RIP, Upper Deck?

MLB upper decks Upper Deck by signing an exclusive agreement with Topps as baseball card manufacturer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/sports/baseball/06cards.html

UD can still produce cards thanks to an agreement with the players union, but it can't use logos or picture the players in uniform.

Dave Jamieson, who is writing a baseball card book, says bad idea:

http://www.slate.com/id/2224864/

Of interest to me -- Donruss lost its license agreement in 2005. I had no idea.

 

Umm...

Fail!

 

$1.25 for a pack including only 8 cards when I was a kid.

Fuck Upper Deck.

 

Upper Deck's going to be fine. And this news is a week old.

 

Upper Deck, for as pretty as the cards were, symbolized (and in many cases as a pioneer of) everything that was wrong with trading cards over the past 20 years.
Expensive packs that priced out kids?
Check.
Memorabilia cards that cheapened sports history and made a joke of the hobby?
Check.
Incredibly high numbers of cards that were produced, further degrading whatever value the cards had?
Check.
Karma's a bitch, Upper Deck.

 

if no one ever gets upper decked again, the world will be worse off.

 

A set like that could make me collect again.

 

Probably means that no one cares about baseball cards anymore.

 

Baseball cards had a tangible value back in the 60s and 70s to kids. Games on TV were fewer than games not on TV. Outlets to see pictures of your favorite players and favorite team were far fewer. Now, all a kid has to do is flip the switch on his personal laptop or turn on the TV to either ESPN or MLB.

I'm not saying that things are better now, either. I think it was a lot cooler as a kid when seeing a highlight or a picture of your favorite player was special, rather than ho-hum.

 

Cards also had a tangible value when you didn't have anywhere to find stats from previous years.

Unless you were lucky enough to get a Baseball Encyclopedia for Christmas (and wore out the pages so fast that you begged your parents to get you another one the next year. Not that that ever happened.)

 

Mamaweaver: Buck, what are you doing in there? You've been in the bathroom for 45 minutes! Are you OK?
Youngbuckweaver: I'm fine ma. Just looking at my Baseball Encyclopedia. Hmmm...the pages on the 1919 White Sox seem to be stuck together...

 

Word for fucking word. Nobody ever understood why I hated Upper Deck. They ruined the hobby and I never thought the cards were all that good-looking anyway. Great post.