Archive for Brag Photo
Brag Photo: What Happened to Tiger Woods’ Tournament Worn Shirt & Hat from Bay Hill?
Posted by: | CommentsTim Doull our Athlete Relations Manager came by yesterday and shared he expected we would be getting a package from Tiger Woods shortly and I told him to come over and get me when it comes in. We opened it together and marveled at the contents. We received Tiger’s tournament-worn red Nike shirt and hat from Sunday where he won the 2012 Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.
Tiger Woods claimed victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill this weekend. Upper Deck received his tournament-worn shirt and hat from the memorable victory.
We marveled at how small the shirt was, but how big Tiger looks on television as of late. I guess a small shirt is a reason why. What was really cool about the package is that Tiger left on the duck pin that he wore during the event.
If you watched the tournament, you may have wondered what these duck pins were that so many golfers were wearing. They are wearing them in support of fellow golfer Jarrod Lyle who was recently diagnosed with leukemia. Lyle is just 31, but he was initially diagnosed with the disease when he was 17 years old. This month he found out it returned and began chemotherapy treatments. Lyle has a duck headcover on his driver so golfers are hoping these lucky duck pins will help bring Lyle some luck, or at least lift his spirits as he goes through treatment.
Tiger wore the duck pin on his hat to show support for fellow golfer Jarrod Lyle who is suffering from leukemia.
The shirt and hat will be signed by Tiger in the coming weeks and then offered up through Upper Deck’s Suite One-of-One program. This memorable piece of history will surely become the prized item of the collector lucky enough to capture it.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Brag Photo: Keep Goodwin Champions Weird!
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the key elements to Upper Deck’s Goodwin Champions release each season is the “weird” factor. It is always thrilling to pull an autograph or memorabilia card, but when you pull a redemption card for an actual scorpion, well that is just a whole different animal all together. Since 2009, those strange and weird inserts have helped to make Goodwin Champions so popular with collectors and the 2012 set will certainly feature an inclusion of the weird as well.
First up are the Animal Kingdom Patch cards which make their return after a very impressive debut in 2011. The sale of these cards in the secondary market has been staggering with rare versions selling for several hundred dollars. It should be interested to watch what a complete 100-card set will sell for that was recently posted on eBay.
For 2012 fans can expect a whole new slate of 100 animals with the same levels of rarity for high-numbered cards that produced such huge sales last season. What will those extinct and mythical creatures be? Well one is a Tyrannosaurus Rex and the other is Pegasus. It should be fun to watch how those cards perform!
Next up is the return of the Entomology series which will be a part of the set for the final time. These last 30 cards will finish up a 90 card series. The Entomology cards have enjoyed some strong secondary market values supported by an excited collector base, but it has always been our plan to put the concept on the shelf after three years and allow fans to try to put together this series, knowing it would not go on forever.
We plan on finishing the series with a bang however with some of the most unique specimens ever included. There will certainly be a strong assortment of beautiful butterflies like the Blue Morpho and Silver-Studded Leaf Wing, but there will also be some creepy crawly additions as well. This year we will have the first-ever spiders in the set with two different species from Malyasia (both equally grotesque and slightly hairy). Additionally there are some monster-sized creatures that are sure to give someone with Entomophobia a severe panic attack.
The last element is completely knew and very unique with the “It Came From Outer Space” insert set. Collectors can search for up to 20 different meteorites and space debris relics that will be encapsulated in a collectible card. Staff here have all given “Ooooohs” and “Aaaaaahs” as they behold these unique elements from beyond.
We want to make this a set of cards that can actually be built and completed by ardent collectors. There will not be any one-of-one cards in the set, but the cards will definitely be difficult to find. It is crazy and maybe even weird to think you could complete a set of trading cards that will feature material not from this earth. One of the most compelling aspects of a product like Goodwin Champions is that we are freed from the constraints of the standard mainstream sport-laden products so we can truly try and deliver the world in a box. Or in this case, the universe.
So don’t miss it when it hits shelves in June! Curious about other unique elements in 2012 Goodwin Champions? Check here.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Brag Photo: Civil War & Painted Card ‘Wow Factor’ in 2012 Goodwin Champions
Posted by: | CommentsGoodwin 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!
Popularity: 2% [?]
Brag Photo: The Legends of College Football are Coming!
Posted by: | CommentsWe get a lot of questions here at Upper Deck, but one of the most frequent one is, “When are your new products coming out?”
Upper Deck has heard loud and clear from collectors that you are tired of opening packs and getting autograph redemption cards. You want signed cards live in the packs and we agree, that thrill of pulling a great autograph can be lost when it is in the form of a redemption card. So we are holding products until we have a high rate of autograph content live in the product before we release them. Recently we have released the new Upper Deck World of Sports set with all live autograph content in packs; no redemptions. 2011-12 NHL Upper Deck Series Two is packing out now as well with zero redemption cards in the product as well. Both these products were late, but we would rather apologize about them being late than to put a product out filled with redemption cards. Both of these products will have none.
We have also heard that collectors want hard-signed cards as much as possible. Especially on premium sets collectors don’t want to pull autograph cards that have signature labels. And we continue to work in delivering hard-signed releases to our fans. Upper Deck’s 2011 College Legends Football set has been delayed, but it is because there is so much hard-signed autograph content in it and we will not put it out with high redemption rates.
The autographs continue to steadily come in however. We wanted to show you some of the cards we have received in from the set from athletes like Aaron Rodgers, Dan Marino, Steve Young, Ron Dayne and Thurman Thomas to name a few.
2011 Upper Deck College Legends will have three autograph cards on average in every box (all hard-signed). We have targeted an unprecedented 26 athletes who have struck the pose for college football’s player of the year like Archie Griffin, George Rodgers, Tim Brown, Earl Campbell, Tony Dorsett, Eddie George, Cam Newton, Ron Dayne, Andre Ware, Jim Plunkett and more!
Additionally I would like to share that I actually started working with Upper Deck right around the time the classic 1997 Upper Deck Legends Football released. It is widely hailed as one of the greatest Football sets of all-time, but it also had some of the highest redemption rates of any product Upper Deck ever produced. It was one of the first products to ever use redemptions and we learned very quickly how difficult these programs are to execute. I saw first-hand how we alienated a lot of great football fans with long delays in getting their cards to them or having to send something else which was frustrating for everyone involved. We will not deliver that type of experience again with this premium release that should be an awesome product to break and collect. The release date is still a little up for grabs as we continue to track down athletes and have them sign for the product, but it will be out this Spring. Don’t miss it!
Popularity: 2% [?]
Brag Video: AMAZING NHL Mail Day at UD Headquarters
Posted by: | Comments
Some pretty stellar signed cards arrived today at Upper Deck Headquarters.
Fans have been pushing us hard to get a signing completed with NHL superstar Sidney Crosby since UD inserted redemption cards of “the Kid” in late season 2010-11 NHL products. Recently we were able to secure a session and get a lot of outstanding cards signed for products like 2010-11 NHL SP Game-Used, 2010-11 NHL SP Authentic, 2010-11 NHL Ultimate Collection and 2010-11 NHL The Cup. Take a look at this amazing assortment of Crosby autograph cards and much more.
Worthy of note, these cards still need to be shipped to our fulfillment center, reviewed for quality, packaged in top loaders, packaged in envelopes and then shipped out from there. It will still be a couple weeks before customers waiting on them will receive them, but we wanted to share they have indeed been completed. Great news!
This beautiful one-of-one game-used Shield autograph card from 2010-11 NHL Ultimate Collection is certain to be a welcome sight when it arrives in the coming weeks to a collector.
Popularity: 2% [?]
