Upper Deck got a death wish

Last week after settling a lawsuit with Konami for counterfeiting 600,000 Yugi-oh cards they will face another big lawsuit this time with Major League Baseball. MLB gave Topps exclusive licensing rights to produced MLB cards last year leaving Upper Deck out in the cold. It didn't stop Upper Deck to produce baseball cards as they focus on "pro baseball players." They released 2009 Ultimate Collections stating its not MLB licensed and will not show team names and logos on back of the cards. Re-read that because they didn't mention front of the cards. Guess what? They defied MLB licensing as Ultimate Collections cards shown to have teams logos, full and partially, on front of the cards. I didn't take long for MLB to go after Upper Deck with a lawsuit and the move will cost the company big. After recently settled with Konami they are going be hurting financially bad when the lawsuit with MLB over. MLB do take licensing rights seriosuly. They went after Donruss in 2008 which they won and settled. Whatever the practices going at Upper Deck they are completely stupid in a seek of revenge. They done this with a printing of "Michael Buysner" (reference to Michael Einser buying Topps over them) and asterisk (reference to Barry Bonds which Topps has rights to) cards. In their plot of revenge over losing MLB licensng rights to Topps they put out Ultimate Collections with potential tread-lining the logos and names which they failed bad at it. Upper Deck, despite putting out good products, are going to put themselves out of the business of their own management and pratices stupidity. At the end the only ones going to hurt are the collectors. While some wish Upper Deck to go away their product you have admit they set the standard when they came out 21 years ago. The slick photography and the glossy printed cards. Game-used cards? They were the first to do so. What Upper Deck did was evolved the sport card hobby and forcing companies around them to change. When the day Upper Deck closed it doors it will hit the collectors. Soon companies will get lazy putting out garbage from designs to player selection because they are the only ones in town. That laziness will likely get collectors to leave the hobby for good. Remember those wonderful Topps redemption cards? It's utter crap having to wait for close to over a year to get it with a possible chance of getting a replacement you never want. Upper Deck tries to turn it around with attempt to send the cards within 45 days. How about this year's Topps baseball design? They went terribly 1989 retro and I love the 1989 set. Without Upper Deck things could get worse. Thanks to Upper Deck moronic practices they are close to signing themselves their own death warrant. Collectors will rejoice but will later mourn of a potential loss in the future.

Card of the Week

1989 Upper Deck baseball #1 Ken Griffey, Jr.

Twenty years ago Upper Deck enter the sports card hobby with this grand baseball set. It became huge hit among the hobby and easily one of the best product of that year. The set revolutionize and changed the landscape of the hobby with superb photography and glossy anti-counterfeit picture cards along with over-abundance of rookies. One of the rookies in this sit is Ken Griffey, Jr. which Upper Deck banked on as the "face" of the company. It was worth a gamble as his rookie card was huge hit among the hobby and became Upper Deck signature card in the hobby.

It helped the fact he quickly busted on the major league baseball scene. As 19-year old he quickly made the Seattle Mariners team as non-roster player in spring training that year and the rest is history. His nasty homerun shots and his defensive play dazzled fans. He was one the key main players as the Mariners rose to powerhouse threat from 1995-1999 before getting traded to the Reds in 2000 spending 8 1/2 seasons there before spending 1/2 the season with the White Sox. He returned back "home" signing with the Mariners in the offseason. The future Hall of Famer currently has 612 homeruns with 1773 runs batted in.

Here we are 20 years later. Ken Griffey, Jr., at 39, still has the nasty pop while Upper Deck trying to retain MLB license to produce 2010 cards. If Upper Deck loses their license just remember their amazing debut baseball set back in 1989 especially Ken Griffey, Jr. rookie card.