports fan myself, I know I’ll never be able to throw a precision pass like Peyton Manning; hit a curve ball like Ken Griffey Jr.; fire a slap shot like Steven Stamkos; or hit a clutch jumper like Michael Jordan. Or could I? Jordan has been offering adult basketball fans the chance to come fly with him at a camp he runs in Las Vegas each year. The MJ Flight School just finished its 14th annual camp and it’s safe to say that MJ left an indelible mark on those in attendance.
Mark Gott had the opportunity to get up close and personal with his idol Michael Jordan at MJ's Flight School in Las Vegas this month.
One of the recent attendees was Mark Gott and he has been a huge fan of Michael Jordan since he was in junior high, back in 1987. Gott’s affinity for MJ’s skills led him to collect cards and memorabilia of Jordan, but more than that, he’s a huge fan of the Jordan brand clothing line. He has amassed more than 70 pairs of MJ branded shoes, slides and cleats. It seems his entire wardrobe is Jordan-related from the sweaters, polos, slacks and jeans, to the warm-ups, shorts and tanks. Gott estimates he has more than 400 different articles of clothing from the Jordan brand.
“If it’s not Jordan, it’s not in my closet,” said Gott. “He is the greatest athlete of my time and I feel comfortable in saying he is the greatest of all time.”
During a flight eight years ago, Gott was perusing an in-flight magazine where he first read about the Michael Jordan Flight School. He was disappointed to find that participants had to be 35 or older to attend the clinic so he waited patiently for that special birthday to arrive so he could get the chance to meet his idol. Sadly the camp was canceled when Gott turned 35 last year, but this year his dream came true. Gott had been anticipating this experience for some time and he wanted to come up with a way to remember it forever.
Gott had Jordan’s famous “jumpman” logo tattooed on his calf roughly eight years ago and as the opportunity to attend the clinic drew closer, he came up with a unique idea. What if he could get Jordan to sign the area just below the tattoo and then have Jordan’s signature permanently tattooed so he could display the authentic signature forever? He was committed to it, but now came the tough part: Will Michael agree to it?
Could you say no to this face? Neither could MJ as he agreed to sign Gott's leg after Coach John Thompson III asked.
Rather than going right to MJ, Gott worked through one of the coaches at the clinic, John Thompson III. Coach Thompson worked his magic to help Gott accomplish his mission. The day of the autograph session that Upper Deck Authenticated (UDA) oversees, Coach Thompson came to Gott and let him know it was a “go.” Gott immediately shaved his calf to prepare for the signing.
Gott shared that Michael was very supportive throughout the process and that when his turn came to get an item signed, MJ said with a smile, “Put your leg up here on the table.”
As Gott shares with Jordan where he wants him to sign, it looks like MJ is thinking, "You want me to sign what?"
Gott held still as MJ provided him with a world class signature that would last a lifetime.
On hand to authenticate and witness this first-ever body signing for UDA was Drew Mills.
UDA's Drew Mills even affixed a hologram to Gott's calf to authenticate the signature.
After Jordan delivered a perfect signature, a UDA rep was on hand to witness and authenticate the signature. But then came the painful part. Gott raced off to King Ink at the Mirage where tattoo artist Jasen Workman made the ink MJ has signed permanent.
A signature that will never fade. Gott truly has a memorable keepsake from MJ.
“Michael was really cool about the whole thing and was very interested the next day in seeing how the tattoo turned out,” said Gott.
When Gott shared with Jordan that he thought the tattoo came out great, Jordan again responded with a smile, “Of course it did, it’s my signature.” They both shared a laugh and shortly thereafter one of MJ’s staffers who had been working with him for 25 years pulled Gott aside. He told Gott that in his time with Michael, he had never seen Michael do anything like that. Being the first made the experience even more special to Gott.
The next day during the camp, MJ and others wanted to see how the tattoo turned out.
Gott felt like a rock star during the remainder of the camp with others in attendance asking about the MJ tattoo and taking pictures with him. When he returned home, he was still in awe of the experience. His children thought it was extremely cool as well and they have been busy telling all their friends about daddy’s new tattoo.
“We are in football season right now and it seems like everyone I show says that it is the coolest tattoo ever,” said Gott. “It goes to show you that despite Michael Jordan being retired for so long, he still has a huge impact and influence on generations of sports fans.”
No word from Gott as to whether the tatoo has helped his jump shot, but the memories from the experience will last forever.
Will UDA diversify its portfolio and expand into tattoo-signature authentication? Probably not. We are pretty happy with the Michael Jordan autographed memorabilia we are currently producing. This was likely a one-shot deal, albeit a special one that Mark Gott we will not soon forget.
Popularity: 8% [?]
It Never Hurts To Ask
Posted by: | CommentsOne thing a sports fan knows is that it never hurts to ask. It never hurts to ask a player for an autograph. I mean, the worst they can say is ‘no.’ It never hurts to ask a scalper if he can give you the tickets for less. You’ve got to be able to afford a coke and a hot dog during the game, right? And it never hurts to ask the loud, drunk guy behind you at the game to keep it down. Well, actually, you may just want to talk to security about him.
Playing on the theme that it never hurts to ask, Upper Deck is inviting hockey fans to ask the 2010-11 NHL Rookie Class a question through the company’s official Facebook page. Proving that it never hurts to ask, the company will also be giving away some new Upper Deck Hockey product to select fans who contribute questions. Click here to ask your question.
So how is Upper Deck going to get star rookies like Taylor Hall (Edmonton Oilers), Tyler Seguin (Boston Bruins), Kyle Beach (Chicago Blackhawks), Brayden Schenn (Los Angeles Kings), Nazem Kadri (Toronto Maple Leafs) and all the other top rookies from the upcoming season in one place to ask them these questions? It’s simple; the company will be attending the 2010 NHLPA Rookie Showcase and Photo Shoot in Toronto next weekend.
Nazem Kadri is giving Maple Leafs fans some hope.
At the event, Upper Deck will capture images of these hot young guns for use in its new trading card sets like 2010-11 NHL Upper Deck Series One, which will arrive on stores shelves in November. Upper Deck will also collect some video of these young stars by putting them through “Rookie Boot Camp” to get them ready for playing in the NHL, but mostly to help fans get to know them better. Check out one of the videos from last year’s event.
Upper Deck will also be gathering some pertinent information about the players to use for their biographies on the back of 2010-11 NHL Upper Deck trading cards. We make trading cards for the fans, so why not ask the fans what they want to know about these up-and-coming players? So through the use of social media, Upper Deck is doing just that and fans seem to love it. We had more than 30 questions posted within the first 30 minutes of sharing this promotion on Facebook so it’s abundantly clear hockey fans are excited about the 2010-11 NHL Rookie Class.
Taylor Hall (drafted #1), Tyler Seguin (drafted #2) and Erik Gudbranson (drafted #3) are the next generation of super stars in the NHL and fans can ask them questions through Upper Deck's Facebook page.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to post questions and look for updates from the 2010 NHLPA Rookie Showcase and Photo Shoot right here on the Upper Deck Blog, on our official Twitter page and on our official Facebook page next week!
Upper Deck Young Guns Rookie cards are VERY popular. Who will be the next great rookie from this class?
Popularity: 3% [?]
Upper Deck Retailer of the Month: Attack of the Baseball Cards
Posted by: | CommentsEach month Upper Deck spotlights one of its hobby retailing partners and shares a few reasons why you need to visit their store. If you haven’t been to a card store lately and are in the New Jersey area, make sure to visit our Retailer of the Month.
Attack of the Baseball Cards
60 Milltown Road
Union, NJ 07083-9308
(908)687-8107
Email: attacksteve@aol.com
Open: Monday-Friday 11:30am-7:30pm, Saturday 10:30am-6:00pm & Sunday 11:00am-5:00pm
Holidays open 11:00am-4:00pm with hourly door prizes
Closed only 3 days a year: Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving & Christmas
Shop owner Steve Mandy grew up in Hillside, New Jersey, the home of Yankees’ great Phil Rizzuto. When he was just five years old, he began visiting “the Scooter’s” home several times a year where Rizzuto would bring Mandy and his buddies into his trophy room to recount his playing days. There were times when Mandy and his friends would arrive so early on Saturday mornings that Rizzuto was still in bed following a late night game that he had just called as a broadcaster. On those days, Rizzuto’s wife would take the gang into the trophy room, put cartoons on the TV and feed them breakfast. After a while Phil would walk in, still in his robe and slippers, and spend some time. Steve also met other Yankee legends who would visit Rizzuto on occasion, like Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle and even Joe DiMaggio. Those meetings lit the fire; his passion for autographs and collecting was born.
Mandy grew up spending plenty of time with Yankee great, Phil Rizzuto!
In 1982, a close friend – a Red Sox fan in fact – told Steve that she had seen a newspaper ad about an upcoming baseball card show where Ted Williams would be appearing. She asked Steve to go with her and he agreed. After taking just one step into the card show, Steve had an epiphany that this was what he wanted to do as a job. Two months later, with Joe DiMaggio as the scheduled guest signer, Steve rented a table at his first card show and displayed some of his cherished autographs.
Joe DiMaggio also had a profound impact on getting Steve Mandy into the business.
Through the years he expanded to cards, new and vintage, memorabilia and more. He promoted shows in the late ‘80s and was a partner in his first store during that same time period. In 1994 he retired from his longtime occupation as a publication artist and art director, to become a store owner full time.
Steve still has many of his most cherished autographs from Rizzuto, a signed “Mr. Coffee” coffee pot from DiMaggio, and even the original program from Mickey Mantle’s funeral in 1995. Steve loves being a part of the trading card industry and tries to pass his passion on to everyone who walks into his store, Attack of the Baseball Cards.
Plenty to see at Attack of the Baseball Cards, make a point to stop by!
“A lot of people ask me why I named the store Attack of the Baseball Cards,” said Mandy. “While spending an evening with friends, my task for everyone was to come up with a trade name that would start with an ‘A’ so I would be listed first in the phone book. We blew out names for almost an hour before getting tired and moving on to watch television. Well a PBS channel happened to be on with the cult film ‘Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.’ Someone said that we should call the store ‘Attack of the Baseball Cards’ where you can have giant baseball cards chasing people down the block. Everyone laughed except me and I took that idea to the bank. In fact my first ads showed me covered with baseball cards with only my face and hands sticking out. Needless to say, the name stuck and no one ever forgets it.”
Attack of the Baseball Cards is now in its 28th year in the hobby. This year they are celebrating the 12th Anniversary of being named runner-up for the National “Sportscard Hobby Store-of-the-Year Award.” The store is located on the Union/Springfield border with the entrance in the back of the building. Steve has worked to make Attack of the Baseball Cards a kid-friendly environment for youngsters in the area, having learned how meaningful it is from his own time reminiscing with the likes of Phil Rizzuto. The “Summer Student Essay Contest” has become a staple program at Attack of the Baseball Cards and Larry Jordan of Upper Deck (brother of Michael Jordan) served as a judge for the 2008 contest. Steve also runs Baseball Card Camps for children and Upper Deck sponsored the summer session this past year. In July 2008, Attack of the Baseball Cards was selected by Upper Deck and Major League Baseball as one of only five Official Baseball Card Headquarters stores for that summer’s MLB All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium!
Upper Deck has run several promotions in conjunction with Attack of the Baseball Cards.
Mandy brings more than 28 years of hobby experience to help customers with their every need. Listed in “Who’s Who In America” Mandy has been a guest speaker at schools, hobby conventions and seminars throughout the country. He’s also done appraisals of private collections and estates for tax purposes and insurance companies and law enforcement agencies. In 1999 and again in October 2004, Mandy was honored by the Township of Union (NJ) with the Mayors Award for contributions to the community and children in the area. In April 2007 the Township of Union (NJ) once again honored Attack of the Baseball Cards.
One of the good guys, Steve Mandy constantly works in the best interest of his customers.
You can follow Attack of the Baseball Cards on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or by checking out their official store website. So what are you waiting for? Visit the shop today!
People always have fun opening new cards at Attack of the Baseball Cards, stop by!
Popularity: 2% [?]
Brag Photo of the Week: Freedom Card Board Awards
Posted by: | CommentsAt Upper Deck we work very hard to deliver the best trading card products to the marketplace. Our ability to leverage our endorsement deals with top athletes while remaining the most innovative trading card company in the industry, helps us to deliver on that goal. At the recent 2010 National Sports Collectors Convention in Baltimore, we got to spend some time with Chris Gilmore and the rest of the Freedom Card Board team which had some exciting news for us.
Freedom Card Board is a very popular online community of trading card enthusiasts. The site provides product previews, updates, checklists, sell sheets, video, tips, interviews and most importantly, a chance for collectors to engage each other through very active message boards. Gilmore, who runs the active hobby site, decided at the end of last year to have members of the site vote for their favorite products of 2009 and wouldn’t you know it, Upper Deck took home a whopping four awards.
Upper Deck’s 2009 Ultimate Collection Baseball took home two FCB Awards while Exquisite Basketball and The Cup Hockey also drew honors. What makes these awards so special to the staff here at Upper Deck is that they were voted on by the passionate trading card aficionados who love opening new trading card releases. To be able to rack up so many awards is a real thrill for all the staff at 5909 Sea Otter Place and honestly has us motivated to earn even more awards in 2010.
Even though Upper Deck has won its fair share of product awards since making its hobby debut 22 years ago, these definitely mean a lot to us which is why we have them positioned in front of all the other awards we’ve received. Thanks again to all the fans at www.freedomcardboard.com who voted. We appreciate it!
Popularity: 5% [?]
Upper Deck Collector of the Month: Adam Malin
Posted by: | CommentsEach month Upper Deck spotlights one of our valued collectors to showcase their collection. The great thing about sports collectors is that they are all very different in what they collect, how they collect and what they do once they have their items. But they all share a passion that is seldom found in any other group. This month we feature a die-hard UNC fan named Adam Malin from Texas.
Adam started collecting when he was just 10 years old. It was 1986, a good time to be a sports fan in Texas as the Astros played the Mets in the NL Championship and the Rockets went to the Finals against the Celtics. That road to the Finals propelled Adam into collecting basketball cards and by the early ‘90s he had become a big fan of Michael Jordan. He amassed over 3,000 Jordan cards and eight Upper Deck Authenticated framed jerseys.
As time went by, Adam started collecting other favorite players and eventually put together an amazing collection of Upper Deck cards showing Marvin Williams. When we asked Adam what got him into collecting cards of Marvin Williams, here is what he had to say:
“I was always a big North Carolina fan because of Michael Jordan, but I also followed players like Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, Rashad, McCants, Shammond Williams, Jerry Stackhouse, Ty Lawson, Tyler Hansbrough and more. I guess I was interested in Marvin Williams because his jersey number [24] is just one away from Michael Jordan [23] and both guys hit shots that would lead UNC to a national championship.
When it comes to Marvin Williams, Adam has the market cornerned.
“I began collecting Marvin Williams really hardcore. I had 60 of his 2005-06 Exquisite cards and tons of other autographs, patches and printing plate cards. The 2005-06 SPx Winning Materials cards were always my favorite though, so I decided to really go after those cards.
Have you seen this card??? If so, Adam is looking for it. Do a collector a favor and send it his way!
“The first time I saw the 2005-06 SPx Winning Materials cards, I really fell in love with the design. I liked the layout, the use of two jersey swatches and the photo that was used for Marvin was a really cool image of him going up for a dunk. I started with a goal of collecting 24 of the cards hoping to get all the different color jersey combinations I could find. That goal of 24 turned into 50, then 100, then 200, then 250. I wasn’t sure how many were produced so I kept going after more as I found them. Three hundred became, 350, then 400 and I just hit 500 last week. Currently I have 502 of these cards.
WOW! Look at them all! He really could use these to wallpaper a room.
“I got them all from card shops, eBay auctions and countless other helpful collectors from online trading card communities. I can honestly say I easily got at least 100 of these cards for free from generous collectors all over the world who heard about what I was trying to do. It has been really exciting to get packages from people I don’t even know from countries like New Zealand, Germany, China, Japan, Canada, Switzerland, The Philippines, Turkey, Holland, Italy, Spain and more. I also get e-mails from collectors who see the cards at shops and shows; it’s really cool how technology helps collectors reach their goals. People’s generosity in this hobby really amazes me sometimes.
“You have to be a little crazy to try to put something like this together. I am persistent, but you have to be as determined as I was with this collection to get it where it is now. I know what the value of these cards are, but really that doesn’t matter much to me. I wanted them all and I am not stopping at 500 because I know there are more out there.
“I remember seeing one of the cards I needed on eBay once and as I was about to bid on it I saw the description which read something like, ‘These are drying up fast! There is a crazy collector in the states that has 300+ of them, get them before they are gone!’ Well I won that auction and messaged the guy afterwards saying, ‘Payments sent, can’t wait to get the card, Sincerely, THE CRAZY COLLECTOR FROM THE STATES.’
“There have been some funny rumors out there about my collection like I have my walls papered with these cards or the floor tiled with them. My favorite is that I have to sleep on my couch because my room is full of Marvin Williams cards. Hopefully this dispels some of those rumors, check out this picture of all of them. They all fit in one three-row box with some room to spare.”
Proof that good things do come in a small package.
Congratulations Adam, you have really proven yourself to be THE Marvin Williams Super Collector! Help Adam continue his quest to get all the SPx Winning Materials cards out there by going through your older UD NBA cards. Did you find any Marvin Williams cards? If so, contact Adam at adamandjennie8195@hotmail.com.
Popularity: 6% [?]
