Upper Deck Company Upper Deck Company , LLC Slogan Unknown Type private Founded 1988 in Yorba Linda , California Headquarters 5909 Sea Otter Place Carlsbad , California 92008-6621 United States Key people CEO and President Richard McWilliams , VP Marketing Louise Curcio Industry Collectibles Products Trading cards Revenue undisclosed Employees undisclosed Website www.upperdeck.com Upper Deck Company , LLC ( colloquially as `` Upper Deck , `` Upper Deck Authenticated , Ltd. in the UK ) , founded in 1988 , is a company primarily known for producing trading cards . It is a private company . The company has exclusive agreements to produce memorabilia with such sports superstars as Michael Jordan ( who is also on the board of directors ) , Kobe Bryant , Tiger Woods , and Ken Griffey Jr . Former Major League relief pitcher De Wayne Buice is a former managing partner , and was instrumental in negotiating Upper Deck 's first license with Major League Baseball and the MLBPA .The man who came up with the idea for a premium card was Paul Sumner , a former printing sales person who hired Robert Young Pelton to design and produce a prototype . Although the company did not have both licenses , Pelton convinced Sumner that they could create presold cards and take those orders to the MLB and Players Association to get a license . They did . Pelton did all of Upper Deck 's Marketing and product for three years until Richard McWilliam forced Paul Sumner out . Pelton 's agency Pelton & Associates and Digital Artists was replaced by Chiat Day . Upper Deck 's sales plummeted from $ 250 million to less than $ 95 million after the departure of Pelton . Pelton went on to buy Fielding 's Travel Guides and create The World 's Most Dangerous Places . Paul Sumner resigned with the understanding that he would be known as the `` Co-Founder of Upper Deck '' Something that the company 's former accountant , Richard McWilliam ignores to this day . The book `` Card Sharks '' by Pete Williams covers Pelton 's and Sumners early ideas and explosive growth . Company history On December 23 , 1988 , Upper Deck was granted a license by Major League Baseball to produce baseball cards . The first case of Upper Deck Baseball Cards was delivered February 28 , 1989 , to George Moore of Tulsa 's Baseball Card Store in Tulsa , OK . The Upper Deck Company sold out its baseball cards midway through this inaugural year , then pre-sold its entire 1990 baseball stock before the year began . The 1990 set included the industry 's first randomly inserted personally autographed and numbered cards of sports superstars . On March 20 , 1990 , The Upper Deck Company was granted licenses by the National Hockey League and National Hockey League Players Association to produce hockey cards . The company also obtained licenses from the National Football League and the National Basketball Association in 1990 , making the Upper Deck Company the first trading card company in 10 years to be licensed by all four leagues . In 1995 , the company produced its first racing product . In 1996 , it expanded its racing line when it absorbed Maxx . Upper Deck was also the first to insert swatches of Game-Used material into cards when it made jersey cards in 1996 UD Football . The insert set was called Game Jersey and a similar set followed in baseball the next year , where UD cut up Game Used Jerseys of Ken Griffey Jr. , Tony Gwynn and Rey Ordonez . In July 2005 Upper Deck won the liquidation auction of former competitor Fleer - SkyBox International 's brand name , assets and model business as well as the Fleer Collectibles die-cast business assets . Since its earliest days , Upper Deck has gained a reputation for quality made trading cards and also as an innovator of security measures to prevent counterfeiting of its products . However , the company has also been accused of questionable business practices at various points , including the supposed reprinting of rare error cards from its 1989 baseball product and an entire early hockey product initially thought to be very limited . Upper Deck originally included the year of the trading card set 's release on its logo , with the `` 19 '' above the `` Upper '' and the last two digits of the year under the `` Deck '' ( but both inside the green diamond ) . This was dropped midway through the 1994 season . Recently both Bob Andrews ( COO and President ) and Jerry Bennington ( VP Entertainment ) both left the company for other endeavors . NBA Exquisite Collection Upper Deck premiered its NBA Exquisite Collection product in the 2003-2004 season . Each pack contained five basketball cards ; one veteran base card numbered to 225 , one autographed rookie card featuring a piece of patch worn by the player numbered to 99 or 225 , one game worn jersey card , one autographed/patch insert card , and a fifth card that was either a low numbered parallel or an additional autographed patch card . Suggested retail price of the product was $ 500 US , making it the most expensive basketball card product ever produced at the time. ( The few packs that remain unopened now sell for over $ 1000 . Autograph cards included veterans such as Michael Jordan , Patrick Ewing , Kobe Bryant , and Kevin Garnett and rookies such as Lebron James , Dwyane Wade , and Carmelo Anthony . The most sought after cards from the product include the autographed/patch rookie cards numbered to 99 ( Lebron James , Darko Milicic , Carmelo Anthony , Chris Bosh , Dwyane Wade , and Udonis Haslem ) , the Limited Logos inserts which feature an extra large jersey patch piece and autograph , and the autographed/patch rookie parallels serial numbered to the player 's jersey number . In view of the series ' success , the company has released 2004-05 and 2005-06 basketball sets and a 2005 football product . Other products The company 's division , Upper Deck Entertainment , produces the English , Spanish , Portuguese , German , Italian , and French versions of the Yu-Gi-Oh ! Trading Card Game licensed from Konami , the Winx Club Trading Card Game for girls , along with the Marvel Trading Card Game and the DC Comics Trading Card Game using their proprietary VS System . In October of 2005 , UDE introduced a Trading Card Game based on Nickelodeon 's new Avatar : The Last Airbender series and the Pirates of the Caribbean movies . It has also released many non-game oriented sports-based and multimedia companion trading card sets . Upper Deck recently announced a World of Warcraft Trading Card Game , based on the popular MMORPG . See also Limited liability company Trading Cards Collectible Card Game External links Upper Deck website Upper Deck Entertainment website Upper Deck Kids website References Hoover 's Upper Deck Company , LLC Fact Sheet Beckett.com company profile Categories : Manufacturing companies of the United States | Baseball cards In other languages : Deutsch Upper Deck Company , LLC private Unknown 1988 in Yorba Linda , California 5909 Sea Otter Place Carlsbad , California 92008-6621 United States CEO and President Richard McWilliams , VP Marketing Louise Curcio Collectibles undisclosed undisclosed Trading cards www.upperdeck.com 