CARLSBAD – Sports memorabilia company Upper Deck will begin featuring collegiate athletes in a card series next year, giving collectors the chance to nab something that might be even rarer than a star’s rookie card.
“I think obviously everyone has seen how much the collegiate sports licensing landscape has changed,” said Paul Zickler, director of sports brands for Upper Deck. “But more so, I think our strategic look at it has really been the growth of women sports.”
Director of Sports Brands
Upper Deck Company
Zickler said he couldn’t recall how long it had been since Upper Deck had a series of college athletes, but he sees the time as right for bringing them back.
“We haven’t been involved with collegiate sports in quite some time, but we’re excited to get back into it,” he said. “We really want to bring a more unique lens in terms of our product offering, and that means showcasing a wide variety of sports and also a wide variety of athletes.”
The cards will be part of the Upper Deck World of Sports, Volume 1, set to launch in the spring of 2025. Just who will be featured is still in the works, but the company has announced a few names and said the series will celebrate the University of Nebraska women’s volleyball team’s record-setting attendance numbers and back-to-back field hockey championships.
Cards will feature an assortment of college programs officially licensed through the Collegiate Licensing Company, the nation’s leading licensing agency for more than 600 of the nation’s top colleges and universities, and the Brandr Group, a student-athlete NIL representation agency.
“It’s been sort of an area of growth and sort of where we have set our sights on in terms of really developing that space,” Zickler said. “And it’s a testament to the growth of women sports in the nation as well.”
Individual Athletes, Not Team
Volume 1 will feature 300 to 400 student athletes, focusing on individual rather than entire teams. Among the first athletes announced was Jordy Bahl, a multiple-time national champion pitcher with the University of Nebraska
“It is a privilege to have some of my sweetest memories in the game of softball immortalized in these trading cards,” Bahl said in a statement provided by Upper Deck. “I cannot wait to share them with my family and loved ones, along with fans and other people who have followed my journey.”
Zickler said the volume of cards produced in the series will not be as high as those for Major League Baseball other professional sports, and he anticipates the market for them will include currently enrolled students, alumni and friends and family members of the students.
President
Upper Deck Company
If some of those featured students emerge as the next Michael Jordan or Serena Williams, their collegiate cards likely may be more coveted than rookie cards for professional star athletes, he said.
Other female student athletes in Volume 1 will be Madisen Skinner, a star volleyball player for the University of Texas, and soccer player Lexi Missimo, also a Texas Longhorn.
The Upper Deck World of Sports also will feature male athletes, with University of Missouri wide receiver Luther Burden III among the first announced.
Additional Focus on Women
Upper Deck has taken other steps in promoting female athletes this year. In March, the company announced an exclusive license with the newly formed Professional Women’s Hockey League.
Also in March, the company released a free digital trading card set featuring PWHL players Emily Clark (Ottawa), Kendall Coyne Schofield (Minnesota), Savannah Harmon (Ottawa), Hilary Knight (Boston), Sarah Nurse (Toronto), Marie-Philip Poulin (Montréal), Abby Roque (New York), and Natalie Spooner (Toronto).
In July, Upper Deck revealed its exclusive memorabilia and trading card deal with Olympic beach volleyball star Kerri Walsh Jennings. As part of the agreement, Upper Deck will produce specially curated collectibles featuring Walsh Jennings’ image and autograph.
In other company news, Upper Deck has launched upperdeckepack.com, an online trading side that allows users to buy collectibles or trade items among other users.
Upper Deck
FOUNDED: 1988
PRESIDENT: Jason Masherah
HEADQUARTERS: Carlsbad
BUSINESS: Sports and entertainment collectibles
EMPLOYEES: 300+
WEBSITE: https://upperdeck.com/
NOTABLE: Upper Deck uses embedded holograms to ensure collectors that its signed cards are counterfeit but authentic.
