Breaking: NHL, NHLPA Announce Extension of Upper Deck Exclusive

[RGM81]

NHLPA Here: https://www.nhlpa.com/news/1-16362/n...ith-upper-deck

Beckett Here: https://www.beckett.com/news/nhl-nhl...th-upper-deck/

Jason Masherah, President of Upper Deck, said, “The renewal of the exclusive agreements between Upper Deck, the NHLPA and the NHL is a tribute to the success of a partnership that dates back to 1990 and continues to grow in North America and around the world.”Upper Deck also announced an agreement with the NHL Alumni Association, giving them access to hundreds of retired players.

[Stryfex]

Hah i just came here to post this - and express my explicit disappointment :(

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[30ranfordfan]

Doesn't say how long this runs for, but I'm assuming another 4 or 5 years? Too bad. I thought there was a real chance that Topps would get brought back, and challenge UD to do better (while making nice stuff themsevles).

I laugh at this comment in the release:

“Upper Deck has continually delivered top-notch, innovative products that emotionally connect fans of all ages worldwide to their favorite teams and players. We look forward to collaborating with Upper Deck to ensure that the next generation of fans can enjoy this time-honored tradition.”

I will give Upper Deck a lot of props for ePack (it has a lots of 'cons', but I think it is an innovative platform for selling cards) but I can't think of a single product they've made during this recent exclusive that I would describe as top-notch AND innovative.

Quite the contrary: The few releases they make a year, that I would actually call "top notch", are not innovative in the slightest. For the most part, they just rehash the same tiered subsets year-over-year, and increase the amount of rookie content, diluting the value of a box even more.

They have made some products that I would describe as "innovative" (Synergy, Compendium, even Full Force all come to mind as actual new ideas for UD) I just wouldn't call any of them "top notch".

Oh well. Not like I miss actually breaking wax.

[RGM81]

I'd heard a couple things here and there that this was coming so I wasn't totally surprised by it.

The key thing for all of this was continuity--the PA likes the UD line, and with the industry trend towards exclusives, there were really only a couple of options: another UD exclusive, or a split license involving Panini or Topps. Reportedly the other two companies weren't interested in sharing, so that further whittles it down to the point that an extension was really the only logical conclusion to all of this.

So what's coming down the pipeline? Difficult to say. As Sean astutely pointed out, UD is best at doing what they've been doing for a long time. When they try something new, which people clamour for, it ends up not going forward because of lower sales. 2015-16 introduced Portfolio, Full Force, and Contours...none of which were ever seen again. 2017-18 had Splendor, and while it has some amazing cards, there's not *too much* in there that's really new and unique from what you can get in other products that cost much less money. There's little incentive to spend $300 to end up getting a Carey Price auto-pad /15 that sells for $150 when many other products have Carey Price auto-memorabilia cards. It's difficult to do true innovation with cardboard because eventually it's not cardboard anymore.

[Stryfex]

I'd heard a couple things here and there that this was coming so I wasn't totally surprised by it.

The key thing for all of this was continuity--the PA likes the UD line, and with the industry trend towards exclusives, there were really only a couple of options: another UD exclusive, or a split license involving Panini or Topps. Reportedly the other two companies weren't interested in sharing, so that further whittles it down to the point that an extension was really the only logical conclusion to all of this.

So what's coming down the pipeline? Difficult to say. As Sean astutely pointed out, UD is best at doing what they've been doing for a long time. When they try something new, which people clamour for, it ends up not going forward because of lower sales. 2015-16 introduced Portfolio, Full Force, and Contours...none of which were ever seen again. 2017-18 had Splendor, and while it has some amazing cards, there's not *too much* in there that's really new and unique from what you can get in other products that cost much less money. There's little incentive to spend $300 to end up getting a Carey Price auto-pad /15 that sells for $150 when many other products have Carey Price auto-memorabilia cards. It's difficult to do true innovation with cardboard because eventually it's not cardboard anymore.

there were so many factors at play with those products to make them fail, it could be a whole separate thread - actually it should be...that would be a great thread!!

Contours was a product that was WAY too expensive for what was being pulled in a box - even when it eventually went onto firesale prices at 1/4 of original cost people felt it was too expensive

Full Force was a product that was appealing to kids - it might have been successful if it was at MVP price point and was marketed to kids - like tim hortons

Portfolio was neat - I feel like that one was mostly a victim of the environment (too much product flooding the market during mcdavid fever season). The product was actually fairly innovative and cool - but it just didn't have that "find the hot mcdavid rookie card and bank big money" allure

[apod417]

While it would have been great to see, UD, Panini, Topps and Leaf share a license or even just one extra of them , I honestly think this is probably in the best interest of the players when the NHLPA discusses these things, could you imagine signing cards for all these companies. You think the redemptions are bad with UD, but remember we just started getting redemptions back from panini last year that where from 13/14 and older, how bad would it be again with multiple companies in the mix.

I just hope UD starts getting better at trying new things and really stepping it up. Some new announced products at CDD were Clearcut (could be a great one or not), Chronology Vol 1.(Retired players only, kind of excited to see this one) and engrained (people talking about this one on twitter today about the memorabilia and designs, the product name itself has my imagination running).

Would love to see them pick up a NCAA or USA Hockey license and continue with the small prospect sets like AHL, CHL and Team Canada Juniors.

[sparty07]

A few replies:

RGM - I think UD made one of the best innovations when it comes to jersey cards of any product/sport in their Frameworks subset. Those are very nicely designed jersey cards, and they kept them decently short printed to keep from flooding the market. I would love to see an autographed version of the frameworks.

RGM - Billy from UD was breaking with people at CDD and he mentioned that Splendor was not a repeat product due to the quality of the memorabilia used and they will need to replenish their stock before releasing another edition of it.

Stryfex - Portfolio is one of my favorite products of 15/16 for a few reasons. It was cool to have a chance at McDavid and Matthews/Laine with the XRC redemptions. The pictures on the card were great. Cheap price, especially now.

Apod - I think Panini owns the NCAA license (whether that includes hockey is a different story that I don't know the answer to), and I would love to see college hockey cards as a MSU collector.

[RGM81]

@sparty07 Totally agree with you about the Frameworks jerseys. Absolutely love them and have made a point of getting one of all the Habs guys...including Domi in his old Arizona uni.

[creasecollector]

Sad to see. I wish Topps or Leaf could share the licence with UD. Giving the collectors out there more options (and give card companies more competition) is good for the hobby.

[odjickfan]

there were so many factors at play with those products to make them fail, it could be a whole separate thread - actually it should be...that would be a great thread!!

Contours was a product that was WAY too expensive for what was being pulled in a box - even when it eventually went onto firesale prices at 1/4 of original cost people felt it was too expensive

Full Force was a product that was appealing to kids - it might have been successful if it was at MVP price point and was marketed to kids - like tim hortons

Portfolio was neat - I feel like that one was mostly a victim of the environment (too much product flooding the market during mcdavid fever season). The product was actually fairly innovative and cool - but it just didn't have that "find the hot mcdavid rookie card and bank big money" allure

Contours at 60CAD was a decent value. The hard-signed jersey RCs /199 are overlooked and there some cool looking cards in that collection.