(colloquially as '''"Upper Deck,"''' '''Upper Deck Authenticated, Ltd.''' in the UK), founded in
1988 , is a company primarily known for producing
Trading Cards . It is a
Private Company . The company has exclusive agreements to produce memorabilia with such sports superstars as
Michael Jordan (who is also on the board of directors),
Kobe Bryant ,
Tiger Woods , and
Ken Griffey Jr .
On
December 23 , 1988, Upper Deck was granted a license by
Major League Baseball to produce baseball cards. The first case of Upper Deck Baseball Cards was delivered
February 28 ,
1989 , to George Moore of Tulsa's Baseball Card Store in
Tulsa, OK . The Upper Deck Company sold out its baseball cards midway through this inaugural year, then pre-sold its entire
1990 baseball stock before the year began. The 1990 set included the industry's first randomly inserted personally autographed and numbered cards of sports superstars.
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. The company also 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. In
1995 , the company produced its first racing product. In
1996 , it expanded its racing line when it absorbed
Maxx . Upper Deck was also the first to insert swatches of Game-Used material into cards when it made jersey cards in 1996 UD Football. The insert set was called Game Jersey and a similar set followed in baseball the next year, where UD cut up Game Used Jerseys of
Ken Griffey Jr. ,
Tony Gwynn and
Rey Ordonez .
In
July 2005 Upper Deck won the liquidation auction of former competitor
Fleer -
SkyBox International 's brand name, assets and model business as well as the
Fleer Collectibles Die-cast business assets.
Since its earliest days, Upper Deck has gained a reputation for quality made trading cards and also as an innovator of security measures to prevent
Counterfeiting of its products.
Upper Deck premiered its basketball Exquisite Collection product in the 2003-2004 season. Each pack contained five basketball cards; one veteran base card numbered to 225, one autographed rookie card featuring a piece of patch worn by the player numbered to 99 or 225, one game worn jersey card, one autographed/patch insert card, and a fifth card that was either a low numbered parallel or an additional autographed patch card. Ssuggested retail price of the product was $500 US, making it the most expensive basketball card product ever produced at the time. (The few packs that remain unopened now sell for over $1000. Autograph cards included veterans such as Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Garnett and rookies such as Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, and Carmelo Anthony. The most sought after cards from the product include the autographed/patch rookie cards numbered to 99 (Lebron James, Darko Milicic, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, and Udonis Haslem), the Limited Logos inserts which feature an extra large patch piece and autograph, and the autographed/patch rookie parallels serial numbered to the player's jersey number.
In view of the series' success, the company has released a 2004-05 basketball set and a 2005 football product.
The company's division, Upper Deck Entertainment, produces cards from the '' series. It has also released many non-game oriented sports-based and multimedia companion trading card sets.
Upper Deck recently announced a
World Of Warcraft TCG, based on the popular
MMORPG .
