RIP Richard McWilliam - UD Founder

Just got this in the email from UD:

As you probably have learned by now, Richard McWilliam passed away unexpectedly over the weekend at his home in the San Diego area. We are heartbroken today, and everyone at Upper Deck has joined together to remember Richard, honor his work, and support his wife and their three children.

I want to assure you that while his departure is a hard emotional blow, it will not affect Upper Deck’s ability to fulfill the commitments and obligations we have made with our business partners.

For the last year, Jason Masherah has been carrying the title of Vice President Marketing and Business Development, while also overseeing day to day operations. With Richard’s passing, the company has formalized Jason’s role and named him President. The company will carry forward Richard’s vision, and we intend to continue to introduce innovating and exciting products that will reinforce Upper Deck’s position as the leader of our industry.

We appreciate your expressions of support and condolence, and look forward to working with you. We're available to you for any questions or thoughts you may have.

Sincerely,

Chris Carlin

Sports Marketing & Social Media Manager

Whatever you might think of Upper Deck's current configuration as a company, you cannot deny their impact on our hobby. The first >$1.00 pack of cards, the first major insertion of certified autographs, the first jersey cards, the list of firsts from UD goes on and on, and while they're no longer a major player in the sports game, lacking licenses for everything except the NHL, they're still producing great cards.

It's sad when anyone passes away, more so when that person is an industry leader and visionary. My condolences to his family and all the folks at UD.

Off Topic: Curiosity - "What's Inside the Cube"

I downloaded Curiosity a couple of days ago, and after a couple of days of not being able to join, I've been playing it, fairly regularly for a couple of days. I think I'll end up playing on it a lot. Why? Because I'm interested in the entire social experiment that's happening here. At it's heart the app is a game. A really lame game actually. The premise is simply this, there is a huge cube in a room, and you have to get to the middle of it by chipping off it's layers one cubelet at a time. There are MILLIONS of cubelets in each layer, however, there are also almost a million players chipping off cubelets all at the same time. At the heart of the cube is something wonderful says the creator Peter Molyneux a quite famous and wealthy game designer. And only one person gets to see what it is. I don't expect to be that person. As I mentioned there's almost a million other players, that's based on a recent interview which stated that the app has been downloaded 900,000 times already. I suspect as the cube gets closer and closer to being completed the number of downloads will go up. I'm curious to see what's inside, I'm curious to see how the different images and texts on the different layers tie into the endgame. And I'm curious to see what the outcome is going to be. I guess I'm just curious. You can be too, it's free in the App Store.

Election Day

Duke Voted, Why Haven't You?

Mars Attacks Topps Heritage!

I will absolutely and totally admit to being a sucker for Nostalgia. In particular I absolutely adore the Mars Attacks property, originally a trading card set in 1962 illustrated primarily by Wally Wood and others. Most people only know it at a movie, but it's so much more than that. Topps tried an ill-fated comic book line in the mid-90s, Mars Attacks was one of their flagship titles. I think I MAY still have them in storage, at least I hope I do.

It's been 50 years since that original card set was released, and despite it being reprinted at least three other times, it's being done again, Heritage style, which means same printing process, same old cardboard, same old packaging with some new-age inserts and bonuses. Bonuses like sketch cards, printing plates and the requisite limited-edition parallels.

I've been collecting the set for awhile, piecing it together pack by pack at $2.09 plus tax (Target, thanks) for 6 cards has been tough, as Topps notorious penchant for cruddy distribution continues apace with it's lack of imagination when it comes to parallels.

Sell Sheets

The set breaks down like this:
55 Standard Cards - reprinting the original set.
10 "Deleted Scenes" - seeded 1 per pack
15 "New Universe" - seeded 1 per pack
5 Lenticular 3D cards (1:8)

1/1 Sketch Cards -
1:24 Hobby
1:96 Retail

Parallels:
1:3 - Puke Green
1:24 - Silver
1 per case - Gold Parallel (Hobby only)
220 total printing plates (4x each card)
550 (10 total per card) foil autograph by Len Brown

I have purchased a total of 23 individual retail packs. I know this because I have exactly 23 New Universe and 23 Deleted Scenes Cards. I have pulled 6 Green Parallels and 1 silver. I've also pulled 2 lenticular cards. AND, the grand-poo-bah, a sketch which I just pulled today. Ready? Here it is:

I DO believe that it's a Dan Brereton - which if it indeed is, would be a coup-and-a-half since he's one of my favorite comic artists. His series "Nocturnals" is monster-mayhem on a grand scale. I also adore his "Giantkiller" series from DC from a few years ago. Now I'm not 100% sure it's a Brereton, so I'm kind of posting here to see if anyone actually recognizes the signature.

As to my set collection, well the good news is I have a complete 10 card Deleted Scenes set.

That's it. For my personal set I'm missing the following:
2
12
16
19
20
23
24
25
31
33
36
44
47
51

and the New Universe: 7, 11

Lenticular 2, 3 & 4

I have the following doubles for trade:
3
5x4
6
10
11x2
13x2
14x2
17x2
21x2
22x4
28x4
29
30x2
35
38x4
42
46x2
48
49x2
50
53

Deleted Scenes:
1
2
3
4x3
5x2
7x2
8x2
9

New Universe:
2
5
9x2
10
12
13x2
14
15

I am totally willing to trade my parallels, but only for the Lenticular Cards or a Sketch if you want to part with yours.

Green (3x per 1x Lenticular) 3, 8, 15, 29, 49, 53

Silver (Straight up 1:1 for a Lenticular) 46

Trade Rules: I live in So. Cal. I'm willing to trade to Canada, but that's about it for over-seas. Sorry UK. Unless you can supply all my needs. Then we'll talk.

On commons I'll do my 2 for your 1.

We should ship at the same time.

If you're interested in trading, please send me email to wmnoe@yahoo.com.

Upper Deck History of the United States Set BARGAIN

I was perusing my local Target looking at the cards section when I spied something I had never seen, the 2004 Upper Deck History of the United States card set on sale for a relatively low $9.99, so I bought it. Now, I was out of the card collecting game in 2004, working on my undergrad degree at UCLA, so I had no idea this set even existed, and I'm kind of glad I didn't find it until now. When they designed that set they thought it might be nicer to not number it #1-300, rather each individual sub-set is separately numbered. To make matters worse there are several insert sets, including the extremely hard to find "coin" cards. None of these chase cards are included in the factory set.

Once you unwrap the plastic you find that the set isn't collated, so you have a bit of fun ahead of you. I found a checklist here and I went to work.

The photos and card design are really well done, and a cursory glance at the backs make them appear to be well written. I'll be going through the set in detail later.

For $10 sure seems like a good deal to me.

Upper Deck to launch $200 pack of Marvel Comic Trading Cards

Just got this missive via the Upper Deck folks, all I can say is...$50 per card? Ridonkulous. Definitely NOT a budget collector item. Upper Deck Announces the Most Premium Marvel Trading Card Product Ever Produced! Trading card giant announced “Marvel Premier” is coming at Comic-Con with a suggested retail price of $200 per pack! Carlsbad, CA (July 13, 2012) – For years the Upper Deck Entertainment team has produced some of the most compelling and collectible Marvel trading cards in the industry. And now Upper Deck has decided to raise the bar in terms of what collectors can expect in a pack of Marvel trading cards announcing today at Comic-Con the company will release Marvel Premier on October 2, 2012. It will be the most premium comic trading card release of all-time with packs carrying a $200 suggested retail price tag. So what comes in a $200 pack of Marvel trading cards? There are just four cards in each pack, but they all pack a punch! First fans will receive a premium base card on thick card stock from the 50-card base set numbered to just 99 copies. Next they will receive a one-of-one sketch card from top Marvel artists. The third card is an industry first where collectors will find a dual, triple or quadruple hinged sketch card. These are really remarkable trading cards and we will be releasing images of them soon. The fourth card will be either a “Classic Corners” card, a Shadowbox card or an “Emotion” booklet card by Jason Adams and NAR! “For years we’ve seen die-hard Marvel fans pay big bucks for some of the premium inserts in our Marvel trading card lines,” said Jason Brenner, Upper Deck’s Marvel brand manager. “This is our first opportunity to provide them with a set of Marvel cards that are all high-end insert quality. This is certainly not a product for everyone which is why we are not making very much of it, but the fans it is targeted for are going to love it!” Upper Deck’s 2012 Marvel Premier really is about the artists and the company has employed some of the best for this project including Cruddie Torrain, Jason Adams and Nar! Additionally there are new innovations besides the hinged sketch cards with Upper Deck’s Shadowbox cards making their debut in the entertainment realm. The “Classic Corners” subset is another one that comic fans will be sure to love that pays homage to some of the greatest Marvel comic corners of all-time in a premium patch card. So get ready Marvel fans. Upper Deck is about to change Marvel trading cards as you know them for the better! About Upper Deck Upper Deck is the leading sports and entertainment trading card and collectibles company. For more information on Upper Deck and its products please visit www.upperdeck.com. About Marvel Entertainment, LLC Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world's most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of over 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media over seventy years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing and publishing. For more information visit www.marvel.com. ### Chris Carlin Sports Marketing & Social Media Manager The Upper Deck Company 2251 Rutherford Road | Carlsbad, CA 92008 T: 760.929.3159 (NEW) | F: 760.929.3150 Follow Upper Deck on: Web | Facebook | Twitter | Blog | YouTube

The KINGS are in the Stanley Cup Finals

For the first time since 1993 the Los Angeles Kings are in the Stanley Cup Finals, and I am giddy with anticipation. It's been a long 8 days since the Kings clinched their berth by beating the #3 seed Phoenix Coyotes in the Western Conference Finals, capping off a great run in which they defeated the top three seeds in the West. All season this time had underachieved, only to be saved by the should-be Vezina winner Jonathan Quick, they finally started playing playoff hockey at the right time. Going into the game, which starts in about 15 minutes I might add, the Kings are 12-2 and Quick has an UNGODLY 1.54 GAA. I've been doing my part as a Kings fan - I have not shaved and I have worn one of my five Kings jerseys each and every day for at least part of the day since the playoffs started. What's funny is that I did forget to bring a jersey with me on an overnight tripe we took to Long Beach last weekend, and of course the Kings lost that day. These guys, I hate to say it in order not to jinx it, are looking like a team of destiny. Time will tell if they are. All I can say right now is GO KINGS GO. GO KINGS GO. GO KINGS GO. GO KINGS GO.