Hobby Musings: Paul Zickler, Upper Deck The Cup – Interview
Hobby Musings: Paul Zickler, Upper Deck The Cup – Interview Transcript
Editor’s note: Some text has been changed from original audio for grammar and clarity.
KS: Hey everyone, welcome to another edition of Hobby Musings. I’m Kelsey Schroyer, as always. Joined today by Upper Deck’s Paul Zickler. Paul, thank you for joining us.
PZ: Thanks for having me, Kelsey.
KS: So, we’re here to talk about The Cup, everything about The Cup, Upper Deck’s high-end release for hockey every year. Pretty recently, the company announced a new wrinkle with the product. For anyone who may not know, what more can you tell us about it?
And the reason for that, Kelsey, is patch switching and sort of counterfeit patching has, especially with high end cards, has been such a significant issue over the duration of the hobby. With this technology, and you can sort of see this slab up front, with the unique QR code and serial number up in the top right corner. You can go to the authority.com website, put in the serial number and just see the uncirculated images of that card. Upper Deck has always prided itself on innovation and authenticity, going back to our five step UDA process. This is just another level of authenticity that we’re now offering our customers. I know I’ve talked a lot there in the intro, but that’s obviously a massive innovation on our side. And what better place to do it than in The Cup.
KS: Now, this is a product that already has a lot of wrinkles, as you kind of alluded to. How did introducing this affect the production process for The Cup?
PZ: I know collectors get excited just seeing the specific cards, but the packaging around how the cards get in. So even when you look at the box this year, we do have an inner tray. That’s our usual inner tray that people have become accustomed to over the years. So if you take that out, we have another internal tray to fit the slab card. And the inner box itself had to be modified, to a larger box to accommodate the slab. So even nuances such as that, that go into it, had to be taken into consideration when we sort of introduced this new element to this product.
KS: Now, what about the cost of the product? I mean, this obviously costs money to do all of this. Did it affect the cost of the product?
PZ: No. It didn’t. There was a lot of, a lot of other factors that are going in on the industry that, our customers, especially north of the border, there’s a lot of different things that play. This specific, encasing didn’t really affect our P&L’s, I think obviously placing it into our higher end product, definitely made that a little bit easier. There is some added costs, no doubt about it. But I think specifically around The Cup pricing this year, there’s a ton of different factors that are going on as everyone is aware. But yes, this one was a good fit from that standpoint. But it didn’t really have a direct impact, the slabbing on the pricing.
KS: What has been the reception you’ve seen so far from the collecting in the shop community to doing this?
PZ: One thing that we all know about the hobby is that there’s passionate collectors out there. And when you bring in something innovative and unique and revolutionary like this, there’s going to be feedback on both sides of the ledger. From the design to obviously concerns of, grading it with some other grading companies.
But for the most part, looking at the reactions and I’ve been watching quite a few breaks, a lot of people are excited about it. I think that added element of authenticity, especially with these cards, there’s been a history of sort of fraudulent patches. They’ve been asking us to release images for years. I’m seeing more comments of people that are enthusiastic about it, which is great. And that’s really what we wanted to do.
A lot of people have been asking, is this the future? We really value our, consumers, our distributors, our media partners feedback. This was a great way to showcase this technology, but we’re really going to be taking feedback into consideration and, taking that in, in how we sort of move forward with something like this.
KS: You talked the future very briefly there. Is this going to be a one-time thing or are we going to see this in The Cup going forward, as well as potentially other Upper Deck products?
PZ: Just to our last point, I think we’re really going to pay attention to this initial launch, and feedback. I’ve seen some comments about the parallels of the base set not being slabbed. We’ll take some of that feedback and learning. But judging by the initial reception, I think that this technology and The Cup, at least how we presented it here, will be moving forward.
KS: Now, aside from the encapsulation part, were there any other new wrinkles to The Cup this year?
PZ: Well, just obviously the anticipation of the rookie class. We are a year removed from the Macklin class, but Connor Bedard, Adam Fantilli, Leo Carlsson, I think just the magnitude of the rookie class, really helped sort of elevate that. I’ve been looking at some of the breaks, obviously the massive hits, whether it’s the limited logos or the monumental patch booklets, obviously big hits haven’t disappointed.
I think collectors and at least the people that have seen some breaks over the first few days have noticed that. We’re really proud of this product as a whole. But I think there’s a little bit more anticipation, just with how much buzz there was around this class when it came through.
KS: Now you’ve actually got a website you can show for the encapsulation. Do you want to go to that while we talk some more?
PZ: Yeah, sure. So as I showed, within this sort of the slab, you can sort of see the QR code up here on the right-hand side and then the unique serial number. You can see here this is the Matt Murray card. Basically, users can go on to the authority.com, type in that serial number, and then when you click enter you go through, and you will see the make-up of that card.
And that’s why when I’m showing it here, you can see that that patch swatch in the image is a direct correlation to the images that are on the website. And then you can go through and see the different images. There’s quite a few of them that you can then authenticate your card, with the click of the button.
With authentication and purchasing these high-end cards via eBay or other third-party sites, it’s very difficult for users to make sure that they’re receiving the authentic version of the card. And they rely on reaching out to the manufacturers, especially when you’re making such a significant investment. So now consumers, in connection with the rookie auto patch will be able to purchase those with confidence by checking that serial number in real time and providing that level of authenticity,
KS: Paul, roughly, if you have these figures, so just how many cards ended up getting encapsulated and put in that database if you have that number?
PZ: I do have that number, but I don’t think I’m going to share it with you. But obviously every rookie auto patch got it. So, it was a significant undertaking. And that’s why I said, with kudos to the team. Just in terms of getting this across the finish line and even just, this is a hand packed out product, and a lot of people don’t know that. But it’s a big investment of resources to get that done and make sure it delivers that rookie auto patch per box.
Coming off the success of last year when we did that hot tin last year with the six RPAs to 99 in one box. We launched yesterday the Bedard hot tin, where each card is a Bedard card with his RPA to 99. So, we take a lot of pride in delivering a valuable product, but there is a lot of effort behind the scenes to get that done.
KS: We’ve touched on this a little bit already in this interview, how important overall is The Cup to Upper Deck’s hockey brand and the hockey collecting community as a whole?
PZ: I think obviously it’s a very important product just given its heritage, the value of the cards. I know that there’s a, I believe, a Bedard RPA already up, on auction right now. But it really signifies this sort of culmination of the year as well.
There are so many products that come out through the calendar, and it’s also a testament to our team getting up on time. This is obviously the earliest we’ve released the Cup out of the last three releases. So, things are getting caught up and we’re proud of that. To be able to launch this obviously while the Stanley Cup is going on is just the cherry on top.
And you did ask about it earlier about anything notable about this Cup. One other thing worth noting, is that the Connor Bedard card, his rookie to 99 has game used memorabilia this year. So that is another added element to this one. I think we’re announcing that today at some point. But if not, you’ll get the first look at that. But yes, his to 99 is game used memorabilia from his rookie year.
KS: So aside from The Cup, what else does Upper Deck have coming for hockey products in the near future?
PZ: You know what, we’ve been really moving with a lot of products. Obviously, there was a lot of buzz with extended, just a week ago and the Ovi buyback cards. I know the one of eight has been pulled, which is cool. But looking on the horizon, we have Parkhurst Champions coming out next week. And then into July we have two massive hitters, with O-Pee-Chee Platinum and SP Authentic. Really big products, obviously on the hard-signed side of things, O-Pee-Chee Platinum and SPA are two of the biggest. So those are right around the corner in July, and we have a lot of the top rookies live in that product. So, we’re excited about those.
KS: We’ve talked a lot about rookies in this interview. This year’s NHL draft is not too far away. Who are some of the top prospects in this upcoming rookie class that collectors should be keeping an eye on?
PZ: We’ve been very fortunate with the last two rookie classes. Obviously the Bedard year everyone’s aware of, but I think we were all surprised with sort of Macklin, Celebrini, and Lane Hutson this year.
We’ve honestly been spoiled. And I was thinking that this would be a little bit of a drop off, but we ended up getting super lucky with the late skaters down the stretch. Gabe Perreault, [Ryan] Leonard in Washington, and then Ivan Demidov in Montreal and, that was something that we weren’t anticipating but has led to a massive buzz in the market and demand for our early season products with MVP kicking off in just eight weeks.
So, there is a ton of buzz. And obviously UD1, we’ve solicited UD1. Demidov is going to be in there. So even from a holdover class, we were greatly surprised. And so, leading in, you have a few big defenseman, [James] Hagens, [Matthew] Schaefer. [Michael] Misa ran up the board ever since he got snubbed with Hockey Canada. He put in an unbelievable season with Saginaw. And each of those guys are Upper Deck exclusive, so we’re freakin’ pumped. And I think the Islanders are pumped too. They got a little bit lucky. But in San Jose, Chicago is up there. Utah has a good pick. So, some good markets. And we’re just really excited to see where the chips fall.
KS: That’s all really great to hear. Paul, thank you so much for joining us today.
PZ: Thanks, Kelsey. Have a good one.
Hobby Musings: Paul Zickler, Upper Deck The Cup
Kelsey’s ability to bring hobby coverage to the mainstream sports fan has been a true asset. GTS is happy to feature his thoughts on collecting in Hobby Musings. The opinions expressed are his and do not necessarily reflect those of GTS Distribution.
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