Slightly OT/Big Lead Story About Upper Deck

[Rich Klein]

I know this should belong in the modern card section; but since many of us collected Upper Deck cards in earlier years I posted this one here. Presented without comment, although many of these comments have been written in other hobby sources.

http://www.thebiglead.com/index.php/...of-upper-deck/

Regards
Rich

[ScottFandango]

I like many here apparently, are products of the 80's collecting boom (84 mattingly donruss anyone)

I still have thousands and thousands of 1987 Topps sitting in boxes, unable to part with them....

I think UD made it for one main reason....they choose the right player to be the #1 card in their inaugural set.....a smiling ken Griffey jr that ushered in the new powerhouse...UD

There is no mention when they jumped the shark: the 2004 leaf exhibit set with the dizzying array of serial numbered short prints for the entire set...EVERY CARD WAS SERIAL NUMBERED UNDER /100....that is when MLB set their sites on revoking their license ...

[Rich Klein]

Donruss -- now Panini did that Leaf set you mentioned. UD had nothing to do with that product.

Rich

[ibuysportsephemera]

If you want more on the story...the book Card Sharks by Pete Williams is pretty good.

[slidekellyslide]

Thanks for the link...I had never heard of Upper Deck counterfeiting their own cards...I also had no idea that McWilliam had died this year. Very interesting read.

[Jay Wolt]

Eventually something caught up with him. McWilliam, 59, was found dead at his $3.7 million Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., mansion on January 5 of this year. The medical examiner noted that he had been “vomiting for for the past few days and was binge drinking

Rich thanks for posting this.
I didn't know McWilliam had died this year.
As stated earlier Card Sharks was an eye opening book about the greed of Upper Deck.
It was a shocking book at the time.

[MVSNYC]

Very interesting read...just to clarify, what exactly did they counterfeit? was it real product, but they just made more than advertised (on the limited releases), or they literally forged cards? didn't fully understand that.

[ScottFandango]

Originally Posted by MVSNYC

Very interesting read...just to clarify, what exactly did they counterfeit? was it real product, but they just made more than advertised (on the limited releases), or they literally forged cards? didn't fully understand that.

Rich, it was donruss, you are right....see how confusing it was!!! Ha

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by MVSNYC

Very interesting read...just to clarify, what exactly did they counterfeit? was it real product, but they just made more than advertised (on the limited releases), or they literally forged cards? didn't fully understand that.

I think in essence they made more then advertised. I remember that French Hockey, we were going crazy for it up here in the Northeast for awhile. Boy, did it crash and burn hard. I wouldn't be surprised if they made even more then what was stated in the article.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by MVSNYC

Very interesting read...just to clarify, what exactly did they counterfeit? was it real product, but they just made more than advertised (on the limited releases), or they literally forged cards? didn't fully understand that.

They did it twice, or at least that's how many times they got caught.

The first was canadian hockey- limited run, for a limited market. But then packs started showing up with a different assortment of cards. 620 original cases, 900+ cases printed for company insiders.

Then in 2007-8 "fake" rare yugio cards were turning up in retail boxes made by Treat. Looking into it Treat said they got them all through manufacturers, not from dealers. Which led directly back to UD. UD finally admitted reprinting heir own stuff to sell to Treat.

Both were mentioned in the article.

I suspect there were a few other instances. We'll probably never know for sure.

I always laugh when I hear the old "unlicensed cards are worthless because they can be reprinted at any time". Right, because a license is what makes it something that can't be reprinted Proven false, but still believed.

More interesting is the production number for -if I'm reading it right - 1990 of 3 Billion baseball cards. That makes for 3.75 Million of each.

Steve B