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Goodwin Champions is without a doubt my favorite product we produce all year. I get such a thrill out of opening these packs because there is just so much different content to discover, you never know what you are going to get. And if you get one of the unique insert cards, they will instantly become one of the main talking points of your collection.

That being said, I sat in eager anticipation a couple weeks ago as the team shared images and content information on the 2012 Goodwin Champions set during our hobby summit meeting with our Authorized Distributors. And I wasn’t disappointed.

Upper Deck commissioned over 200 original oil paintings to be created for the set which helps to make the product so unique. And the checklist for this year is loaded with a variety of super star athletes along with some new names Upper Deck has recently come to terms on deals with like surfing legend Kelly Slater and motorsports icon Richard Petty.

The black border to the 2012 Goodwin Champions base set helps to make the art really pop!

Mini cards will return for 2012 and we will have some new athletes showcased like racing legend Richard Petty!

One of the key additions to last year’s Goodwin Champions set was the inclusion of hand painted U.S. President art cards. These cards performed very well and it was great to see collectors work to put together a set of these rare works of art. We will be bringing back these cards, but with a different theme for 2012. Artists have been commissioned to create the original 50 cards from the 1888 Goodwin Champions set with each card being limited to just ten copies. The original 1888 Goodwin Champions set is widely regarded by aficionado’s of tobacco era trading cards as one of the most beautiful sets ever produced. The original cards feature stunning paintings that provided us with the inspiration to create a modern day version of the set. Additionally, the original set features two of the greatest baseball cards ever produced with the Cap Anson and King Kelly singles, the first-ever football card (Henry Beecher) and a slew of great boxing cards including the legendary John L. Sullivan.

This is a scan of one of the actual hand-painted 1888 Goodwin Champions masterpiece cards.

The Museum Relics performed well last year as well and included some amazing pieces, but they lacked an overall theme. This year we’ve honed the checklist to focus exclusively on one of the biggest events in American history; the Civil War. We are still in the process of finalizing all the relics that will be featured in the set, but I have been blown away by some of the items coming in the office. Among the highlights of items we have obtained to date is a remnant of an 1864 Union Army battle flag that will produce some amazing fabric swatches in the set. Those will be placed in oversize cards resulting in a small group of truly historic pieces.

We have obtained some amazing authentic collectible items from the Civil War that will be included in 2012 Goodwin Champions.

Additionally we have obtained some authentic buttons from Civil War uniforms, brass cavalry and infantry hat insignias, hammers from Civil War rifles, a soldier’s wallet and actual Confederate currency. These entire bills will be encased in an oversized shadowbox card. What makes these bills so cool to me is that they are each hand-signed twice and have a unique number hand-written on the top. These are almost 150 years old!

These Confederate bills are actually hand signed!

The bills will be presented in a shadowbox setting and should create a lot of interest with American history enthusiasts.

The most unique items we have acquired in my opinion are original Civil War ambrotypes. These are original photographs taken of Civil War soldiers and they were so fragile they were mounted in a small metal frame and kept in a protective case. We will be encasing these in a shadowbox presentation for the set.

The ambrotype photos may be one of the most unique additions to the set.

“These ambrotypes are almost like looking at a ghost,” said Grant Sandground, Upper Deck product manager. “They put a human face on the Civil War in a very powerful way.”

Next week we will share more information and images about the 2012 Goodwin Champions set focusing on some of the “weird” content that makes the product so awesome! Stay tuned!

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Fans seem to really be enjoying the new 2011 World of Sport set from Upper Deck. In particular we have been pleased to see how well the Shadowbox insert cards from the set have been selling. We believe it is important to come up with innovative new inserts that are limited and fans want instead of just inserting more memorabilia cards and parallels. The initial sales on these seem to show they are a hit. Take a look at completed auctions for Tiger Woods, Aaron Rodgers, Wayne Gretzky, A.J. Green, Abby Wambach and David Beckham.

The autograph sets have been performing well also and it seems like there may be some collectors looking to put together master sets considering there are ZERO redemption cards in the product. For the base set autograph parallels, we have close to 300 of the 400-card checklist available for one of the largest autograph checklists of the year featuring the greatest variety of sports stars. And now we are pleased to share the short print lists for those sets.

Group A – 1:303
Card # Player Name
1 Ozzie Smith
2 Mike Schmidt
36 Scottie Reynolds
40 Al-Farouq Aminu
45 James Anderson
57 John Stockton
58 Bill Walton
89 Adrian Peterson
93 Greg Pruitt
131 Terrelle Pryor
140 Drew Brees
141 Dan Marino
143 Sidney Crosby
146 Joe Sakic
148 Ron Francis
149 Wayne Gretzky
161 Glenn Anderson
243 Juan Pablo Angel
250 Amy Rodriguez
252 Laura Kalmari
255 Cat Whitehill
256 Ella Masar
257 Jordan Angeli
259 Karen Bardsley
263 Nicole Barnhart
264 Shannon Boxx
265 Meghan Klingenberg
266 Hope Solo
270 Tiger Woods
285 Zach Johnson
304 Nolan Ryan
308 Bob Gibson
309 Lou Brock
310 Bo Jackson
311 Chris Paul
312 Derrick Rose
313 Alonzo Mourning
315 David Robinson
316 Walt Frazier
317 Hakeem Olajuwon
318 Clyde Drexler
320 Greg Monroe
321 LeBron James
323 Julius Erving
324 Tom Izzo
325 Billy Donovan
331 Blaine Gabbert
334 Tony Dorsett
335 John Elway
336 Bubba Smith
337 Barry Sanders
338 Earl Campbell
339 Gale Sayers
341 A.J. Green
342 Cam Newton
343 Jake Locker
344 Julio Jones
345 Billy Sims
346 Mark Ingram
348 Tiger Woods
354 Bobby Clarke
355 Luc Robitaille
356 Mario Lemieux
358 Mark Messier
359 Mike Bossy
360 Larry Robinson
361 Denis Potvin
362 Phil Esposito
364 Darryl Sittler
368 Wayne Gretzky
369 Sidney Crosby
381 Randy Couture
382 Will Bruin
389 Landon Donovan
391 Omar Salgado
392 Tobin Heath
393 Alex Morgan

Group B – 1:57
Card # Player Name
3 Matt Szczur
26 Whitey Ford
27 Carlton Fisk
29 Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd
33 LeBron James
34 DeMarcus Cousins
35 Michael Jordan
39 Cole Aldrich
47 Ekpe Udoh
50 Larry Johnson
51 Brook Lopez
52 Eric Bledsoe
53 Mark A. Jackson
54 Steve Nash
60 Tim Hardaway
61 Jimmer Fredette
62 Toni Kukoc
63 Candace Parker
74 Jay Wright
75 Ben Howland
77 Mark Few
80 Jim Calhoun
90 Armon Binns
91 Raghib Ismail
92 Floyd Little
94 Mikel Leshoure
95 Tim Brown
99 Bernie Kosar
100 Leonard Hankerson
101 Brian Bosworth
104 Christian Ponder
105 Aaron Williams
107 Randall Cobb
110 Ryan Mallett
111 Titus Young
114 DeMarco Murray
116 Noel Devine
119 Torrey Smith
123 Ryan Williams
126 Evan Royster
133 Bo Jackson
138 Bruce Carter
139 Rod Woodson
142 Greg Salas
144 Scott Niedermayer
145 Bobby Hull
147 Grant Fuhr
150 Mike Gartner
151 Dale Hawerchuk
154 Gilbert Perreault
164 Bill Ranford
208 Matt Bocklet
214 Kevin Hartman
215 Donovan Ricketts
216 Davy Arnaud
217 Andy Najar
218 Marvell Wynne
219 David Ferreira
220 Michael Stephens
221 Chad Barrett
230 Justin Braun
231 Fabian Espindola
232 Jamison Olave
234 Stefan Frei
235 Steve Zakuani
236 Matt Reis
237 Conor Casey
239 Zack Schilawski
240 Omar Cummings
241 Heath Pearce
245 Sean Franklin
247 Matt Pickens
258 Jillian Loyden
260 Lori Lindsey
262 Leslie Osborne
272 Nancy Lopez
274 Natalie Gulbis
275 Brittany Lincicome
278 Fred Couples
280 Anthony Kim
281 Jay Haas
282 Steve Stricker
283 Hunter Mahan
301 Manny Machado
303 Ryne Sandberg
305 Jose Canseco
306 Steve Carlton
307 Don Mattingly
322 Michael Jordan
326 Jamie Dixon
327 Bill Self
328 Tubby Smith
332 Von Miller
349 Nick Faldo
350 Annika Sorenstam
352 Mike Weir
357 Ray Bourque
365 Paul Coffey
367 Doug Gilmour
370 Bobby Orr
371 Gordie Howe
372 Cammi Granato
375 Paul Rabil
376 Kip Turner
377 Matt Danowski
380 Brodie Merrill
383 Juan Agudelo
384 Rafael Marquez
385 Sebastien Le Toux
386 Dwayne DeRosario
396 Mia Hamm
399 Marion Jones
400 Tyson Gay

Group C – 1:17
Card # Player Name
4 Delino DeShields
8 Cody Hawn
12 Kolbrin Vitek
13 Jonathan Garcia
14 Carlos Perez
15 John Lamb
16 Yordano Ventura
17 Robinson Yambati
18 Reggie Golden
20 Mike Olt
21 Michael Choice
22 Matt Lipka
23 Christian Yelich
24 Aaron Altherr
28 Zach Walters
30 Gauntlett Eldemire
31 Kyle Parker
32 Matt Packer
41 Stanley Robinson
43 Jerome Jordan
46 Gani Lawal
49 Craig Brackins
64 Jackie Stiles
65 Steve Alford
66 Bobby Cremins
67 Bruce Pearl
68 Mike Montgomery
69 Mike Brey
70 Thad Matta
71 Bo Ryan
72 Steve Fisher
73 Bob Huggins
76 Gary Williams
78 Jeff Capel III
79 John Beilein
81 Sean Miller
82 Dana Altman
83 Seth Greenberg
84 Homer Drew
85 Matt Painter
86 Bruce Weber
87 Tom Crean
88 Rick Majerus
96 Kendall Hunter
102 Andy Dalton
109 Prince Amukamara
112 Daniel Thomas
115 Colin Kaepernick
117 Kyle Rudolph
118 Ryan Kerrigan
121 Justin Houston
124 Greg Little
125 Charles White
127 Allen Bradford
128 Rahim Moore
129 Da’Quan Bowers
130 Corey Liuget
132 Vincent Brown
134 Terrence Toliver
135 Ricky Stanzi
136 Jaiquawn Jarrett
137 Adam Weber
152 Al MacInnis
153 Jaden Schwartz
155 Doug Wilson
162 Ron Hextall
182 Alex Smith
185 Brian Phipps
187 Max Seibald
188 Kyle Dixon
195 Joel White
196 Billy Bitter
197 Grant Catalino
204 Jesse Schwartzman
207 Jordan Burke
210 Kevin Crowley
213 Brendan Mundorf
222 Chad Marshall
223 Kyle Beckerman
224 Kasey Keller
225 Landon Donovan
226 Javier Morales
227 William Hesmer
228 Josh Wolff
229 Omar Gonzalez
244 Shalrie Joseph
246 Macoumba Kandji
248 Chris Pontius
254 Brandi Chastain
261 Lauren Fowlkes
269 Matt Every
271 John Mallinger
273 Cristie Kerr
276 Song-Hee Kim
277 Morgan Pressel
279 Charley Hoffman
284 Johnny Miller
287 Bubba Watson
288 Damien Hobgood
289 C.J. Hobgood
290 Layne Beachley
291 Gretchen Bleiler
294 Mike Smith
296 Janet Evans
297 Dee Dee Jonrowe
300 Jonathan Wendel
378 Ned Crotty
379 Matt Poskay

Worthy of note, some players are featured in the autograph checklist more than once as they have more than one card. Please confirm the card number to confirm the group for your player as some players may have autographs in more than one group.

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One of the surprise hits of last year’s trading card releases was Upper Deck’s “World of Sports” product as it offered collectors a unique pack opening experience with star athletes from basketball, baseball, swimming, skiing, ice hockey, figure skating, golf, lacrosse and mixed martial arts. The set returns arriving in stores today and it offers the same great diversity of top tier athletes, but mixes in some unique surprises like “Evolution” video cards as well.

Boasting a bigger base set than last year and the inclusion of football stars to the set, Upper Deck’s “World of Sports” set is sure to be a fan favorite. It features 400 cards from athletes like Nolan Ryan, Don Mattingly and Mike Schmidt from baseball; LeBron James, Michael Jordan and Jimmer Fredette from basketball; Bo Jackson, Drew Brees and Cam Newton from football; and Sidney Crosby, Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux from hockey. Mix in other premium stars from soccer, golf, horse racing, mixed martial arts, track & field, lacrosse, extreme sports, racing and even dog sledding and you get the feel that Upper Deck’s “World of Sports” set is really a different kind of trading card release.

“No other company but Upper Deck could provide sports fans with such an amazingly diverse checklist of sports stars to collect,” said Jason Masherah, Upper Deck vice president of Marketing & Business Development. “And nowhere else can fans find such an assorted set of innovative insert cards from these stars to collect like signature cards, apparel cards, ‘Shadowbox’ trading cards and the ‘Evolution’ video trading cards. And as part of our continued effort to reduce redemption cards, all autograph content for ‘World of Sports’ is live in the product. It is completely redemption free.”

That’s right! The “Evolution” video trading cards made their debut last season in football, but these innovative inserts take on the hard court. Lucky collectors may find “Evolution” basketball video trading cards of superstars like Michael Jordan, Chris Paul and more inserted into new boxes of Upper Deck’s “World of Sport.” This is the first-ever video trading card for Michael Jordan and with copies of the cards extremely limited, they are sure to be in high demand. Video footage shows 60 seconds of highlights from college action of these hoop legends. Check them out:

Upper Deck’s new “World of Sports” set is currently available in stores now and each hobby box includes 20 packs with six cards per pack. Collectors can find three autographs or apparel cards in each box on average.

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There is not much more exciting or frustrating than having one card left to complete a trading card set. Especially when the card in question surfaces about as often as Moby Dick. Such is the case with our featured collector for President’s Day; D.J. Patterson. And we are hopeful our massive fan base around the world can help him out to find that last card and complete a very impressive set. Here is his story:

“My name is D.J. Patterson and my quest for the 2009 Goodwin Champions memorabilia set started when I bought my first blaster and pulled the Chone Figgins memorabilia card. I had just recently gotten back into collecting after almost a 10-year absence. Drawn by the unique design of the ‘M’ swatch, I decided I would see if I could find more of these cards. By week’s end, I had managed to get 11 from local retail outlets and a friend had scored three for me as well. I looked up product information on your website and found there were 98 cards in the set, so I knew I had my work cut out for me.

“I checked eBay and was able to get majority of the set for quite cheap as some sellers had several of what I needed. I think I was able to pick up 13 cards I needed from one guy for around $20. I was also was able to set up some trades through some sports cards web pages. Most collectors are really helpful when they know you are working on a master set.

D.J. Patterson is on the hunt to put together the 98 card 2009 Goodwin Champions memorabilia set.

“Then I saw the print run list for the short printed cards. Luckily I had already gotten the Jose Reyes (100), Chase Utley (100), Kosuke Fukudome (100), Ted Williams (40), Michael Jordan (50) and Joe DiMaggio (20). All I needed were the Lyndon B. Johnson (5), Buffalo Bill Cody (5), and Paul Molitor (15).

“I had seen a few of the Molitor cards on eBay, but I had always been outbid at the last minute or found myself without reception when auction ended. After about two weeks, I managed to secure one when the auction closed early in the morning and luckily I was awake to grab it. And then there were two. All I needed now were the two most elusive cards in the set; Lyndon B. Johnson and Buffalo Bill Cody.

He has amassed almost every card, with the exception of the elusive Lyndon B. Johnson card.

“I checked eBay religiously to find them, often several times a day to no avail. I had friends checking around for me as well, but still nothing. Then I read in Beckett that the Buffalo Bill Cody card was a redemption. All I could picture was some kid pulling it out of a pack and tossing it away thinking it was a filler card. About a week later when I checked eBay, there was Buffalo Bill!

“The seller had it up with Buy It Now (BIN) or Best Offer (BO). What came from there was me sending offer after offer, repeatedly being told my offers were too low and then I heard nothing more. I had friends send offers, but they were stonewalled as well. Finally, I bit the bullet and paid for what he had it listed for. To this day it is still the most I’ve shelled out for any individual card, but in hindsight, I think I have the only one that has surfaced, possibly only one in existence since redemption ended this past August. (NOTE FROM UD: All five Buffalo Bill cards were redeemed and sent out)

This is a card you just do not see very often, one of just five copies in the whole world.

“The next week I was in Martinsville, Virginia visiting my parents and stopped by the local card store there. I was telling the owner Wes, about my continuing search for the elusive Lyndon B. Johnson card. He offered his help since he goes to several card shows a year. Every time I go in there, he asks about it. Sadly I always have to tell him I am still on the hunt. He says he never has luck at card shows either, but will continue to search.

“And that’s where I am. I have compiled almost everyone of the most comprehensive memorabilia card series of premium athletes and personalities, but have not been able to score that final card. Can someone help me find LBJ?!?!”

Here is a stack of his 97 cards. He's just missing one. Can you help him track it down???

When we found out about D.J.’s quest and lack of luck finding the Lyndon B. Johnson memorabilia card (featuring memorabilia from a coat he wore), we went back through our production notes and confirmed we created these cards and that they did indeed pack out. The trouble is there are only five in the entire print run. To make things harder on D.J., you don’t see a lot of listings for insert cards from a product that is three years old. As we said in the beginning though, we are hopeful our fans can help. If you’ve seen or are in possession of a 2009 Goodwin Champions Lyndon B. Johnson memorabilia card, please reach out to D.J. and let him know! His contact information is listed below:

Email: deejamahl05@yahoo.com

Twitter: @Preying_Hawk

Facebook: Dantre Tarperson

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One of the things trading cards do a great job of is chronicling moments in history and immortalizing them forever. Some of the greatest moments in American history involve U.S. Presidents and politicians and for several years now Upper Deck has made it a practice on occasion to insert cards of U.S. Presidents and politicians into trading card releases for all sports. We try to select releases where we include elements of pop culture and other unique cards.

For some time now, Upper Deck has made a practice of adding trading cards of U.S. Presidents and politicians to sets as insert or subset cards primarily.

Recently we announced we would be including cards of Barack Obama and several GOP Presidential candidates in Upper Deck’s World of Sports set and that has created a lot of mainstream interest in the product which is exciting. Upper Deck trading cards of U.S. Presidents and politicians have traditionally performed very well in the secondary market as well with regular cards at times selling for more than memorabilia or even autograph cards of sports stars. The purpose for including these cards is not to push any type of political agenda, but rather to be topical, interesting, educational and to help add value to a product.

Upper Deck has pushed the envelope and created some of the most interesting and valuable U.S. President trading cards in the market, many with authentic cut autographs and even hair of the deceased leader embedded on the card.

But not every fan is for them. Just last week I had a message forwarded to me from Upper Deck Customer Care that came from a concerned parent. The parent said, “I still struggle with trying to explain to our 11 year-old son why there is a football card of Obama in one of your decks. You have misled us in our purchase and for that we are very disappointed…”

We've had fans upset that we've included cards like these of Barack Obama in the Icons Football release before, even though they have great value in the secondary market.

The customer has a valid point in my opinion and I offered to exchange the card for him of a football player as a courtesy. It made me wonder however, as unique and interesting as these cards are, do some fans find them totally repellent? I know there are die-hard fans who just want to find cards of their favorite sports stars, but is that the case if it takes the place of a non-sport card with a high secondary market value tied to it? Since it is President’s Day, I thought it was an appropriate question to ask our fan base. Think of it as an informal poll. Would you vote for Upper Deck to continue to include cards of U.S. Presidents and politicians on occasion? Let us know in the comment section below.

Do cards like these deserve to be inserted in a couple trading card releases a year to help chronicle history or are they too controversial?

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