|
|
By Chris Olds
9/21/2009 2:26:17 PM
Upper Deck released preview images and basic product information on Monday for its finale in basketball cards — 2009-10 Exquisite Basketball.
The product is set to arrive next week — on Sept. 30 — and its production was kept a secret even at Upper Deck, according to Basketball Brand Manager Brandon Miller.
Exquisite has been perhaps the highest of the high-end products for any sport the last few years and Upper Deck promises this to be the most limited version of Exquisite Collection yet.
The standard set consists of 42 regular cards, 32 Exquisite Rookie Auto Cards and 18 Exquisite Rookie Auto Patch Flashback cards.
What does that mean? Some of the top stars in all of the sports world are coming to Exquisite.
Among the inserts are NBA All Access Triple Logoman Patch Cards (1/1s), Limited Logos autographs (varied numbering) and Noble Nameplates autographs (varied numbering).
There will be five cards per box and three boxes per case.
“This product was top secret and only essential internal personnel knew about it to work it through the production process for it,” Miller said. “We knew collectors would be thrilled when we finally came outwith the announcement so secrecy was key. Half of the fun is getting to see the reaction and excitement of our customers when it’s finally revealed because we know how passionate Exquisite collectors are. Things got a little exciting a couple weeks ago when the checklist posted to final and also to the Upper Deck website unfortunately. Some rumors have been buzzing from that, but otherwise, I don’t think many people knew it was coming.”
              
Producing such a product is also a challenge in many, many ways.
“Exquisite is always a huge project to undertake because of the intricacy, sophistication and value of the cards,” Miller said. “From a design perspective, 2009-10 Exquisite was a little easier to put together than past Exquisite projects simply because of the nature of this product being a ‘review’ of past Exquisite Collections, incorporating popular designs and elements from legendary inserts done previously.
“Beyond that, though, there is a tremendous amount of work done by our prepress, creative and production teams to ensure that the quality of the cards ultimately deliver the high-end value that’s expected of the brand. A huge amount of recognition goes to those internal departments for being able to put together what is going to be one of the best Exquisite Collections ever while quietly moving this through the manufacturing life cycle without word of its existence leaking out.”
And the addition of some of the sports world’s biggest names all done in Exquisite style? Many, many collectors will be drooling over those cards.
“In addition to having Exquisite Rookie cards from some of the top 2009-10 NBA draftees, we’ve got some great inserts that play back to the heritage of the Exquisite brand,” Miller said. “In 2009-10 Exquisite we honor the most valuable modern day rookie card, the2003-04 LeBron James Exquisite Rookie, by bringing back that design as a limited insert with some of sports’ biggest names like Michael Jordan, Julius Erving, John Elway, Barry Sanders, Sidney Crosby and Wayne Gretzky. We also have the ever popular Triple Logoman Patch cards and Dual Logoman Autographed Patch cards.”
And on top of everything that the company has packed into the product, there won’t be a lot to go around, according to Upper Deck.
“This is going to be the most limited NBA Exquisite product we’ve ever produced so these cards are going to be unbelievably hot,” Miller said. “This is going to be the only chance to pull a Ricky Rubio autographed Exquisite Rookie card. Collectors aren’t even going to see another Rubio card for another two years, much less an Exquisite Rookie Card! Also, another little piece of information that collector’s may not know: LeBron James and Tiger Woods share the same birthday. We have a LeBron James/Tiger Woods Autographed Dual Numbers Pieces card where both LeBron and Tiger inscribed their birthdates. How cool is that?”
Pretty cool, pretty cool. |
|
發表於 2009-9-22 11:25
提升卡
置頂卡
沉默卡
喧囂卡
變色卡
發表於 2009-9-22 11:50