July Means...Hockey Cards

Upper Deck releases its high end hockey product, The Cup.

According to Upper Deck "the real driver for 2007-08 The Cup Hockey are the autographed rookie patch cards." Collectors can find one of these cards in every tin. Although the product has only been in the market a couple days, some 2007-08 The Cup Hockey cards of top rookies like Carey Price, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews have already been changing hands for over one thousand dollars a piece on eBay. Other impressive rookies like Marc Staal, Nicklas Backstrom and Sam Gagner are sure to be close behind in terms of value.

There are several new elements in 2007-08 The Cup Hockey. The Cup Chirography autograph insert spotlights the best players to ever hit the ice like Alexander Ovechkin, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe and Mario Lemieux. Triple Cub Enshrinements are triple signature cards limited to just ten copies of trios like Messier/Kurri/Fuhr, Ovechkin/Malkin/Kovalchuk and Howe/Gretzky/Orr.

Upper Deck is also offering exchange cards for limited-edition, uncut sheets of 2007-08 The Cup Hockey. Each of these sheets will be framed. A breakdown of the sheets available is listed below:

“It seems like a lot of the chase right now is just for the product itself,” said Josh Zusman, Hockey brand manager for Upper Deck. “Many collectors save up for this product each year and they all seem to be enjoying the 2007-08 release. Given the limited nature of a The Cup however, many fans of the set are scurrying to get it while they can. It’s sure to be the hockey product collectors are talking about next week at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago.”

PRODUCT BREAKDOWN:

· Signed Rookie Patch Cards

o Autographed Rookie Patch Level 2 – #’d to 249

o Autographed Rookie Patch Level 1 -- #’d to 99

· Autographed Patch Cards

o Signature Patches – #’d to 75

o Signature Patches SP – #’d to 25

o Emblems of Endorsements – #’d to 15

o Limited Logos – #’d to 50

o Honorable Numbers – #’d to jersey #

o Dual Honorable Numbers – #’d to jersey #

o Scripted Swatches – #’d to 25

o Dual Scripted Swatches – #’d to 5

o Hardware Heroes – #’d to # of trophies won

o Stanley Cup Titlists – #’d to # of titles won

o Autographed Cup Foundations Quadruple Patches – #’d to 5

o Dual Autographed NHL Shields – #’d to 1

o Regular Card Auto Patch variation – #’d to 1

o Autographed Rookie Patches, Gold Rainbow // – #’d to jersey number

· Autograph & Memorabilia Inserts

o Autographed Rookie Level 2 – #’d to 199

o All-Star Royalty – #’d to # of All-Star Selections

o Stanley Cup Signatures – #’d to 25

o Cup Chirography – #’d to 50

o Cup Foundations Quadruple Jerseys – #’d to 25

o Autographed Cup Foundations Quadruple Jerseys – #’d to 10

o Cup Foundations Quadruple Patches – #’d to 10

o Dual NHL Shields – #’d to 1

o Legendary Cuts – varied #ing

o Property of … – #’d to 1

o Cup Enshrinements – #’d to 50

o Cup Enshrinements Duals – #’d to 25

o Cup Enshrinements Triples – #’d to 10

o Cup Trios – #’d to 15

o Cup Foursomes – #’d to 10

o Cup Trios Patch // – #’d to 10

o Cup Foursomes Patch // – #’d to 5

o Rookie Masterpiece (pressplates) – #’d to 1

o Autographed Rookie Masterpiece (pressplates) – #’d to 1

o The Cup Masterpiece (pressplates) – #’d to 1

o Artist Proof Redemptions (for un-cut framed sheets!) – varied qtys.

o Regular Cards Jersey variation – #’d to 25

o Regular Cards Patch variation – #’d to 10

o Regular Cards Patch variation – #’d to 1

· Regular Set Parallels

o Regular Cards Gold // – #’d to 25

o Regular Cards Black // – #’d to 1

o Autographed Rookies Gold Rainbow // – #’d to jersey number

o Rookie cards Gold // – #’d to 25

o Rookie cards Black // – #’d to 1

· Regular Cards

o Regular Cards – #’d to 249