The Upper Deck Company became famous for its groundbreaking 1989 baseball card set featuring Ken Griffey Jr.’s rookie card but as the southern California-based collectible company celebrates its 25th anniversary, there is no Upper Deck baseball brand.
Not yet anyway.
Since losing its MLB license, Upper Deck has been content to focus its sports efforts on the NHL (exclusive beginning next year), its collegiate football license and its Upper Deck Authenticated line. But that’s only part of the story.
Following the death of President Richard McWilliam in January of last year, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development Jason Masherah took over as the company’s boss, a role he’d actually been filling on a day-to-day basis for some time before that.
Despite having only one major pro sports license, Upper Deck remains a player in the industry, thanks in large part to its autograph contracts with some of the biggest names in sports, including Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky and LeBron James. The company has a large corporate presence at the 2014 National Sports Collectors Convention and we caught up with Masherah in the ‘fan cave’, which featured TVs, couches, chairs, games and of course, plenty of signed memorabilia:
Get more stories from the show by visiting our special 2014 National Sports Collectors Convention news page.
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