Archive for Basketball
Upper Deck’s ‘World of Sports’ Returns with Top Sports Stars and ‘Evolution’ Video Cards
Posted by: | CommentsOne 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.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Do Presidents Belong in Trading Card Releases?
Posted by: | CommentsOne 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?
Popularity: 2% [?]
We are currently interviewing for a new Customer Care Supervisor so until we have selected someone, I wanted to provide some updates to general consumer queries. The Ask UD segments we do here can be a lot of help for answering questions collectors have, so hope you find this helpful.
Here are some of the questions we’ve received recently here at Upper Deck:
Ask Upper Deck: I know you sent some groupings of the 2010 Exquisite Football TBD redemptions in the past, but there hasn’t been much movement on them. I’m still waiting to receive mine. What is the latest with those cards?
Chris Carlin: Well first we want to apologize to our customers who pulled these cards for the delays tied to them. We understand this is a premium product and fans have been very patient for us to get them done. This particular redemption program has been one of the top programs our executive team reviews during a weekly redemption meting and we have been pushing hard to get them completed.
One of the reasons we used a new system where we didn’t share exactly who the players were was so if there were issues in getting them done in time, we could swap them out with other players and move on. We are now at the point where we are going to be walking away from deals for some of the players and working to create new cards with new players in some cases; predominantly with the rookie cards. It is important to us to move forward there in those circumstances to there are no holes in the set. The good news is that most of the premium rookies were completed and live in the product like Sam Bradford, Tim Tebow, Colt McCoy, Rob Gronkowski, Jahvid Best, Ndamakong Suh, Ryan Mathews and Dez Bryant. The rookie redemption cards were for regular autograph rookies and the players were more middle of the road players. By working to secure new deals and produce new cards, we are targeting new players that have performed a little better from that rookie class.
Additionally we have had some success with getting signing sessions done over the last few months which has freed up over 700 autograph cards from some of the better players in the set that we can now send out from this product. We will be sending those cards out over the next two weeks that should help bring closure to this redemption program for most of our collectors waiting on these cards.
After we ship this next lot, fans will have two choices if they are still waiting on these cards. If a customer has not seen the status on their redemption change by Monday, February 20 they can now request to have their card exchanged should they wish to no longer wait on them. We are in the process of establishing set values for these redemptions to use in exchanging these cards based on what they have sold for in the secondary market. Should a customer wish to have their card exchanged starting on Monday, February 20, they can send an email to time2swap@upperdeck.com listing out the card(s) in question from their account they want exchanged and what teams/players they have interest in. The customer should also be specific if they only want their card replaced with other Exquisite Football cards from other years. We have a good amount of stock of premium football autograph cards from other brands, but we know that some Exquisite fans prefer to have their card replaced with one from the same brand. From there we will work dutifully to swap those out through the end of February and March.
Fans do also have the option to continue to wait on these cards as we are going to be producing cards to fill in this set. That process will take time however as we need to reprint new cards to get signed by these athletes. We will continue to provide updates on that process for fans desirous of getting the cards needed to put the set together.
Ask Upper Deck: I’m trying to update my address on UpperDeck.com for my redemptions and I keep getting an error message.
Chris Carlin: We recently did some updates to our servers and became aware of some issues customers were having with their online accounts after that took place. Our IT team has been working hard to fix this issue and we are happy to report it has been resolved. Please feel free to log on today to update your address or register for a new redemption account!
Ask Upper Deck: I have been trying to call Upper Deck Customer Care, but I keep getting messages the team is not available. How can I speak to someone on an issue I am having?
Chris Carlin: We unexpectedly lost some key members of our Customer Care team and are in the process of sourcing for replacements. Unfortunately it is not very easy to go out into the job market and hire someone who knows a lot about our products so it takes awhile to find the right match. If you are a fan of Upper Deck Sports Cards living in the Southern California area and would love the opportunity to join the team with an entry level position with our Customer Care group, we encourage you to apply today by clicking here.
In the meantime the Customer Care staff has been working dutifully on answering emails received from consumers and we are dedicating other resources to help them out. We anticipate representatives will be back to taking consumer calls in the next 2-3 weeks and we will provide an update once they are back on the phones full-time.
Ask Upper Deck: I keep hearing chatter that Upper Deck may honor expired redemptions. Is there any truth to that?
Chris Carlin: No there is not. We have spoken to that subject before here on the Upper Deck Blog. We absolutely cannot honor expired redemption offers for leagues we no longer have the licenses for like MLB, NFL and NBA. We urge collectors to be careful when purchasing older sealed Upper Deck product because if there are issues with damage, collation, insert ratio or expired redemption offers, we unfortunately will not be able to assist there. If you choose to buy that product, you are purchasing it as is, similar to buying an item that is no longer under warranty.
In fact, we are in the process of closing out all those outstanding redemptions programs for those leagues starting with MLB. For fans currently waiting on redemptions from those leagues, we hope to complete that process of fulfilling or swapping out cards for those sports that were redeemed in time over the next few months.
Should collectors have a redemption card that has expired from NHL, CLC or MLS products, we will check to see if we still have inventory on the card and assist if possible, but we certainly cannot make any guarantees. As a general rule, if a card has been expired for over a year, collectors should not anticipate we will be able to assist with it.
Ask Upper Deck: What happened with the Stick Kid at the NHL All-Star Skills Competition? That was such a neat story!
Chris Carlin: We thought so too. Here’s more on Currie Giesler who was named Upper Deck’s Stick Kid for the NHL All-Star festivities. Long story short, he had an amazing time. Check out some of the images of him at the event and the thank you letter he sent:
Ask Upper Deck: I have been waiting on a Wayne Gretzky autograph for a long time now. Any updates on when he will sign?
Chris Carlin: A player like Wayne typically likes to sign just a few times a year which unfortunately causes us to use redemptions on occasion. We apologize for the delays these cause, it is our intention to have these cards live in the pack, but unfortunately that does not always happen. But the thrill of receiving an autograph from “The Great One” is really an experience that is second to none. Today was exciting for us as we received a whole box of autograph cards signed by Wayne Gretzky that we will be sending over to our Redemption headquarters, having them review for quality, package and ship out to fans who have been waiting on them.
Here is more on some of the cards we received:
Popularity: 2% [?]
Brag Photo: UD Twitter Fans Post Big Hits
Posted by: | CommentsIf you are not following @UpperDeckSports on Twitter and you are a sports card fan, you are missing out. Recently fans started posting some images of some of their recent hits or acquisitions from mail days and we encouraged more to share. What followed was a barrage of amazing tweets with images of some really awesome UD cards from through the years. They were so nice, we thought we would share with you here on the Upper Deck Blog. Check them out!
@TreyCumby says his favorite card is this SP Legendary Cuts Game-Used Bat Card of Babe Ruth & Mickey Mantle.
@J2THEBSQUARED is happy the Fed Ex girl just dropped off this Taylor Hall Exquisite rookie autograph patch card from the UD Redemption department.
@STUNNAMAYN3 just pulled this beautiful Michael Jordan autographed game-used floor card from 2011-12 SP Authentic Basketball.
@Robertbomar was thrilled when he pulled this stunning Marc Andre-Fleury autographed jersey patch card from 11-12 NHL Artifacts.
@nashcollector nonchalantly showed off his monster Michael Jordan All-Time Greats Storybook autograph card.
@cardsandcomics had a customer who is a huge Jordan fan strike some luck with this SP Authentic Letterman autograph card.
@Shaner1 seemed to be having a lot of luck pulling all three of these monster cards in the last three weeks.
@hhliving1101 probably didn’t realize how rare his 2011 Goodwin Champions card of Gretchen Bleiler was when he pulled it last weekend until he turned it over and saw that it was the Presidential 1/1 version. Wow!
@Quicksilveraus loves how Dr. J. always gives a quality autograph with his Personal Touch card inscribed with the name of his hero, MLK Jr.
@coryoneill loves the great patches UD procured for cards like his Exquisite Ensemble triple patch card of Albert Pujols, Derek Jeter and Ken Griffey Jr.
Thanks for submitting fans! We were a little surprised we didn’t see any football cards, especially leading up to the Super Bowl. So tweet us some of your favorite Upper Deck football cards fans, we love to see your big hits!
Popularity: 2% [?]
Jimmer Fredette Breaks Out on Beckett’s Basketball Hot List
Posted by: | CommentsBased on what you see in the February 2012 issue of Beckett Sports Monthly it is clear hoop collectors still love Upper Deck and Fleer products. Of the top 20 cards on Beckett’s Basketball Hot List, 14 of them are from an Upper Deck or Fleer release. Well we’ve got good news for fans who have missed Fleer’s iconic basketball inserts as Upper Deck will be producing a retrospective product paying homage to their greatness due out in April of this season. Upper Deck’s 2011-12 Fleer Retro Basketball will have a lot of great content, including the always popular Jambalaya inserts (two of which are currently featured on Beckett’s Basketball Hot List).
Fleer's popular Jambalaya inserts, among others, will be flying high on Hot Lists again this March.
And a new player has jumped on the scene in Beckett’s Basketball Hot List and that is red-hot rookie Jimmer Fredette. Upper Deck was able to secure an autograph deal of the highly-touted prospect from BYU and his first cards hit the market with 2011-12 SP Authentic Basketball and have been performing extremely well in the secondary market. Beckett has his SP Authentic Autograph Rookie F/X card #87 as their #8 card on the hot list.
Jimmer's Rookie F/X card landed #8 on Beckett's Hot List for February 2012.
Then it is Jimmer’s SP Authentic Autograph rookie card #17 that took the #5 position on the list.
Jimmer's SP Authentic autograph rookie card hit #5 on Beckett's Hot List for February.
Some are saying Jimmer has the potential to have a Tim Tebow-like impact on his game, but only time will tell there. There is no doubt he is able to perform at the NBA level and deliver the same type of deadly 3-pointers he became famous for in college.
Upper Deck will have more Jimmer Fredette cards coming out this season starting off with the 2011-12 Fleer Retro Basketball set where fans can continue to collect rookies of this emerging star.
Popularity: 2% [?]
