One of the things trading cards do a great job of is chronicling moments in history and immortalizing them forever. Some of the greatest moments in American history involve U.S. Presidents and politicians and for several years now Upper Deck has made it a practice on occasion to insert cards of U.S. Presidents and politicians into trading card releases for all sports. We try to select releases where we include elements of pop culture and other unique cards.
Recently we announced we would be including cards of Barack Obama and several GOP Presidential candidates in Upper Deck’s World of Sports set and that has created a lot of mainstream interest in the product which is exciting. Upper Deck trading cards of U.S. Presidents and politicians have traditionally performed very well in the secondary market as well with regular cards at times selling for more than memorabilia or even autograph cards of sports stars. The purpose for including these cards is not to push any type of political agenda, but rather to be topical, interesting, educational and to help add value to a product.
But not every fan is for them. Just last week I had a message forwarded to me from Upper Deck Customer Care that came from a concerned parent. The parent said, “I still struggle with trying to explain to our 11 year-old son why there is a football card of Obama in one of your decks. You have misled us in our purchase and for that we are very disappointed…”
The customer has a valid point in my opinion and I offered to exchange the card for him of a football player as a courtesy. It made me wonder however, as unique and interesting as these cards are, do some fans find them totally repellent? I know there are die-hard fans who just want to find cards of their favorite sports stars, but is that the case if it takes the place of a non-sport card with a high secondary market value tied to it? Since it is President’s Day, I thought it was an appropriate question to ask our fan base. Think of it as an informal poll. Would you vote for Upper Deck to continue to include cards of U.S. Presidents and politicians on occasion? Let us know in the comment section below.
