I asked on Twitter what should the Sunday Question be and Matthew Glidden (@matthewglidden) came back with a good suggestion.
If Upper Deck were to finally fold, what would you miss most about the company?
In case you're unaware of what is going on, check out yesterday's post on the subject.
Holograms. Period.
ReplyDeletethe cards.
ReplyDeleteduh.
Their ability to change it up, for good or bad, year after year without going completely stale (unlike some other companies).
ReplyDeleteIf Upper Deck were to fold as a company I would miss their Hockey product the most. For all of their failings, when it comes to Hockey, Upper Deck appears to be a completely different company. Care, thought and planning appear to go into their hockey product.
ReplyDeleteFor those who think an "exclusive" is a bad thing you just need to look at what UD did with hockey to see how it can be good.
Good point about UD hockey.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see another 2009 OPC-style baseball set. If that's the last time we see a classic cardboard format, big set count, and unusual photos, I'd miss it for sure.
I would miss the nice hockey cards, but that's about it. My collecting wouldn't be affected much since I don't collect the autographs, relics, etc.
ReplyDeleteI actually miss the other card companies (Fleer, Score, Donruss) more than I would miss Upper Deck.
Mainly Upper Deck Premier, but not that much else, frankly. I stopped buying their core product outside of an occasional basis ages ago. To borrow a phrase, "Topps does low end better".
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of Exquisite, as it just waters down the Premier brand I do like ("Oh, Premier is our high-end line. Exquisite is our ultra high-end product.")
Almost forgot--I will miss Sweet Spot. Not the base cards, but the actual ball leather sigs. Although the design never significantly changes, it is a self-evident design that never goes out of style, either.
I certainly won't miss all the smarmy, tip-of-the-pyramid chest-puffing ads and marketing material though. "Great! You can drop 20 large per year on high-end UD wax and get up to 50% of that back on eBay! You mogul!")
That's a tough one. I guess what I'd miss is hard to define -- I'd miss the potential that they would come up with something interesting and innovative in the future. Because they sure as hell hadn't been doing it for the last five years or so -- at least for what I collect.
ReplyDeleteI would miss designs that use more than solid blocks of primary colors and insert sets that change every year.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm really just getting into hockey, so that would be a buzzkill.
Cheap Cards, and actually good odds to get memrobelia or autos. which is better, 1 in 24 packs or 1 in 324 packs.
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