Exclusive Once Again

So with the new year rolling around just a few short months ago, it seemed that the hockey card market was going to have one of it's strongest years to date with another Double Rookie class and all sorts of innovative and new products for collector's to get their hands on.  The releases up to this point looked good (with a few exceptions) and the calendar was chocked full of exciting stuff.

Fast forward to today when the NHL and NHLPA announced that each organization has agreed to terms with Upper Deck on a multi-year agreement to be the EXCLUSIVE licensed manufacturer of NHL trading cards, starting with the upcoming 2014-15 season.  Notice how I capitalized exclusive there.  Yes, folks, it's now 2004 once again when Upper Deck held the monopoly on licensed hockey cards.  Panini is out.  They are soooo 2013.  Upper Deck is the future, I tells ya.  But a future that scare the {bleep} out of me as a hockey collector.

I have always been on Team Upper Deck.  I'm not going to lie.  They have always made what I considered, the more superior product when it came to what I collect.  Their flagship set is untouchable by any other brand, period.  The Young Gun rookie subset has been, and probably always will be, a staple of the hockey card industry.  I also enjoy the value of products like Artifacts, the SP releases, and of course, the set collector's wet dream, O-Pee-Chee. 

Team Panini was always the "oh, yeah those guys" kind of product to me.  I supported the cause and bought new product.  I collected the Score set every year.  The first year Panini hit the market with products I over indulged on Donruss and Pinnacle, overspent on Contenders, and even dabbled a bit in Dominion.  My favorite single release of Panini was their Crown Royale set.  The die-cut design of old was always a beauty to do a box rip of.  But my favorite overall release was the Rookie Anthology sets.  These cards, while small in the base set, had almost every high-series release of Panini products each year and the boxes were jammed with autos and game-used cards.  They were a great value, especially as the market cooled.  One of my favorite set-within-a-set were the Rookie Treasures with their dual swatches and autos.  Very nice looking design.

But for whatever reason, despite the popularity of the product, the spirited competition between brands was obviously not a concern for the NHL and the Player's Association.  This now leaves us, once again, with only one manufacturer in a card market full of thirsty collectors.  While this paves the way for Upper Deck to reach back into their bag-o-tricks and pull products like MVP, Ice, and maybe even Victory back out into their own products, it bothers me a bit that we could see a resurgence of the "recycled" product.  There were quite a few years throughout the mid-late 00s where the products all began to look alike.  Photography was reused, card designs were duplicated, and it started to feel like some of the products were just being phoned in.

Competition is good for any market.  Whether you have brand loyalty or not, having alternatives pushes creativity and design.  When there is a market of hockey collector's looking for the next big thing, having multiple brand options at various price points makes for a much more enjoyable collecting experience.  Whether it's Panini, Topps, Leaf, In The Game, Press Pass, etc., exclusive licenses have the potential to hurt the overall collecting experience of a sport.  I'm not going to go as far to say that UD vs. Panini was like a Coke vs. Pepsi thing (which makes ITG...RC Cola?).  I think there is plenty of room in this market for more than one brand.

I just hope Upper Deck uses this opportunity to the fullest, doesn't lose their momentum on product releases, designs some innovative products, and forces the doubters (including myself) to change their minds.  With great power comes great responsibility and Upper Deck has a duty from this point forward to bring-it with each and every release.  I know they are going to start with the return of MVP to their own brand in August.  I'm not sure that is going to be their best move but we'll see how this whole thing impact the hobby going forward. 

The O-Pee-Chee Legacy

I don't like to steal articles from other sites. Well at least, I don't like to steal as a general practice. But sometimes there are things out there that you just find facinating.

Over on Sports Collector's Daily, they featured an article regarding the O-Pee-Chee brand, from it's beginnings to today as a flagship product in the Upper Deck stable of cards. As most of you know, O-Pee-Chee was, for most of its existence, known as the Canadian brother of Topps. They have paralleled the Topps brand products in baseball and especially hockey for many, many years.

It is interested timing for this considering the potential demise of Upper Deck because of their licensing battles. With the NHL lockout back in 2004, both Topps and Pacific went into hibernation in the hockey card market. In the Game kept up their production but has never been issued a license in their existence and has only produced cards of legends and minor leaguers. Upper Deck was the only licensed producer to put out cards during the strike. Coming out of it at the end of the would be season, the NHL gave Upper Deck the exclusive license for their products. Topps is still around but no longer produces hockey. Pacific is gone. In the Game is the only other manufacturer left and still have no NHL license.

Upper Deck acquired the rights to revive the O-Pee-Chee name back in 2006 and has produced products under that label ever since. As a primary hockey collector, I have been a bit on edge with all this considering if UD is gone, so will the hockey cards. Thus far, most hockey products have stayed fairly solid from a production and collecting standpoint. Upper Deck has produced some of my most favorite sets over the last few years with SP, O-Pee-Chee, their flagship base sets, and Masterpiece.

Someone will undoubtedly pick up the slack and sign an agreement with the NHL and NHLPA. However, at what cost? I fear we, the hockey collecting community, are going to suffer with inferior products, poor designs, lack of variety and any other epidemic that has plagued the other 3 major sports since the era of exclusitivity was ushered in. Or it could be worse. We may lose the products all together. I hope not.

Here is a link to the article I originally mentioned before going off on a tangent.

More on the Topps fall out

I am not a baseball card collector any longer and haven't been actively collecting since around 1996. However, I have kept up with baseball cards and what was being produced since then and have a pretty good working knowledge of the hobby. That being said, I am sad to see the MLB rights going to a single company for production of their products.

Being a hockey collector, this has been an issue for a few years now with Upper Decks exclusitivity rights with the NHL and NHLPA. With the vast selection of product every year in hockey, you don't have to look far to notice that the UD hologram logo is stamped on all of them. Same goes for basketball now, with Panini inking their respective name on all NBA products.

This creates two problems in my mind:

1. The product becomes bland and stale. Like many of my fellow bloggers, I enjoy a unique card design, something with flair, something different, something that makes me want to own everything in that product. UD had a few moments here and there but overall, has created a hockey product devoid of anything unique and full of staying power. With Topps already being inferior in terms of design and product layout, I only see misery for collectors in the baseball realm for the future.

2. There is no competition, therefore, no reason to live up to expectations. Without another player in the market, Topps will have carte blanche on how to produce the cards. Eisner has even said he is trying to get the kids back in the hobby, which I am all for, but at what cost? Sacrificing quality for marketability is counterproductive.

I am sure everyone has an opinion on this. A few of my fellow bloggers takes on the situation can be found below. Check them out and voice your opinions.

http://www.voiceofthecollector.com/2009/08/exclusive-league-licensing-exclusive.html

http://cardboardproblem.blogspot.com/2009/08/breaking-news-topps-gets-exclusive.html

http://nightowlcards.blogspot.com/2009/08/awesome-night-card-pt-45-goodbye-upper.html

http://www.sportscardsuncensored.com/2009/08/topps-exclusive-is-bad-for-business.html