I'm jealous --- of Canada

The 2010 Fall Expo kicked off in today – in Canada.

I’m a little jealous of this event. I went to the National and enjoyed it, but the giveaways at the Fall Expo are better than what was given out at the National.

Look at some of these promos:

Upper Deck – The Priority Signings by Upper Deck are pretty cool.

You can get a Wayne Gretzky autograph. Does it really get better than that?

By bringing an unopened box of 2010-11 NHL Artifacts or 2010-11 Upper Deck Series 1 NHL to the Upper Deck booth, you will get an autograph card. Some autos are better than others, but there are some serious hockey players in the checklist including Sidney Crosby, Gordie Howe and Bobby Orr.

Panini – Part of the wrapper redemption includes possible autographs by NHL rookies Taylor Hall or Tyler Seguin. Included in the six-card redemption pack could be autographs Panini representatives Kobe Bryant, Evan Tuner or John Wall.

Of course, there’s a chance of getting some Sam Bradford or Tim Tebow cards.

All the promos at the National were over-shadowed by the Stephen Strasburg card given out by Topps. I got on line to get mine.

But I couldn’t tell you any of the other promos from that weekend.

If anyone goes and writes up a trip report, let us know!

Another CLC product from UD, the basketball edition

Upper Deck's newest college edition released today - 2010 Ultimate Collection Basketball CLC

Ultimate baseball has always been an exciting product and the last baseball one didn't disappoint with its memorable patches and gorgeous autographs.

Check out this hit on Blowout Cards' forum. Hint: Lebron!

Some fancy auctions
Al-Farouq Aminu auto
Bobby Hurley auto
David Robinson auto
James Anderson auto

Here is some Ultimate Basketball CLC

Bill Walton

Larry Bird

Tim Hardaway

Yao Ming

Lack of competition equates to lack of interest

I have been thinking about this a lot lately, and just recently had a conversation with Flash about it. While I love my PC dearly and wouldn't part with it under almost any circumstance in the world, there is nothing driving me to continue it either.

The fact that I don't collect football, basketball, or hockey cards basically means it's baseball or bust. I don't have any interest at all in starting to collect another sport. Baseball is my passion, and for me to invest money into something just to kill the boredom doesn't make sense.

While I do go out and pick up a new release as soon as it hits the stores, the excitement or enthusiasm often wears off within 5 minutes of writing the post of my newly acquired loot. I was terribly mad and disappointed when Donruss lost their licensing for making MLB cards, and then when it happened to Upper Deck it mad me upset but not as much as Donruss. The second blow was just like the icing on the cake for me.

I really thought early in the year that it wouldn't be that big of a deal when Upper Deck stopped making baseball cards. For a whille, it wasn't that bad and was tolerable. But now approaching the end of the season and the year, there are so many products I miss having to open, like Goudey and Sweet Spot especially. The monopoly on baseball cards really makes no sense to me anymore.

If you think about it, there are 17 spots for baseball product releases and 12 months to a year. Two or three of those spots are wasted on crap products that are boring and usually suck every year. I get that Opening Day is for kids, but there has to be a way to do something goofy that can move that product to another line of production like animating it or something. I really don't care but no one wants Opening Day hobby boxes. I know it sounds goofy but I am so bored with the options of new cards. Approximately 1 release per month.... then we sit around and wait for the next boring set design with silver sticker autos, crinkled corners, damaged cards, and missing hits.

I bought hobby boxes at the National. Does anyone recall what boxes I purchased? I'll tell you this, not one of them was a Topps product nor was it a recent product. Since the National I think I have purchased maybe 8-10 cards, if that. I'm at the point of just buying what I like for my PC and basically nothing more. Wax is fun to me while I am opening it, and that's about it. But.... it doesn't mean I won't buy some new stuff later in the year. I like opening, just wish there was some Donruss 2010 or Leaf 2010 baseball around to entertain me.

I've been to Target 3 times this week and left with nothing. I went to the card shop last week and I left with a couple of 15 pocket sheets.... Ripping a case of 2010 Topps 206 was awesome for me because I got the thrill of opening a ton of packs, only took the few cards I wanted and didn't have to spend money on a whole box for nothing. I am looking forward to the Chrome break to add stuff to my PC and I like wrappers.

Has anyone else been feeling like this lately?

P.S. If anyone has any Cano, Pujols, or Lind mini's from 206 I'd like to trade for them.

P.P.S. I will also say that Bowman Platinum looks like it will be the best set of the year. I am hoping that product is awesome to get things going again.

Upper Deck bringing baseball back?

Upper Deck is coming back with a baseball product, SCUncensored said today.

Check out the link to read more about the product.

SP Authentic Prospects Baseball will be in part with the CLC license (NCAA) and will feature many top prospects, but I would guess the guys who made the jump from high school to baseball would be missing since they never appearaed in a college uniform.

However, I would love to see a checklist on this. The product is set to be released in October. According to Gellman's info, there will be five autos per box, but there is no price point yet.

As Gellman pointed out, this was a set prospectors enjoyed. As we have seen, products like this have done well such as Donruss Elite Edition.

I like competition in an open market.

An interview with Upper Deck president Paul Meyer

Paul Meyer took over as The Upper Deck Company’s president two months ago. After several months of turmoil between lost licenses and litigations at Upper Deck, Meyer is looking toward the future of the company.

The native New Yorker has had several high-level positions at companies such as Shuffle Master and has worked in toy manufacturing, video game developing and publishing, and consulting.

“I would love the company to find the next big thing,” Meyer said. “You do that by thinking outside the box. You do that by extending the company’s reach.”

----

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR FOCUS AT UPPER DECK THE PAST TWO MONTHS?

It’s not designing trading cards. The company clearly needed lots of improvement in internal communication, I found. Now, I have weekly staff meetings.

As I told the people here, we have to eliminate triangular communication. A good example of that, during one conference call (last week), we talked about some soccer cards we have in inventory in North Carolina. Wouldn’t it be great if the customer taking those could take them before the World Cup is over? The Director of Operations talked to the Director of Sales and there it was.

I am also in the interim filling in the CFO role. I am currently President, COO and CFO. I think (my strengths are) communication, financial planning and resource allocation.

---

HOW WILL YOUR PAST HELP YOUR CURRENT ROLE?

- I think my specialty is motivation, teamwork and encouragement. However, I love to collect input, but ultimately someone has to make a decision. The process can’t keep going on and on. I run a multi-national company. I’ve been part of consumer product companies, industrial product companies, technology product companies. I put this one in consumer product range.

---

WITHOUT HAVING EXPERIENCE IN TRADING CARDS, HOW MUCH DO YOU HAVE TO RELY ON THE INPUT OF OTHERS?

- I do rely on them. We have a brand manager Josh Zusman, who is great. Our contacts with the NHL and NHLPA love him. His boss is great. I don’t have that kind of ego or pride of authorship that I am going to sit here and insist that all new products, product briefs and the type setting has to be reviewed with me. That’s not been the issue. Product quality and innovation has never been an issue here at Upper Deck. If I thought it was, I would plug into it.

One of my concerns, though it sounds a little pejorative, is to make sure we’re prepared for what I call the digital evolution. Even for people collecting trading cards, this is a different business today than it was when I was a kid.

---

HOW ARE YOU DEALING WITH THE LOST LICENSES?

- Upper Deck lost the baseball license, the NFL, the Yu-Gi-Oh license and the World of Warcraft.
As you have seen, the company scaled back infrastructure in terms of trying to match cost and revenue. There‘s no question that we are in a rebuilding mode. The NHL licenses we have are pretty prized. We think the CLC (NCAA) license has lots of potential.

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WHEN IT COMES TO LICENSING, WHERE DOES UPPER DECK GO FROM HERE?

- Topps has the MLB license. It will be hard to get it back. The company (Upper Deck) is in a rebuilding phase. We’re not going to get the baseball or the NFL licenses back anytime soon. What the company is doing is focusing on its premier license, which is NHL. Then doing a bunch of other licenses that don’t rank with MLB and NFL, but can be built over time.

In a sense, this company is back to being like a bit of a start up. That’s kind of what we and I have been presented with. We like to maintain good relationships with our licensors. We have CLC, we have MLS, and we have Major League Lacrosse. We still have some exclusive licenses for Upper Deck Authenticated with worldwide distribution. It is back to baby steps. I think the challenge here and opportunity is to keep moving it forward.

---

HOW EXCITING IS IT FOR YOU COMING IN - IN A SENSE - ON THE GROUND LEVEL?

- That’s the opportunity. That’s what I see. The question is the time period in what the company is now and when it will start to get back to its former glory and splendor. Everyone knew Upper Deck.

---

HOW HAS SOCIAL MEDIA AND BLOGS AFFECTED THE HOBBY WORLD?
- It has affected every world. Information spins around those sites at the speed of light. Part of the issue, more than just the hobby world and collecting community, is we communicate much differently now. Personally, I stop following stuff because there is so much misinformation out there. One of the blogs I saw about me said when I took over Shuffle Master in November 2007 the stock went down. I am sorry, but I never took over Shuffle Master. I worked for the head of Shuffle Master, who worked for the Board of Directors.

All this stuff affects not only the hobby, but everyone’s world, because information flies so quickly. There is just no legitimizing it. No one is responsible for what they say. There is no accountability for accuracy.

---

HOW DO YOU COMBAT THE NEGATIVE PUBLICITY FROM THE LAWSUITS?
- What we try to do is emphasize the positive. The litigation and judgments are what they are. We can’t pretend we didn’t have MLB and Konami.

There was a lot of buzz and negativity about how far behind the company was in redemptions, now we are getting some positive buzz because we are just knocking that down by emphasizing and prioritizing where cash goes.

We’ll do press releases in the positive. My own pr philosophy is you don’t saturate the wires - I think when a company has something to say, positively, it says it. I think in time what will happen is if we maintain good relationships with our partners and constituents, the judgments in litigations will start to fade into the background. I think that’s all we can do about it.

Upper Deck brings in new president, what is he thinking?

If Upper Deck called right now with a job, I'm don't think I would take it. I have a hard enough time working in the newspaper business, but my company isn't in dire straights. The same can't be said for Upper Deck, who I feel has been treading water for some time, especially after a number of lawsuits and layoffs.

Upper Deck announced Paul Meyer as the new president in a press release.

Someone had to have the job, but I have to wonder why him? His most recent job was the president and COO of Shuffle Master, which I know has done well. Living near Atlantic City, I've seen their stamp everywhere. Perhaps, Shuffle Master has flooded the market so much, there is no more growth.

What amazed me about Shuffle Master was that I was told from a number of people that the machines were rented by the casinos and not bought from the company, which means that the company has a steady influx of money.

The same can't be said for Upper Deck, whose remaining licenses include NCAA, NFL Players' Association (not the NFL), NHL and NHLPA, lacrosse, and Marvel comics.

“What do I look forward to most? Probably working with Upper Deck’s Product Development Team to identify ‘the next big thing,’” he said in a press release.

Me too, Mr. Meyer, me too.

I'm not trashing Meyer. I'm just curious as to why he would take the job.

Good luck Mr. Meyer and feel free to contact us for an interview or to reach out any time ;-)

Love,
the ladies at A Cardboard Problem

Update: Perhaps, I should have done some Googling before I posted this. Maybe Meyer is the right person for the job since Shuffle Master knows a little bit about lawsuits.

According to this article from the Las Vegas Sun in February, "Three lawsuits were filed in June 2007 in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas claiming Shuffle Master and certain officers had engaged in fraudulent accounting practices, including the improper recognition of revenue from intercompany inventory transfers."

Sigh.

What is Upper Deck doing?

At this point, I'm surprised Upper Deck is still a company. Perhaps it's just a building with one man behind the desk running the entire operation, but it's hard to believe with the layoffs, the lawsuits and all their financial problems that this company will exist for much longer.

The New York Times wrote an article on Friday stating the MLB Players' Union has urged its members to stop signing autograph cards for the company and not enter any new contracts because Upper Deck is way behind on its payments to the players.

So, if you have any redemptions you have been waiting for, stop waiting. They're probably not coming.

When does a company finally file for bankruptcy?

If Upper Deck does come back from all of this, will collectors still want to purchase their product?

With myself, with Upper Deck no longer having a baseball license, I am all but done with their company. I'm also just greatly disappointed they allowed this to happen. Upper Deck didn't suffer because of the bad economy and lost their business because no one was spending money.

They blatantly were involved illegal practices with counterfeiting the Konami cards and ignoring the fact they didn't have an MLB license. While I am sad to see competition leave the market place, I do not feel for Upper Deck.

My vote in the Upper Deck awards

Upper Deck announced a recent award program/contest for best bloggers, best card forum, etc.

Perhaps this goes with my recent waning in collecting (although I did win a couple of cards on eBay recently, but I don't get it. Or may be I do, and I just don't see the point.

Competition is fun, but I never felt like I have been in competition with the other bloggers. I enjoy blogging about cards and posting news because it's what I am interested. I love meeting new bloggers and reading the insight of everyone out there.

The forums are great for these reasons as well because it keeps the conversation going. You get to interact with other people from across the county - even world - and talk about baseball cards.

I love it.

When I read about something going on in the hobby and I look at my boyfriend and say, "Hey, Upper Deck can't make baseball cards anymore." He hears: "Hey, do you want me to get you something the kitchen?" It's the same thing I hear when he starts talking about cars. So, I get it.

It's great to have this outlet as well as others to talk about baseball cards.

So, I'm not voting in Upper Deck's awards or nominating any blogs. I pretty much have a blog lists in my Google reader and read everyone's blog as it is as a daily basis. At least try to when work isn't weighing me down. I appreciate every blog out there and love the originality they all have to offer.

I'm like a mom, I love them all the same.

Cards and Tweets

I have been a bit under the weather the last day or two and my brain has been in space wondering about random things. One of those things was if the card companies joining Twitter and supposedly talking to the collectors is going to make any difference in the products or are they just doing it to keep people who already buy cards regardless buying them.

Personally, I feel like someone at Topps was given assigned to the tweeting and maybe they know about cards, but maybe this is just part of their job since they work there. Could it be just a secretary or some dude who does the budget there tweeting to all of us to make us feel like they care about us?

The funny thing about it is that there are people kissing their asses (Topps and UD) on Twitter thinking that this is going to be their "in" for whatever. I'm all for being polite and trying to get sponsored or whatever, but really, you don't even know who is on the other end of that computer.

Another thing about this, they don't seem to be asking for any feedback on what we think of their products and when you give it to whoever it is, they just say thanks or sorry. Wow, you make a crappy product or don't put the correct relic/auto in a box and the resolution is "sorry" and maybe a crappy unrelated replacement?

I think if these companies want to be "interactive" with the collectors maybe they should listen to the things we all blog about and tweet to them and make a note. We are the people buying the cards regardless of the target demographic for any of these cards. I'd be willing to bet that any kid I walk up to and ask how many Topps Attax cards they have would say, "what are those?" as they throw down a pile of WoW cards or Yu-Gi-Oh, or whatever.

If I lost you by this point, sorry. I just felt like seeing if anyone else was thinking about this or had some sort of opinion. I'm going to go back to reading my cardiac notes now and try to make sense of that and see what you guys think of this.

MLB: "The real winners today are the millions of fans who collect baseball cards."

I probably shouldn't speak for the majority of card collectors, so I will only speak for myself.

I didn't view the settlement between MLB and UD as a victory for me. I didn't feel as though I won anything.

I'm missing out.

Competition is usually a good thing in any marketplace. Competition sparks creativity, hard work and, sometimes, shady manuevers. We've seen plenty of that over the years in the card industry. (View details of the settlement here)

Even with that, I always felt having a variety of products to choose from was always a good thing. I was someone who bought mostly Upper Deck. This was never a slight at Topps, but I would much rather get the chance to pull a Derek Jeter-type of card from UD and found myself gravitating toward them in recent years.

Sets such as Masterpieces, Goudey and Sweet Spot helped their brand. I enjoyed these cards and loved ripping open packs. Upper Deck's pictures were always top notch and they consistently gave collectors a good flagship set.

In 2010, I have bought one product of a hobby box. Just one. I purchased two products of Ultimate. And, this is the first time I have ever bought a hobby box of a high-end product. I actually never even considered buying Topps Sterling or Triple Threads. When it comes to high end product, Upper Deck was clearly the better of the card companies.

I would like for MLB to explain how the million of fans who collect basecall cards won today. Do we get to see some of the money that was collected from Upper Deck in settlement? Does this mean that licenses will be cheaper so Topps could charge less on product?

I didn't really think so.

Despite certain practices Upper Deck employed over the years, I am definitely sad to see their current run of baseball cards come to an end.

I own three Derek Jeter autograph cards and can happily say they are from Upper Deck.

Make sure you get the last bit of Upper Deck you can.
2009 Star Signatures

2009 Ultimate Collection

2010 Upper Deck Series 1

My first video box break

OOOOOOOK

This is my first video box break. It was an interesting process.

It's a two-box break of 2009 Ultimate (received from Atlanta Sports Cards) and all of :45 seconds long because I showed just the cards and condensed the box break.

The music has nothing to do with anything. Just one of the few songs I have on this computer. 

Please be kind. This is the first video I've EVER created. EVER.




What is interesting about the jersey card was the way it was sealed in the pack. The card came in a penny sleeve because it also came with a separate card stating who was on it and its authenticity. However, the penny sleeve was stuck to the lining of the wrapper that was sealed by the machine.

There was no damage to the card, but I was slightly concerned about it when opening the pack.

Sunday Question

How do you think this is all going to end with Upper Deck?

Be as funny and creative as you want with these answers. But you can also be serious.

MLB v. UD

For those of you just getting to a computer today, Upper Deck a.k.a. the anti-card seems to be pissing off plenty of people in places they really don't want to. Chris Olds was the first to issue a statement from MLB Properties on the matter.

Click here to get an update on MLB v. UD

News from the Underground

(So, that was my Lion King reference)

There's a bunch of news relating to the hobby that has come out the last two days. In case you have missed any of it, here's recap:

- According to a few different sites such as this one and this one, the lawsuit brought by Konami against Upper Deck could be settled out of court after the first day of trial.

Then, this one says its already done. Either way, seems as though UD owes Konami a lot of dough. The terms of the settlement are confidential, but when UD starts putting out cards drawn by their kids, we can safely assume the end is near.

- eBay fees are changing. For high-end and mass quantity sellers, this doesn't seem to be working in your favor. The little sellers are getting the benefit.

Starting March 30, sellers who list their minimum bid for under $1 (you know, the .99 cent types) won't pay an insertion fee on the first 100 listings per month. Final value fees are going up to nine percent. Here's eBay's site on the news.

Good thing COMC moved to a bigger location.

- And, just in case you have been under a rock, UD is showing its hand a bit on how they will handle the 2010 products. Two 2009 products came out in the last two days with Ultimate and UD Signatures. While they are technically products, because they were released after the New Year, UD was supposed to follow the terms of the license agreement.

Well, so far, we have logos. But just hats.

As Dropped Third Strike says: They got some brass ones

Blowout forums user bluecloud2 has a four-box break of 2010  2009 Ultimate on the forum. The pictures are just of the hits, but it is interesting to see the cards.

Link here for the thread.

Now, technically I'm not sure if these are 2010 cards. They were released after the New Year, though, and I thought there was supposed to be a 2009 release (unless there was and I missed it). Some of the terms of licensing agreement are shady. So, if it says 2009, but released after Jan. 1, UD might not have any issues.

Either way, there are photos of a new product.

It's interesting to note there are no team names on the cards, just cities. There are no jersey logos to be seen as a whole. But you can see partial jersey pieces such as the Vlad patch card.

The only discernible logos that can be seen on the card are on the players' helmets.

If this is what we can expect from UD, I actually don't have a product. I don't notice what is missing from the card. These cards are very solid.

We'll see where we go from here.

I want a lawyer

There have been so many questions surrounding the fact that Upper Deck has yet to release images for any of its 2010 baseball products.

Lately, the popular theory is UD is not airbrushing out MLB logos and will go forward with the products.

I collect baseball cards and write about people playing sports for a living. I have no clue about logos and copyrights and licenses.

So, I want a lawyer - or someone who knows more than I do - to explain what will happen if Upper Deck releases its 2010 cards with MLB logos without a license. Fines? Suspensions? Lawsuits?

If MLB does sue Upper Deck - and these days, who isn't? - how can Upper Deck continue to operate as a business when a good chunk of its cash flow is being used in litigation.

Educate me, please.

More Jeter madness

When Derek Jeter became the all-time Yankees hit leader, I was thrilled. I couldn't have been happier being the big Jeter lover that I am. However, I understood why non-Yankee fans wouldn't care about the accomplishment.

I couldn't care less if someone broke a Chicago Cubs record or a Detroit Tigers record. So why should anyone other than Yankee fans care about Jeter breaking the franchise record.

Apparently, Upper Deck thinks everyone should care and created a card to commemorate the feat.



This card was inserted into random packs of 2009 Upper Deck Series 2 and is numbered to /500.

The official name of the card is 2009 Upper Deck All-Time Hit King #SP3.

As of Tuesday night, six cards show in the completed listings as being sold for an average $30.71. The price went as high as $40, but have seemingly dropped to under $25 more recently.

Like the other day with the goofy Jeter gimmick in the Heritage High Series, I'm just not a fan.

Upper Deck with the stranglehold

Upper Deck just announced on its Facebook page (at least that's where I read it) that they signed New York Yankees catcher Jorge Posada to an exclusive deal for memorabilia and autograph cards.

In the last week, UD signed Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte, already adding them to the stable of stars, including Derek Jeter.

Even though UD does not have an MLB license for next year, they are signing some of the biggest Yankees stars, which is a big deal. These four guys are the core for the current Yankees fans. They watched them (at least three of the four) win five World Series Championships.

Even middle-of-the-road guys like Pettitte and Posada aren't cheap when their cards come out.

UD isn't taking the no-license thingy lying down and I like it.

C'mon Upper Deck! Show MLB the huge mistake it made and how despite not having an MLB license, you're still going to create great cards.

I like Upper Deck. I like Topps.

But, what I really like is competition.

This is getting good.

How did this happen?

Since you all hate Derek Jeter, I am fairly sure that there are probably only 3 of us that have seen this card on eBay. For such an expensive (at least to me) product, I would like to think that the cards would be assembled correctly.

Check out this card.

Back later...

Great news for Rivera and Pettitte collectors

According to Upper Deck's news release, Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte will be signing for the 2010 baseball cards. This is huge for Upper Deck and Mariano/Andy fans because to my knowledge there are not many autographed cards of these guys floating around. By not many, I mean by comparison to most Yankees (Jeter, A-Rod, Teixeira, Cano, etc.)

To read the full new release click here.