Category Archives: no more licenses

The License Dilemma Gives Birth To Another Big Signing

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UD recently announced their deal with Pete Rose to have his autographs and memorabilia included in 2010 Upper Deck products. This was expected as not having the license has already led to the acquisition of Joe Jackson and other players who may not have been ready to sign. I think this poses an interesting conundrum facing many of the companies out there, however. Is it better to work outside of the licensing if it means giving collectors what they desire? I will say this, Pete Rose has always been a widely collected guy, and giving the people what they want is never bad.

I would say that the biggest issue facing a company without a license is the logos. In baseball and basketball, its much easier because the players are more the commodity than the players jersey and logo. In football, it’s a different story because of the way players equiment obscures their likeness. In theory, a football player’s likeness is the jersey he wears.

Because of this situation in football, there really isnt much of a choice in terms of operating with or without a license. A company could produce college cards to appeal to the niche of college collectors, but that is impossible now with UD in control of that license too. I believe that is why the NFL has such tight restrictions over what goes into each product. There has to be a certain percentage of rookies versus veterans, team logos have to be displayed this way, you can do this, you cant do that. It happens because it can.

For Baseball its completely different, because you can slap a player on a card with a city name, and everything becomes clear. Also, those players that were once a no-no are now fair game. Since the black balled list of players contains two or three players that people love, or love to hate, it becomes very problematic to a company that has to act within the ropes.

Basketball is very similar, though it becomes more about exclusives than anything at that point. If you have the top guys, you can be successful with or without a license. UD has been holding onto LBJ and Jordan for years, with Kobe only leaving recently. Even without Kobe, UD has maintained the ability to drive a product without having logos on their jerseys. LeBron is just as much a marketable presence with his name and number, as he was with it.

Personally, I probably would stick with licensed cards for as long as possible, only because I like having the logos as a part of it. However, if I had the choice between buying products that were able to go outside the boudaries and those forced inside them, I would definitely not give up on my favorites even without the license.

We Dont Need No Stinking Licenses

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Since Topps secured the license to be sole producer of baseball cards for the coming years, Upper Deck has gone on a signing spree that should make a lot fans happy. Its funny that now that the license to produce cards with logos and team names is gone, all the players are starting to come around and sign autograph deals. Personally, I hate exclusivity in any shape or form, but in this case with the license, it may actually work out better.
So far, UD has signed contracts with key pieces of the Yankees World Series Championship teams, as well as announcing that Joe Jackson will be in their products now that the rules have changed. In my opinion, the Joe Jackson news is AS important as the signings of Rivera, Pettite, Posada, and company, mainly due to the buzz it created over Prime Cuts last year. As we saw with Prime Cuts, licenses mean little to nothing when you have a good product, and with Exquisite Baseball coming our way, it should be interesting to see if UD can live up to the billing.
I will say this, in previous years before the license was lost, UD baseball has been mediocre at best. With Football at the forefront of the competition by a mile, Baseball didn’t have the same pizzazz at all. Products were flat, prices were high, and design wasn’t top notch. Now that they don’t have to play by the same rules, hopefully they can fill in those gaps with signatures from star players who don’t normally sign (Rivera), and retired players who are banned from production (Jackson and possibly Rose).
With many of the players garnering less value than normal because of the economy, baseball sets will need a jump start if they are going to continue to attract collectors. Although I don’t think the Yankees and Jackson are the only answer to the problem, its definitely a start. What UD baseball will have to prove is that they can function at the same level as a set like Topps, focusing more on great photography and design to make up for the fact that no logos will be able to be used. Prime Cuts did a great job of that, especially considering that Baseball players are known more for their likeness rather than the jersey they wear.
The starting point is definitely the success of Exquisite Baseball, and how well Upper Deck can get the set to the level of its Basketball and Football products. Exquisite Football is the best of the year because of the prestige of the name, design of the set, and content of the cards, which means that Baseball has big shoes to fill after the disaster that was the Exquisite Rookies set of 2008. However, with the 2006 Exquisite Baseball redemption set to build from, these cards could be amazing, or they could easily suck. Lets hope, for the sake of competition, that everything turns out great. As it stands right now, Im not going to say much more until I see the results.