Archive for Products

The Sports Cards & Collectibles Expo in Toronto is a show that always brings in thousands of fans during the weekend. And Upper Deck has been a mainstay at the show bringing a variety of giveaways and promotions for collectors young and old. This last weekend however, Upper Deck staff really spent a lot of time engaging kids as they are truly the future for this hobby.

Trading card shows provide Upper Deck with a great opportunity to share trading cards with young kids and see their smiles as they instantly become engaged in the hobby.

It’s never too early to expose kids to trading cards. Yes, if you get them too young, it is almost a certainty that the cards will end up right in their mouth, but maybe, just maybe, trading cards can help with teething. We loved seeing the look on youngster’s faces as they held Upper Deck trading cards for the first time over the weekend.

Two brothers and one sister competed head-to-head-to-head in the Upper Deck decoy toss where they tried to get the most decoy cards in a target.

The winner was thrilled and those who came up short, well, they had their own ways of getting revenge...

We scheduled some times where kids could compete in a decoy tossing game at the booth where they went head to head against each other or Upper Deck staff to win prizes like new Upper Deck packs. I’m pretty sure they would have competed just for the fun of it though. It was awesome to see the smiles on the faces of brothers, sisters and friends as they competed in this exciting game as supporters cheered them on.

This young man scored a FREE box of Upper Deck cards at the Expo raffle.

Hopefully this happy winner shared some packs with his sister!

Next we made sure we had kids involved in our raffle program on Saturday. Lots of kids were holding raffle tickets and since we had a lot of prizes, a good amount of kids won. It was great to hear their enthusiastic cries after they won as some of them took home their first ever trading cards and collectibles.

And sometimes we just got a little silly with the kids and came up with games for them on site. We had three brothers that were camped out at the Upper Deck booth on Sunday so we had the two older boys engage in a fun game for some packs while their younger brother Christopher looked on.

There is really no bigger thrill for me though as a new father than to see kids opening packs of Upper Deck cards with their fathers. It’s especially exciting to see a father teach his son or daughter how to open up the packs and their sense of wonder as they go through the cards for the first time. Through our redemption program, we saw a lot of kids coming through opening product at the Upper Deck booth this weekend. And some of them scored some pretty awesome Priority Signings cards!

This young man pulled a Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Priority Signings autograph card and was all smiles!

We allocated some of the Priority Signings autograph cards to use with fans this week, but if you want to take them home, you’re going to have to work for them. In the comment section below, please share your ideas (must be at least four complete sentences) on what more the trading card industry can do to get kids interested in collecting new trading card sets. We’ll select our three favorite ideas to receive random Priority Signings cards. Comments must be received in by 4:00 p.m. Pacific on Wednesday, May 9, 2012.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share
Categories : Hockey, Products
Comments (45)
May
02

How Will You See The Avengers?

Posted by: Travis Wingo | Comments (1)

The much anticipated release of Marvel’s latest and greatest movie “The Avengers” is just a few days away from releasing and the excitement at Upper Deck is surging like a repulsor ready to fire. Upper Deck’s 2012 Avengers Assemble trading card product has been very well received by fans and that is likely to continue as the movie appears to be generating some great early reviews. It is sure to break all sorts of box office records when it arrives in theaters here in the U.S. on Friday, May 4.

While I certainly saw a lot of stills from the new Avengers movie while building the trading card set, being able to see it on the big screen will be a huge thrill!

As the release draws closer, I am finding myself making plans to see the movie with equally enthusiastic co-workers — and not all of them are fanboys. Here at Upper Deck, we’ve always enjoyed and appreciated our very special relationship with Marvel, but from a personal level, participating in bringing the trading card product to market and seeing the film head to the big screen has been an awesome experience.

Artists drew "sketch cards" in the new Avengers trading card set which makes each of these cards like their own mini comic book.

My mom never understood why I would spend my allowance on comics or “those silly cartoons” as she called them, but I loved burrowing into my quiet reading place and getting lost in the Marvel universe. It seems like only a handful of my friends ever did get that, but what is interesting now is that these stories are gaining in popularity and notoriety as Marvel brings them to the big screen. That’s right, even my mom is getting into the excitement around the release by organizing a group of her lady friends to, “see the movie my boy worked on.” This of course is completely inaccurate, but I don’t have the heart to correct her, she seems so happy…

You can take home a piece of the movie with authentic memorabilia from the cast of The Avengers!

But I guess that makes it official; everyone and their mother is going to see “The Avengers” this weekend. Buy your tickets early by clicking here and enjoy what should be one of the best super hero movies in recent history.

You can also score autographs of your favorite characters in 2012 Marvel Avengers Assemble from Upper Deck!

The only question now is if I will see it in 3D, real D 3D, IMAX 3D or just plain old 2D like the pages of a comic? I guess I need some advice — how will you see “The Avengers” this weekend?

Travis Wingo has worked in the commercial printing industry for the past twelve years and has been an Upper Deck employee for the last four. He specializes in quality control, digital file preparation and is also a copywriter for Upper Deck contracted Marvel products.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share
Comments (1)

We’ve talked about a great charity called Cards2Kids before, but this weekend they could really use your help. And all they are looking for you to donate is a little bit of your time.

Cards2Kids has been very successful in terms of getting collectors to donate their unwanted cards to their cause, but the most difficult part of the process in getting these to kids is organizing them and repackaging them. John Makowiec, the founder of the charity, is looking for a few good men and women to help him get packages organized so they can deliver them to kids in need this weekend. If you are in the Illinois area, we hope you will take part. Here are all the details about the event.

As an added bonus, Upper Deck is donating a limited-edition Ryne Sandberg autograph card sequentially numbered to just 20 copies to be awarded to the MVP of the day. John will share with us who came through in the clutch for them over the weekend and we will send them the card. Please make plans to help out this super cause!

Be a star this weekend by helping out Cards2Kids and you could score this awesome Ryne Sandberg autograph card.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share
Categories : Baseball, Other, Products
Comments (0)

Upper Deck’s new College Mascots patch cards are selling very well thus far as it appears more than a few collectors would like to put that set together. In and effort to help give those set collectors a better feel for just how short-printed some of these cards are, we wanted to release the rarity levels on them. Take a look and if you are able to put the set together, send us an email at UpperDeckMarketing@upperdeck.com. We would love to feature you here on the blog!

Lil' Red is one of the more rare cards in the College Mascots set.

Card # Group D – Combine to fall 1:99 packs
CM-1 Big Al
CM-4 Tusk
CM-7 Aubie
CM-11 Cosmo
CM-12 Oski
CM-17 Albert E. Gator
CM-19 Hairy Dawg
CM-20 Buzz
CM-21 Herky Hawk
CM-24 Mike the Tiger
CM-26 Sparty
CM-28 Bully
CM-29 Truman the Tiger
CM-31 Herbie Husker
CM-34 The Leprechaun
CM-35 Brutus Buckeye
CM-36 Sooner Schooner
CM-37 Pistol Pete
CM-38 The Duck
CM-40 Roc the Panther
CM-41 The Tiger
CM-42 Purdue Pete
CM-46 Smokey
CM-47 Reveille
CM-49 Hook ‘Em
CM-50 Raider Red
CM-51 Joe and Josephine Bruin
CM-53 Trojan warrior
CM-54 CavMan
CM-55 HokieBird
CM-56 Demon Deacon
CM-57 Harry the Husky
CM-58 Big Red
CM-59 Bucky Badger
CM-60 Handsome Dan
Card # Group C – Combine to fall 1:158 packs
CM-10 Baldwin the Eagle
CM-13 Knightro
CM-14 Ralphie
CM-16 PeeDee
CM-2 Sparky
CM-22 The Wildcat
CM-27 Goldy Gopher
CM-3 Willie the Wildcat
CM-30 Monte
CM-33 Rameses
CM-43 Cocky
CM-44 Rocky D. Bull
CM-45 Super Frog
CM-8 Bruiser
CM-9 Buster Bronco
Card # Group B – Combine to fall 1:1,752 packs
CM-15 YoUDee
CM-25 Sebastian the Ibis
CM-39 Benny Beaver
CM-5 Black Jack
CM-6 War Eagle
Card # Group A – Combine to fall 1:7,595 packs
CM-18 Uga
CM-23 Mike the Tiger
CM-32 Lil’ Red
CM-48 Bevo
CM-52 Traveler

Popularity: 2% [?]

Share
Categories : Football, Products
Comments (0)

As part of our continuing series on “How to Open a Trading Card Shop” we want to provide some information on how to sell an item with the highest margins in your shop that has a long shelf life. We took some time to speak to Lynne LePlaca from UltraPRO at a recent trade show and she provided some great insight on the types of products they carry.

For more information on UltraPRO’s line of products, check out this exclusive interview we did with them previously on the Upper Deck Blog.

Caring for and displaying trading cards is very important for collectors. When you run a shop, it is important to provide them a variety of options to do so.

Looking for more information on how to open up a trading card shop of your own? Check out other stories on how to open up a shop here:

How to Open a Trading Card Shop with Southern Hobby

How to Open a Trading Card Shop from a Shop Owner’s Perspective – Part 1

How to Open a Trading Card Shop from a Shop Owner’s Perspective – Part 2

How to Open a Trading Card Shop with Grosnor Distribution

How to Open a Trading Card Shop with Magazine Exchange

How to Open a Trading Card Shop with Sports Images

How to Open a Trading Card Shop with Universal Distribution

How to Open a Trading Card Shop with GTS Distribution

How to Sell Singles after You Open a Trading Card Shop

The information provided in this story is for assistance only and is not intended to be and must not be taken alone as the basis for an investment decision. Opening a trading card store, like any other business, presents certain risks for the business owner. Each reader of this information should make such investigations as it deems necessary to arrive at an independent evaluation of an investment.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share
Categories : Other, Products
Comments (1)