45 Facts About Upper Deck

1.

Upper Deck is the current licensor of the O-Pee-Chee brand since 2007, having released several baseball and ice hockey card collections.

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2.

On December 23,1988, Upper Deck was granted a license by Major League Baseball to produce baseball cards, and just two months later, on February 23,1989, delivered its first two cases of baseball cards to George Moore of Tulsa's Baseball Card Store in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

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3.

Upper Deck sold out its baseball cards midway through this inaugural year, then pre-sold its entire 1990 baseball stock before the year began.

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4.

All Upper Deck brands bear an exclusive trademark hologram, and Upper Deck was named "Card Set of the Year" every year from 1989 to 2004.

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5.

Upper Deck worked in printing sales and came up with the idea for a premium card.

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6.

Upper Deck had studied holograms in college and had used them in printing his company's brochures.

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7.

Upper Deck hired Robert Young Pelton to design and produce a prototype.

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8.

On March 20,1990, The Upper Deck Company was granted licenses by the National Hockey League and National Hockey League Players Association to produce hockey cards.

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9.

Upper Deck obtained licenses from the National Football League and the National Basketball Association in 1990, making the Upper Deck Company the first trading card company in 10 years to be licensed by all four leagues.

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10.

Upper Deck established itself so quickly that it rivaled Topps, which had been considered the standard, and other companies such as Fleer, Donruss and Score.

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11.

Upper Deck had a slogan called “Trade Roy”, and it was posted on billboards throughout the city of Montreal.

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12.

Upper Deck was the first to insert swatches of game-used material into cards when it made jersey cards in 1997 UD Basketball.

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13.

In July 2005, Upper Deck won the liquidation auction of former competitor Fleer-SkyBox International's brand name, assets, and business model, as well as the Fleer collectibles die-cast business assets.

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14.

In March 2007, Upper Deck made an offer to buy competitor Topps, competing with Madison Dearborn Partners and Tornante Company, the eventual buyer.

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15.

In 2008, Upper Deck retired the green diamond logo and replaced it with a new design that it could better use to market all of its products.

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16.

Diamond Club members receive special promotional items, receive invitations to special events and are invited to an annual summit where they can share ideas with members of Upper Deck while participating in a special reception with one of the company's spokesmen.

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17.

Upper Deck would retain its rights to produce cards bearing player likenesses via its contract with the MLBPA but will be unable to use team logos or other trademarked images.

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18.

On September 29,2009, Upper Deck created the company's first-ever packs of Finnish- and Swedish-language Victory hockey cards to go on sale in those markets.

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19.

Upper Deck had previously produced the World of Warcraft trading card game.

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20.

Upper Deck will continue to focus on its exclusive license agreement with the Collegiate Licensing Company and co-exclusive agreements with NHL Enterprises and the NHL Players Association, as well as its multiple entertainment licenses.

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21.

Upper Deck was scheduled to pay Buice his millions over a four-year period, but due to the 1994 baseball strike, Upper Deck's business stalled.

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22.

At press time, Griffey had not yet played a major league game, so Upper Deck used an image of Griffey in a San Bernardino Spirit uniform.

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23.

Many Griffey cards were returned and the result was that Upper Deck printed many uncut sheets of just the Griffey card.

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24.

Upper Deck has changed its practice of using materials certified as "Worn" by the player depicted on the front of the card.

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25.

The changed wording on the backs of Upper Deck insert cards makes it less clear as to how the materials were used or what player wore the item.

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26.

Upper Deck's authenticity has been questioned in regards to players' jersey and uniform materials, but with no real founding.

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27.

The cards state that the inserted items are known to Upper Deck to have been used or worn, and authenticity is certified by third-party memorabilia vendors.

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28.

The card set was manufactured by Upper Deck and made its official debut by being inserted in random packs of Upper Deck's 2008 Series 1 Baseball.

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29.

Upper Deck started a website so that collectors could find out more about the Yankee Stadium Legacy set.

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30.

In observance of its 20th anniversary in 2009, Upper Deck released a set that can be found in all of the company's 2009 baseball trading card releases.

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31.

On January 10,2010, Judge Valerie Baker Fairbank ruled in a US District Court that Upper Deck had counterfeited the cards, and additionally threw out Upper Deck's countersuit alleging breach of the distribution agreement.

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32.

Upper Deck started producing racing cards in 1995, acquired the Maxx brand in December 1996 and discontinued the line in 2000.

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33.

Upper Deck became licensor of the O-Pee-Chee brand in 2007, after the original Canadian company was sold to Nestle in 1996.

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34.

Since Upper Deck succeeded Topps as licensor, it has released several collections up to the present day.

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35.

In 1991, Upper Deck introduced its products to the global marketplace with the creation of Upper Deck Europe, headquartered in the Netherlands.

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36.

Upper Deck International lost the Yu-Gi-Oh license as well in 2009.

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37.

Upper Deck Kids has message boards where kids can talk about sports, trade codes, gossip, etc.

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38.

Also, Upper Deck implemented a limit on how many invalid codes you can enter due to multiple hackers that wrote code-cracking programs to guess all the possible codes and take all the prizes for themselves.

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39.

Additionally, Upper Deck announced that children are no longer able to redeem Upper Deck product codes from 2006 for points on the kids' website to avoid "code sharing" amongst members.

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40.

Upper Deck has covered a wide range of sports through its trading cards collections, currently focusing on few of them.

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41.

Konami - After Upper Deck admitted to counterfeiting cards, the lawsuit was settled out of court.

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42.

MLB - filed a federal lawsuit in New York against Upper Deck, accusing the company of trademark infringement and illegally selling cards that feature official team logos and uniforms.

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43.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - Upper Deck used six photos of Abdul-Jabbar during his college years without permission.

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44.

American International Specialty Lines Insurance Company - This case arose out of an insurance policy that The Upper Deck Corporation, purchased from American International Specialty Lines Insurance Company.

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45.

Upper Deck then settled with the IRS for $80 million in back taxes and interest, and with the California Franchise Tax Board for $17 million in back taxes and interest.

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