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The Rise And Fall Of Upper Deck

Hockey In Context

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In the early 1990s, Upper Deck was the best known sports card company in the world. Upper Deck had such a powerful presence in the market that it seemed that nobody could ever take them down. And yet today Upper Deck only has a license with the NHL. So what happened? Here's a close look at how Upper Deck rose to prominence and how it fell.

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20 Comments

@Barrett619 1 month ago

I miss upper deck baseball. I wish it would go back to the way it was and multiple companies get licenses

@Cynical_FC 1 month ago

GREAT VIDEO

Being french canadian myself, I remember how weird it was that nobody wanted the french cards when I was younger.

@ashermccready 1 month ago

An important correction, Konami only contracted UDE for distribution, they never had a license to create ANYTHING, nevermind cards

@cockroachdeloach5093 1 month ago

SP Authentic was so sick. Miss those boxes .

@yohoyoho13 1 month ago

UD made so many 89 Baseball factory sets, there will be fresh Ken Griffey Jr. rookies for generations. The guy who owned my local card shop had a whole storage locker full of 89 Factory sets, and he was a small time operator. I would be surprised if the bigger guys didn't have way more.

@highscores8593 1 month ago

I'm pretty happy with my Upper Deck 25/26 Extended Series Hockey cards. There's actually some action shots.

@2001mark 1 month ago

That suit screams 'I'm late to get in the car for something' or 'I jussst got home & don't care about changing'

@Palteos 10 days ago

The shenanigans from the Yugioh incident were crazy. The court filings from Upper Deck were unhinged to say the least as they tried to fight the inevitable. Some of the decisions they made seems like they were trying to go scorched earth and in the end they even ended up killing their parent company, Upper Deck International. Somehow they still survived the whole ordeal.

@Mr.LUEshi 1 month ago

Wasn't aware of your soccer channel but I'm an avid watcher of every channel... Thanks for doing this mutli channel video! Usually your other channels popped up in my algorithm eventually but not FMProjects!

@TeamRocketHQR 1 month ago

4k video!!! Looks really good!

@thecatwrangler9448 1 month ago

Awesome!! I’ve been waiting on this video, thank you man. I’m so glad someone is covering this topic, I expected a TCG channel to cover it but I’m just as happy to see a sports channel cover it as I grew up collecting both UD baseball and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards

@TeddysBallgame 1 month ago

Great piece, you are an important voice on historical hobby trends

@confluence_sportscards 1 month ago

I really enjoyed this episode lots of great information. I also really enjoyed the deep dive you did on the rise and fall of pro set.

@davescardsandmore 1 month ago

It’s hockey is so popular fanatics can’t even purchase it

@gatesopenmedia 1 month ago

I have a lot of upper deck cards period. Baseball, football, basketball and a few hockey

@baltimoremilk2541 1 month ago

Youtube put you on my recommendations for the first time so it might be working. Great video. Love the suit btw

@DavidWsTrainVideos 1 month ago

I think the worst thing about modern upper deck is that they are also speculatively pricing the cards before they are released. Look at 2023-24 Series 2 with Bedard. A usual $100 box was going for $300 on release day. Same thing happened every year since.

@danielbasso586 1 month ago (edited)

I remember buying the 'short print" French UD from Smokey's in Vegas......crazy stupid prices but could still flog it at card shows. I remember at one card show, someone stole a box of commons, and I just thought, 'one less thing to carry back to the car'

@philippemarois5828 1 month ago (edited)

I really enjoy your deep dive videos on the history of the hobby! I agree with you on many annoying aspects of today’s modern card sets - especially what’s happening with the base cards, but I think you are wrong on everything bad after early 90s UD hockey sets. I really enjoy building HOF on cards autographs sets included in some of the best sets that exist today. For example. I built the entire 300 autograph set Private Signing from Panini hockey that came out in 2010-11 that features a ton of the greatest players of the game. Autograph cards can be enjoyable to collect but I agree with you that many high end boxes today are nothing more than spinning the wheels at a casino table! Keep up the good work 🤟🏼👊🏻