My goal as Upper Deck’s Customer Care Supervisor is to help educate our collectors and fans so they can have a better experience with our collectible products. I’ve found that we get a lot of similar calls into our call center so it is beneficial to share what those questions are and provide answers in a public format here on the blog. You will find some really great information about our industry just by going through some of these “Ask UD” segments here on the blog. If you have questions yourself, please feel free to leave a comment and “Ask UD!”

Ask Upper Deck: When will we know who the Young Guns will be in 2011-12 NHL Upper Deck Series One?

Gregg Cacioppo: Well the season is now underway which is awesome. Sean Couturier of the Philadelphia Flyers played last night so he is clear to use and there are a variety of key rookies who will hit the ice this weekend allowing us to make cards of them. Our hockey team is in for a busy weekend monitoring who skates and then compiling the checklist for the 2011-12 NHL Upper Deck Series One Young Guns set. We should have that checklist finalized within the next 1-2 weeks so look for details on that soon!

Ask Upper Deck: I think your new University of Texas and University of Oklahoma Football card sets are really cool, but when will you make a card set for my college football program?

Gregg Cacioppo: These sets have really captured the imagination of college football fans and that is what we were hoping for. We are excited about launching them with two storied programs like the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners. And we know that college football fans are very passionate so you can expect that UD will produce trading card sets for some of the other larger programs in the future. Additionally, you can still plan on seeing players from smaller schools throughout our other mainstream college football sets like SP Authentic and the new College Football Legends set coming out towards the holidays this year. Feel free to share what programs and players you would like to see us target for future sets in the comments section below.

Ask Upper Deck: I was hoping you could share some print run information on 2011-12 NHL O-Pee-Chee autograph and memorabilia cards.

Gregg Cacioppo: We do not make it a practice to share print run information on cards that are not already sequentially numbered. We will on occasion release some groupings however with odds of pulling the cards and we are happy to do that now with 2011-12 NHL O-Pee-Chee. Here is the list of the different groupings in that set:

Ask Upper Deck: Any new redemption updates?

Gregg Cacioppo: Now that the NHL season is underway, we have a much better opportunity to track players down. We expect to see some movement on items from delinquent signers over the next couple months so make sure to watch your redemption account for when new products come in.

In terms of what the redemption team is working on right now, the main project is the Goodwin Champions Entomology cards. These are all different sizes so packaging them takes a lot of time, but its worth so that our customers have a great mail day when their specimens arrive! Those are all in the process of mailing right now. Additionally, the Derrick Rose autograph cards have been checked for quality and are in the shipping process. Next up are the P.K. Subban SPx rookie autograph cards that are currently in the production process and should be ready to ship in the coming weeks.

Ask Upper Deck: How do I get a job at Upper Deck?

Gregg Cacioppo: That can be a little tough. I actually started as an intern for Upper Deck which was great because I was able to get to know all the different business units and find out what I liked the best. I was offered a position while interning and the rest is history. It is very difficult for us to go out into the job market and find someone who knows a ton about our industry, so we do a lot of promoting from within. Most employment opportunities for Upper Deck are entry-level at our Carlsbad, California or Morrisville, North Carolina facilities.

Currently we are looking to ramp up our efforts with redemptions and we are hiring on a new Redemption Clerk for our Morrisville, North Carolina facility. Here’s the job description:

POSITION SUMMARY

Responsible for processing Upper Deck Company redemption cards into the on-line Redemptions system including pulling, quality checking, hand numbering, packaging and mailing out redemption cards to the customer. Update redemption inventory into Sam tracker. Organize the process flow of redemptions. Monitor and update expired redemption inventory when redemption cards expire. Responsible for linking every redemption created from Sam tracker to Redemptions manager application. Assist sports coordinators with post production verification of UDC product.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Data entry; on-line redemptions.
• Fulfillment; pulling, quality checking, hand numbering, packaging and manifesting via FedEx, UPS and regular mail.
• Modifies and creates data associated with redemption card information.
• Receives and inputs completed redemptions into Sam tracker.
• Monitors and removes upcoming expired redemptions.
• Inputs card identification number from Sam Tracker into redemption manager for every redemption card created.
• Assists Sports Coordinators by verifying end of job sheets and confirming if inventory is needed.
• Qualifies customer physical mail against unique Salesforce.com case #’s to verify contents and issue reported.
• Open product, generate winner list and fulfill No Purchase Necessary program entries.
• Organize and sort EOJ and QA card allocations.

EDUCATION/YEARS EXPERIENCE

• High School Diploma.
• 1+ years of experience in the field of shipping, receiving, or logistics.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES

• Basic knowledge of commonly used shipping/receiving industry concepts, practices, and procedures.
• Competent oral and written communication skills in English; additional languages a plus.
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to handle multiple, high priority projects with a keen attention to detail.
• Professional demeanor; team player orientation.
• Relies on instructions and standard operating procedures.  Works under immediate supervision while exercising minimal independent judgment.
• Hands on, energetic and motivated self-starter.
• Basic data entry abilities.
• Proficiency in the following software or systems: MS Office (basic Word and Excel); manifesting; FedEx and UPS.

If you are in the North Carolina area and interested at getting your foot in the door with our organization, you can email your resume and cover letter for this position to UpperDeckMarketing@upperdeck.com. Good luck!