Ok Upper Deck….hear me out.
A lot of collectors loved what you did with the exclusive NBA licence and even though you don’t have the licence anymore, you still have a lot of great assets you can use to keep collectors happy and help inject some funds back into your struggling business.
Outside of what Panini offers, collectors really want 3 things from you……… to better utilise Ben Simmons in his Rookie Year, be able to provide us some really nice NEW high end Lebron James Patch Auto cards and I’m sure a lot of collectors (outside of the famed investors club) would love to see a few more Jordan patch autos hit the market.
No licence you say……well look at Leaf…….if they have the players permission to use their image they can (and have done so), it won’t be an issue for you with Bron/Simmons and Jordan being UD Exclusive. it’s also been no issue for Leaf to release cards featuring patches from game worn NBA jerseys - they even release logoman cards featuring the NBA Logo Patch and are still continuing to do this without any problems.
They have to make sure they don’t use any team logos in images but this is a challenge you could easily overcome.
Next up, obtain a home and away game worn jersey from both Lebron and Simmons (will be Rookie Game Worn). Also ask Bron if he has any Heat jerseys in his collection that he would be happy to part with.
Since funds and availability may be an issue for real game worn Jordan jerseys, get Jordan to do a Mark Ingram and put on a few of each of his jerseys and have them as player worn.
……a Home/Away/Black - Red Pinstripe/Various All Star/Old School Bulls/Bulls Rookie/Dream Team etc. As long as Jordan has worn them, I think collectors would still collect these……they wouldn’t be game worn (keeping those previous releases that are game worn still valuable) but it would still give collectors a nice rare high end card to chase after.
Keeping in mind that most of the high end patch cards for Rookies (Exquisite/National Treasures/Immaculate/Ultimate etc) are player worn so this shouldn’t be a problem. Now you have these assets, get to work.
Sign up the regular players that you have access to and get them to wear a few jerseys as well…….Magic/Bird/Shaq/Penny/Hill/Ewing/D Rob/Kidd/Dr J/Russell/Iverson and see if you can get MJ to convince Barkley to sign 200 or so autos and wear a jersey or 2.
What you now have is a list of great players to compliment Simmons/Bron and Jordan.
What we should see out of it is cards like this…….a true Ben Simmons Rookie Patch Auto (Game Worn – from his rookie year too) – these cards limited to 99 and to 25 (Jersey Number) and 1/1 Masterpiece would surpass any card Panini could release of him in his rookie year.
NOTE: Please don’t make another Simmons Exquisite card like you had in Goodwin……..this one will be much better……and featuring a swatch of game used rookie jersey patch!
You could also have Simmons in a raft of other patch auto sets like – Limited Logos/Number Pieces/Emblems of Endorsement/Noble Nameplates etc.
Next up you have Bron……..you create a heap of nice patch autos of him in his new Cleveland Jerseys and also make a Miami Heat one as well. These will be highly sought after!
With MJ, the sky could be the limit………you could make a few new variations of his Limited Logos like these ones….. a Home Jersey Patch/ Away Jersey Patch and a lternate Black/Red Pinstripe which I think looks sensational!
Home
Away
and my new favourite......
You could also have him in new versions of Number Pieces/Emblems of Endorsement/Noble Nameplates etc.
Build a product that is high end, features a lot of patch auto content of these players mentioned above and with the Simmons/Lebron and Jordans, I have no doubt group breakers would kill to break a product like this. I also believe collectors would go crazy for these new cards.
If these cards were the quality and design of the earlier Exquisite sets, they would be highly successful…….and you won’t be breaking any IP laws if you get the images and designs right (Without logos etc). Panini can do it for Baseball well…….you can do it with Basketball.
Now get cracking Upper Deck, you have Exquisite 2018 to get underway!
Anyone else like a product like this to collect in 2018? I know I would!
Cheers
Matt
A lot of collectors loved what you did with the exclusive NBA licence and even though you don’t have the licence anymore, you still have a lot of great assets you can use to keep collectors happy and help inject some funds back into your struggling business.
Outside of what Panini offers, collectors really want 3 things from you……… to better utilise Ben Simmons in his Rookie Year, be able to provide us some really nice NEW high end Lebron James Patch Auto cards and I’m sure a lot of collectors (outside of the famed investors club) would love to see a few more Jordan patch autos hit the market.
No licence you say……well look at Leaf…….if they have the players permission to use their image they can (and have done so), it won’t be an issue for you with Bron/Simmons and Jordan being UD Exclusive. it’s also been no issue for Leaf to release cards featuring patches from game worn NBA jerseys - they even release logoman cards featuring the NBA Logo Patch and are still continuing to do this without any problems.
They have to make sure they don’t use any team logos in images but this is a challenge you could easily overcome.
Next up, obtain a home and away game worn jersey from both Lebron and Simmons (will be Rookie Game Worn). Also ask Bron if he has any Heat jerseys in his collection that he would be happy to part with.
Since funds and availability may be an issue for real game worn Jordan jerseys, get Jordan to do a Mark Ingram and put on a few of each of his jerseys and have them as player worn.
……a Home/Away/Black - Red Pinstripe/Various All Star/Old School Bulls/Bulls Rookie/Dream Team etc. As long as Jordan has worn them, I think collectors would still collect these……they wouldn’t be game worn (keeping those previous releases that are game worn still valuable) but it would still give collectors a nice rare high end card to chase after.
Keeping in mind that most of the high end patch cards for Rookies (Exquisite/National Treasures/Immaculate/Ultimate etc) are player worn so this shouldn’t be a problem. Now you have these assets, get to work.
Sign up the regular players that you have access to and get them to wear a few jerseys as well…….Magic/Bird/Shaq/Penny/Hill/Ewing/D Rob/Kidd/Dr J/Russell/Iverson and see if you can get MJ to convince Barkley to sign 200 or so autos and wear a jersey or 2.
What you now have is a list of great players to compliment Simmons/Bron and Jordan.
What we should see out of it is cards like this…….a true Ben Simmons Rookie Patch Auto (Game Worn – from his rookie year too) – these cards limited to 99 and to 25 (Jersey Number) and 1/1 Masterpiece would surpass any card Panini could release of him in his rookie year.
NOTE: Please don’t make another Simmons Exquisite card like you had in Goodwin……..this one will be much better……and featuring a swatch of game used rookie jersey patch!
You could also have Simmons in a raft of other patch auto sets like – Limited Logos/Number Pieces/Emblems of Endorsement/Noble Nameplates etc.
Next up you have Bron……..you create a heap of nice patch autos of him in his new Cleveland Jerseys and also make a Miami Heat one as well. These will be highly sought after!
With MJ, the sky could be the limit………you could make a few new variations of his Limited Logos like these ones….. a Home Jersey Patch/ Away Jersey Patch and a lternate Black/Red Pinstripe which I think looks sensational!
Home
Away
and my new favourite......
You could also have him in new versions of Number Pieces/Emblems of Endorsement/Noble Nameplates etc.
Build a product that is high end, features a lot of patch auto content of these players mentioned above and with the Simmons/Lebron and Jordans, I have no doubt group breakers would kill to break a product like this. I also believe collectors would go crazy for these new cards.
If these cards were the quality and design of the earlier Exquisite sets, they would be highly successful…….and you won’t be breaking any IP laws if you get the images and designs right (Without logos etc). Panini can do it for Baseball well…….you can do it with Basketball.
Now get cracking Upper Deck, you have Exquisite 2018 to get underway!
Anyone else like a product like this to collect in 2018? I know I would!
Cheers
Matt
