Upper Deck is releasing a multi-sport modern version of the old Goudey Gum Company cards. Included among the modern-era athletes will be randomly inserted original cards from the popular pre-War issues.
Upper Deck will answer In the Game's 2007 Sport Kings set with a throwback set of it's own. Goudey Baseball will include autographed cards of some big names and, if you're lucky, a real 1930s sports card.
The new product will feature art that Upper Deck says "stays true to the original Goudey brand" as well as the vintage buy-backs, on card autographs and a Sports Royalty subset that will include autograph versions of "some of the most compelling sports personalities in the world today."
UD was hoping to make sure the look stayed true to the original Goudey cards from the 30’s and 40’s. “It began with a lot of exhaustive research reviewing cards from the older sets and talking to people in the hobby with an intimate knowledge of them,” said Vincent Morales, Upper Deck’s lead designer for Baseball. “The original cards were illustrated and painted, but we wanted to incorporate today’s technology in delivering that vintage look. We used the best digital artists in the country and even some from as far away as France to give photos of today’s athletes, that unique vintage look. Then we designed over 280 original backgrounds to use behind the players. One artist in particular has a father who loved the original set, so he was passionate about making sure we stayed true to the original look.”
Upper Deck will insert what it says are "tens of thousands" of vintage 1933 & 1934 Goudey, 1934 & 1936 Diamond Stars and 1941 Double Play cards that were bought in the open market. Collectors will find two in every hobby case on average. One will be inserted randomly into packs and the other will be inserted in a special box topper pack that will also come with a Diamond Stars and Double Play card numbered to 15. With each case yielding an average of two of these vintage Goudey cards, Upper Deck needed to acquire twice as many cards as they had originally planned for.
“The biggest problem in trying to acquire all the cards we needed was there just is not a lot of this product readily available in bulk in the market anymore, these cards are over 70 years old,” said Chris Shtino, Upper Deck lead buyer. “We were able to tap into some resources however and once they started coming in, it was very exciting here. I had probably 20 different staff members coming by each day to see the cards after they arrived. Obviously the Ruth and Gehrig cards were the main draw, but everyone was just blown away with the history of these original Goudey cards.”
Goudey was famous for an insert set which highlighted star athletes from all sports and Upper Deck is keeping that tradition alive with the Sports Royalty subset.
“We are blessed to have relationships with some of the greatest athletes from all sports already so it was exciting to bring them all out in a set like this,” said Gregg Kohn, Upper Deck Baseball Product Manager.
“We first used our top spokesmen like Michael Jordan, Sidney Crosby, Peyton Manning, Kobe Bryant, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Kevin Durant, Cal Ripken Jr., LeBron James and Tiger Woods. Then we added in some of the best legends like Dean Smith, Gordie Howe, Emmitt Smith, Joe Namath, John Wooden and Nolan Ryan. To round it out we looked at athletes from other sports like tennis great Martina Hingis, US swimming stars Katie Hoff & Ryan Lochte, soccer superstar Mia Hamm and the black widow of billiards, Jeanette Lee. I can say without a doubt, this is one of the best checklists for any product I have ever worked on.” Unsigned versions of the Sports Royalty subset will fall one per box with signed versions coming two per case on average.
One autograph and one memorabilia card will be included in every box on Jason Masherah, Upper Deck Baseball Brand Manager said, “We factored in more time for autograph acquisition so athletes actually signed on the cards, we did not incorporate autograph labels or stickers in this set. We also shortprinted cards 201-288 so when collectors do put a set together, it will have more value.”
CONTENT HIGHLIGHTS:
o Each box contains an average of 1 Sports Royalty card – including autographed versions
o 1 autograph and 1 memorabilia card per box on average
o Randomly inserted original 1933 Goudey buy-back cards
o Bonus packs featuring rare inserts numbered to 15 or less
PRODUCT BREAKDOWN:
Autograph & Memorabilia Cards
o 1933 Goudey Regular Card Memorabilia Parallel – 1:box on average
o Goudey Graphs (autograph cards) – 1:box on average
o The Immortals (memorabilia cards)
o 1941 Double Play Auto Parallel - #’d to 1
o 1934-36 Diamond Stars Auto Parallel - #’d to 1
o Goudey Sports Royalty Card Auto Parallel
Insert Cards
o 1941 Double Play - #’d to 15
o 1934-36 Diamond Stars - #’d to 15
o 1934-36 Diamond Stars Yellow version - #’d to 5
o Goudey Sports Royalty Card – 1:box on average
Regular Cards and Rookies
o 200 1933 Goudey Regular Cards
o 40 1933 Goudey Regular Card Shortprints – 1:6
o 24 1938 Goudey Heads Up – 1:6
o 24 1938 Goudey Heads Up Writing (Cartoon version) – 1:6
Archives 
“The biggest problem in trying to acquire all the cards we needed was there just is not a lot of this product readily available in bulk in the market anymore, these cards are over 70 years old,” said Chris Shtino, Upper Deck lead buyer. “We were able to tap into some resources however and once they started coming in, it was very exciting here. I had probably 20 different staff members coming by each day to see the cards after they arrived. Obviously the Ruth and Gehrig cards were the main draw, but everyone was just blown away with the history of these original Goudey cards.” 
