I shared last weekend the reasons why I was looking forward to the 2011 Sports Card & Memorabilia Expo in Toronto and as I hoped, it most certainly did not disappoint. Fans lined up early and often to take part in Upper Deck’s “Priority Signing” wrapper redemption program and they were happy they did! Fans were pulling some really amazing autographs from the set from players like Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe, Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, Taylor Hall and many more. Many players were featured with Team Canada as well and that seemed to mean a lot to Canadian collectors in attendance.
It wasn’t just the cool “Priority Signings” cards that were making fans excited. Collectors were having a blast opening products like 2010-11 NHL SP Authentic, SPx and SP Game-Used. There were some MONSTER cards pulled during the weekend from those boxes that they are still likely talking about with other collectors.
On Saturday we had a really great event where we got about twenty collectors together of all ages and had Grant Sandground, UD’s NHL product manager, go through some of the new products coming out over the next few months. Grant was able to reveal that UD would indeed be producing The Cup later on this summer with more details coming out right before launch. As Grant walked them through the product while showing off large images of some of the cards, you could see anticipation grow for the release of the amazing product! It was powerful for us to be able to put together a focus group like this and we rewarded those who took part with a variety of goodies.
That certainly wasn’t all UD had going on at the Expo however. Each day we held a raffle that had collectors packed around the Upper Deck Booth for their chance to win a variety of sweet items from Upper Deck. We were giving away autographed mini sticks, autographed pucks, uncut sheets, boxes of cards, autograph cards, blow-up cards and more! We pulled out all the stops and even gave away a tin of The Cup each day of the show. Check out some of the happy collectors with their items they received from UD!
We would like to give special thanks to everyone who made it out for the event this weekend. It means a lot to us to be able to spend time with our passionate base of collectors and even more to give back to you for your support throughout the years. We know that not everyone could make it out to the Expo so we want to give others a chance to get some “Priority Signings” autograph cards we brought back from the show. Just leave a comment below about the best pull you’ve ever had from a pack of Upper Deck hockey cards below and we will randomly select two collectors who left comments on Thursday afternoon to receive an autograph card from the “Priority Signings” set. Thanks again and good luck!
