SCU Go-Live Report: 2014 Exquisite Golf Builds High End Into a New Sport

I have always been a fan of Upper Deck products because they usually live up to the best in terms of design, theme and look. Exquisite, over the course of its history has established a brand of the best cards in the business, always rising the top of the value spectrum as a result. Even after Upper Deck lost licenses in the NFL and NBA, Exquisite remained a product that collectors love, and will continue to love regardless of licensing status. We know expensive golf cards can sell, as Tiger has been in high end products before, but never like this.

Here are some of the big hits so far:

2014 Exquisite Golf Tiger Woods Dimensions Shadowbox Auto

2014 Exquisite Golf Tiger Woods Masterpieces Auto

2014 Exquisite Golf Rory McElroy Lustrous Shirt Auto

2014 Exquisite Golf Jack Nicklaus Dimensions Shadowbox Auto

2014 Exquisite Golf Michael Jordan Endorsements Auto

For me to talk about a Golf product, it has to be crazy awesome, which Exquisite is looking like it might be. Not only are there the jumbo swatches and autographs that have always been a staple of the product, but these cards look like Exquisite has always looked – amazing.

Adding in UD black and other brands like they have done in Football and Basketball was a great call, as I think that many of the golf fans out there will chase the big names. Most of the different subsets all hearken back to the way they have looked in other sports, which will help collectors draw connections if they arent intimately familiar with golf as a whole.

That is also going to be the main challenge, as its clear that Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus cant be in every box. Although there are guys like Arnold Palmer and even Michael Jordan, most of the names will be people that the average joe hasnt heard of. When you bust a box of 500 dollar cards, you need the mass appeal to help carry the cost of singles that arent the case hit. That’s what Exquisite usually can do in Basketball and Football, but its still unclear what could happen in Golf. Easily, the collectors could come out of the woodwork and buy these guys up, but it could also go completely the other direction.

Either way, I have always been a fan of cards like the Lustrous patch autos and the Dimensions shadowbox autos, which use acetate technology to present the cards in very unique ways. In a lot of these products the cards jump off the stock because they look the way they do.

In my opinion, Exquisite and ANY high end product has been tough to break by the box, as there are some major duds in every product’s print run. The trade off has always been that the cards are all 100% hard signed, and have always looked like they are worth the price of the box.

I dont think this version of Exquisite will come up short there.

One thought on “SCU Go-Live Report: 2014 Exquisite Golf Builds High End Into a New Sport

  1. This definitely lives up to the Exquisite name in terms of design and on-card autos. I have concerns about the checklist. Much like SP Authentic & Game Used Golf packs are light on the top golfers of today. They use some very average golfers past and present as fillers. Woods, McIlroy, Nicklaus, Palmer, and Jordan have to carry the product, which doesn’t vouch well for the average box break outcome. Bottom line I’ve been disappointed by the lack of top current US golfer autographs in UD products this year. Bubba, Spieth, Snedeker, Furyk, Mickelson all belong in Exquisite.

    With the price point creeping close to $700 I’ll have to sit this one out and check the singles market. I applaud UD for releasing this product and hope it performs well. If the price drops I’ll sure be waiting to grab a box.

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