Each month the company assigns members of the group a mission to accomplish and rewards individuals based on the quality of their efforts. Last month Upper Deck assigned members of the Volunteer Alliance to help promote their local hobby shops. Members helped shops create Facebook pages for their businesses, recorded YouTube commercials for shops and even volunteered to help out in the stores. This month the mission is to share the fun of collecting with people who do not currently collect or who used to collect.

“Word-of-mouth advertising is the most powerful form of advertising in the world so it is pretty awesome to have a group of hundreds of brand advocates in our Volunteer Alliance sharing their love of the hobby with others,” said Upper Deck’s Sports Marketing & Social Media Manager Chris Carlin. “Some will donate cards to children’s hospitals or Boys & Girls clubs while others may create an online community mentoring new collectors. Members of the Upper Deck Volunteer Alliance are very creative, so we are interested to see what they come up with and we are prepared to reward them for how inspired they get.”

It is free to become a member of the Upper Deck Volunteer Alliance. Fans simply need to have an online account with Upper Deck and e-mail the company at UpperDeckMarketing@upperdeck.com with the following information:

Upper Deck Online Account Username
Name
Email Address
Favorite Sports

Members have until Friday, September 17, to share with Upper Deck how they showed others the fun of collecting sports cards and memorabilia. Not a member of the Upper Deck Volunteer Alliance yet? Join today!

The biggest rumor, and what we may hear more about in the upcoming days is that Topps will be back in the NFL game soon. With Upper Deck losing their NFL deal, it’s either someone steps up to fill the void, or Panini has the exclusive. The NFL did not seem to one a sport card monopoly originally, or they would have given Panini it when they resigned with Upper Deck originially. This story should be developing shorty, and could be big news in the Sports Card industry.

Upper Deck Settles Lawsuit with Major League Baseball

Sports card leader can continue selling recently released baseball products as part of the mutually agreed-upon settlement

Carlsbad, CA (March 3, 2010) – Today, the Upper Deck Company is pleased to announce that Upper Deck and Major League Baseball have mutually agreed to settle the lawsuit brought by Major League Baseball against Upper Deck. Per the terms of the settlement agreement, Upper Deck has agreed not to use MLB trademarks including team names and/or logos on its trading cards going forward. However, as part of the settlement, Upper Deck can and will continue to sell three recently released baseball products currently on store shelves: 2009 Signature Stars, 2009 Ultimate Collection and 2010 Upper Deck Series One.

“Upper Deck is pleased with the settlement including the amount the company paid as it relates to the trading cards released in 2010,” said Jason Masherah, Upper Deck’s director of Sports Brands. “As a company, we are changing the direction of Upper Deck’s baseball products going forward. We are looking forward to creating fresh and innovative set content that will continue to get collectors excited.”

Since its inception in 1989, Upper Deck has been the market leader for both its ability to create top-quality, super-premium products and for developing innovative programs that promoted baseball cards to kids.

“Great cards of great players have always been the cornerstone of Upper Deck products,” added Upper Deck Founder and CEO Richard McWilliam. “We’ll just have to see how innovative and creative we can become now.”

Honoring the start of the upcoming baseball season, Upper Deck will distribute FREE packs of baseball cards to fans around the country

Carlsbad, CA (January 19, 2010) – The Upper Deck Company is extremely excited to get the ball rolling with its recently inked partnership with the Major League Baseball Players Association to launch the first-of-its-kind “National Packtime” sampling promotion on Saturday, March 6. The one-day campaign is a special event that will provide fans with free packs of Upper Deck baseball cards. Exclusive packs of National Packtime baseball cards will be distributed via Upper Deck’s network of baseball card specialty shops. Any shop owners interested in participating should contact one of the authorized Upper Deck distributors listed below for more information on how to obtain their bundles of packs for the one-day giveaway.

“During these difficult economic times, we want to remind fans of the joy that comes with opening up their first pack of baseball cards, whether it was 10, 20 or 30 years ago,” said Chris Carlin, Upper Deck’s sports marketing manager. “We also want to share that fun with kids everywhere many of whom haven’t had the chance to experience the thrill of finding a cherished rookie card, or a card of their favorite star player. It’s a very cool, very unique experience that can’t be matched.”

The 10-card packs, produced exclusively for National Packtime, will feature the biggest superstars including Derek Jeter, David Ortiz and Albert Pujols, as well as a mix of other current standouts and rising stars. Key rookies include San Francisco’s future catching sensation Buster Posey alongside future ace Madison Bumgarner and Chicago’s Southside young slugger Tyler Flowers. All three of these prospects are rated by Baseball America at or near the top of their organizational prospect charts and have significant upside as impact players. What’s more, there is a very rare Derek Jeter “Career Commemorative” card issued as a chase element celebrating his 15 seasons in the Bronx. Although Upper Deck is not releasing print run info, suffice it to say that if collectors find this card in a pack, they will have beaten some very long odds.

Earlier this month, at a special hobby summit sponsored by Upper Deck that was held in conjunction with the annual Major League Baseball Players Trust golf tournament at Torrey Pines in San Diego, Upper Deck staff was able to corral several baseball standouts to take part in a special video touting the National Packtime event. Eddie Murray, Tim Salmon, Kenny Lofton, Reggie Sanders and Eddie Guardado all participated. Click on this link to see how they handled the pressure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrWdCuWKieg.

“I was just part of Upper Deck’s hobby summit, and the very first thing my customers asked me when I returned was whether or not there was going to a National Baseball Card Day this year,” said Dan Fox, owner of Fox Sports Cards in Marion, Illinois. “I told them, ‘Well, yes and no.’ I told them that there isn’t a designated National Baseball Card Day, but that Upper Deck – with its partnership with the Major League Baseball Players Association – is sponsoring an event called ‘National Packtime.’

“And let me be the first to say that events like this have been outrageously successful for us. We have collectors show up at our store that we haven’t seen in years. It reinvigorates their card-collecting pursuits. Does it make a difference in sales? Oh my gosh, yes. We’ll easily have another 100 customers show up that day. If you give people a reason to come down to your store, they’ll come down. So an event like National Packtime is a welcomed addition to this hobby.”

All hobby shop owners in the United States are encouraged to participate in Upper Deck’s 2010 National Packtime event. Packs are and will sell out so get your orders in today to partake. Direct Accounts can now order their packs online at www.upperdeckb2b.com. H

Sports Card Company Firmly Denies Topps’ Allegations of Any Wrong-Doing

North Las Vegas, NV (April 15, 2009) – The Upper Deck Company won a legal victory today when a New York judge denied a Temporary Restraining Order sought by Topps to prevent the release of 2009 Upper Deck Series Two and 2009 O-Pee-Chee baseball card products.

Yesterday, the Topps Company filed a lawsuit against Upper Deck claiming copyright infringement. Upper Deck strongly denies the allegations and did, in fact, do its due diligence when researching, clearing and securing approvals to use the card designs. Upper Deck received necessary legal approvals and proper protocol was followed to ensure there were no infringements.

“Based on the tactics utilized by Topps thus far, Upper Deck questions the validity of this claim,” said Bernd Becker, Upper Deck’s vice president of Trading Cards. “We strongly disagree with the allegations. In today’s challenging economic environment, it seems petty and counterproductive to file such a frivolous suit.”

Here is the AP story from Yahoo.com here is the meat of the story though.

In its lawsuit, Topps described how it believes Upper Deck mimicked its design with just a few variations.

It said similarities between each company’s cards included the use of a colorful, divided two-tone border, the player’s photograph superimposed on a thin white border, the player’s autograph toward the bottom of the picture and the use of an image of a baseball on a bottom corner of the card.

Topps said its competitor’s cards will confuse or deceive customers because each of the Upper Deck designs are nearly identical to the Topps cards.

Topps asked that Upper Deck be ordered to destroy the cards and turn over any profits, along with other unspecified monetary damages.

According to Upper Deck, Woods signed cards with brown-, purple-, blue- and black-ink backs. The cards were inserted as redemptions. This already was one of the highest anticipated cards in the product already and there being different variations will raise the demand even more.

Upper Deck is the Exclusive Home of ‘King James’

LeBron supplies rare autograph cards with inscriptions to the leader in sports trading cards

North Las Vegas, NV (March 23, 2009) – Last August he helped lead the U.S.A. Olympic “Redeem Team” to gold in Beijing. Currently he’s leading his Cavaliers team to the best record in the NBA. LeBron “King” James has lived up to the hype and then some. Upper Deck is pleased to help bring collectors even closer to the “Chosen One” with new autograph trading cards of LeBron that include some unique inscriptions.

Fans of LeBron can find autograph cards of the NBA superstar exclusively in Upper Deck’s new 2008-09 NBA UD Black (releasing April 14), 2008-09 NBA Radiance (releasing April 29) and 2008-09 NBA Ultimate Collection (releasing May 12) trading card lines. Some versions of these cards will have rare inscriptions from LeBron like “08 USA Gold,” “08 Redeem Team,” and “King James.”

“To pull an autograph card of LeBron James from a pack is pretty awesome, but to find one with a special inscription is a much bigger deal,” said Chris Carlin, Upper Deck’s hobby marketing manager. “These types of cards definitely carry a premium in the secondary card market. Inscriptions are a great way to help personalize the trading card experience and help to bring collectors closer to their heroes. Upper Deck is proud to be the exclusive home for autograph cards of LeBron and many other stars of the hardwood including Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan.”

Upper Deck Finishes Shipping All ‘Mystery Cut’ Autograph Cards

Authentic autograph cards from famous deceased personalities have become favorites with collectors.

North Las Vegas, NV (March 10, 2009) – One of Upper Deck’s most popular products of the year is SP Legendary Cuts Baseball. Collectors fell in love with the concept of pulling “cut” autograph cards from deceased Hall-of-Famers and baseball legends when the set debuted in 2001. Upper Deck added in additional chase cards with “Mystery Cuts” autograph exchange inserts for deceased personalities outside the world of baseball and that element has been met with tremendous excitement by collectors. With autograph cards from Hollywood celebrities, U.S. presidents and other historical personalities, it’s easy to see why.

For collectors, the program can be very exciting as they register their “Mystery Cuts” exchange cards with Upper Deck and then are shipped the cards randomly. Tracking down some of these rare signatures and having them authenticated takes a little time so Upper Deck sent these cards out to collectors in two waves, the first in November 2008 and the second just recently in February.

“When you have names like Thomas Edison, James Monroe and John Quincy Adams, it’s easy to understand why collectors get so excited to receive their ‘Mystery Cuts’ cards,” said Bernd Becker, Upper Deck’s vice president of Sports and Entertainment. “We source for the autographs through reputable and approved vendors. Upon receipt, we send the autographs out again to another third party for additional review and authentication. Some would call it overkill, but these are special cards and it’s important for collectors to know that Upper Deck takes the appropriate steps to confirm the authenticity of the autographs.”

Several of the “Mystery Cuts” have been creating a lot of interest in online auctions. One that has been drawing significant attentions is a “Mystery Cuts” card of Napoleon Bonaparte. This rare card is limited to only two copies and it includes a signature of the famous French military leader. The auction can be reviewed here: http://cgi.ebay.com/2008-Legendary-Mystery-Cuts-NAPOLEON-BONAPARTE-2-2-AUTO_W0QQitemZ260372440866QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_SM_Sports_Cards?hash=item260372440866&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A3%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1309