Upper Deck Sports Cards
The idea behind Upper Deck card was to create a premium quality sports card, but they also produce figurines of professional sports players. They are a newcomer to the sports card scene, having only been in business since 1988 and made their first introduction into the sports card market with baseball cards in 1989. In fact they received they’re license for Major League Baseball just before Christmas of 1988 and had their first set of baseball cards in stores by February of 1989. In the first year of operations with their first set of baseball cards, business was so good that they ran out of baseball cards that first year and had to start pre-selling for the following year. One of the reasons for such brisk sales growth is that the company randomly included authentic autographed baseball cards in packages. Buyers were eager to get a card with a signature and this caused the type of sales volumes that caused them run out of cards.
After this first successful year, Upper Deck negotiated licenses with the NHL, NFL and NBA to begin production of other types of collectible sports cards. Upper Deck was always on the cutting edge of promotion as they tried new ideas to gain a foothold in the sports card market. One such attempt was when they made what were called “Jersey Cards”. These were unique because they were regular sports cards that had been packaged with small swatches of jersey’s that were worn by the players on the field. These cards were produced for both baseball and basketball.
As success continued into the 1990′s and into the new millennium, Upper Deck had the chance to purchase the assets of one of it’s competitors, Fleer-SkyBox. They also bought the Fleer Collectibles, which was a maker of diecast models and in 2007 Upper Deck failed in their bid for rival, Topps.
Moving away from the popular baseball and hockey cards, Upper Deck created a premiere brand of NBA basketball card called the Exquisite Collection. These premium cards were packaged 5 to a pack and contained a veteran base card, an autographed rookie card with a swatch worn during a game, a jersey card and an autographed patch card. The autographed cards were not of average players, but rather superstars of the basketball scene including: Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, just to name a few. These cards were instantly a hit even though they sold for around $500, which made them the most expensive sports card packs ever made. With the popularity of the Exquisite series, Upper Deck created similar sets for the NFL as well.
Upper Deck has proven to be a contender in the sports card industry and have been innovators ever since their introduction. With the success found in sports cards and collectibles, Upper Deck has now branched out into making trading cards based on TV, Movies and even video games. As they move into new markets, they will always be remembered as a premium sports card maker.
Filed under Sports Cards by