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72-496: Fantasy Flight Publishing was founded in 1995 by its CEO Christian T. Petersen . Since the release of its first game product ( Twilight Imperium ) in 1997, the company has been doing business as Fantasy Flight Games (FFG). Since that time, FFG has become one of the biggest names in the hobby games industry, being a marketplace leader in board games and maintaining strong businesses in the card game, roleplaying game, and miniature game categories. From 2000 through 2008, FFG produced

144-530: A $ 1.5 billion industry in 1992. Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson served as an adviser in the early 1990s. Jackson would also serve as the inspiration for the first certified autograph card inserted into trading cards with the company's "Find the Reggie" campaign. A massively successful promotion for the Upper Deck brand, the triple portrait of Jackson, remains an iconic image among baseball card collectors. At

216-638: A $ 75 million suit against Konami in Nevada District Court. In a January 26, 2009 press release Upper Deck denied allegations of counterfeiting, and stated that Upper Deck would support the Yu-Gi-Oh! community in an upcoming event. On February 26, 2009, Upper Deck was ordered to cease distribution of Yu-Gi-Oh! products, stop using Konami's trademarks and stop promoting itself as an authorized distributor or rights-holder to Yu-Gi-Oh! . On January 10, 2010, Judge Valerie Baker Fairbank ruled in

288-528: A 2005 football line, and an analogous 2005–06 hockey line called The Cup. The football line, which includes autographed rookie "patch" cards, is the most popular of the series. Variants of these cards, called the Gold Series, are limited to runs of 25 or 99 cards. The company's Exquisite-branded baseball series were introduced first as premiums in lower-end Upper Deck products (including the company's SP Legendary Cuts and Artifacts Baseball lines). In late 2007,

360-414: A California Angels pitcher, would later become one of Upper Deck's founding partners. In November 1987, Buice walked into The Upper Deck, a trading card store. Store owner Bill Hemrick noticed Buice and the two struck up a friendship, one that led to Buice's hosting an autograph session at the store. Within weeks, Buice had become one of Hemrick's business partners. Hemrick and his partner Paul Sumner were in

432-454: A Season card. One new card was available every week throughout the NHL season. The first four cards were: In observance of its 20th anniversary in 2009, Upper Deck released a set that can be found in all of the company's 2009 baseball trading card releases. The massive 2,500 card set commemorated the last 20 years in sports, pop culture, politics, world history and technology. The first cards from

504-435: A US District Court that Upper Deck had counterfeited the cards, and additionally threw out Upper Deck's countersuit alleging breach of the distribution agreement. The next stage of the case began on January 26, 2010, where a jury was to decide whether Upper Deck was liable for counterfeiting the cards. During the opening statement for the defense, Upper Deck's attorney, Richard Howell of Rutan & Tucker stated "The behavior

576-503: A card of Griffey in their regular 1989 sets. Both brands would make a card of Griffey in their end of year Traded sets. Upper Deck's Griffey exclusivity gain exposure due to the popularity of Griffey in the 1989 MLB season . Despite the popularity of the Griffey card, it was not a scarce card. The card was situated in the top left hand corner of the uncut sheets and was more liable to be cut poorly or have its corners dinged. Company policy

648-748: A company name too often so he chose a name evocative of the fantasy flight that a pegasus would take. Petersen loved European comics and originally intended to use the company to republish three comics for which he had obtained the rights negotiations with European publishers: Lucky Luke , Spirou & Fantasio and Percevan . Petersen started by publishing those licensed comics, and he began importing and distributing more popular titles such as Asterix and Tintin when he found out people wanted them, and he creating Downtown Distribution and started distributing even more titles when he learned people wanted him to do that. Petersen read Comics & Games Retailer , which also printed data regularly about

720-598: A federal lawsuit against Upper Deck for trademark infringement. A mutual settlement was announced on March 3, 2010, stating that Upper Deck could continue selling its three current baseball card series (2009 Signature Stars, 2009 Ultimate Collection and 2010 Upper Deck Series One), although they were prohibited from using any MLB trademarks, including team logos and names, in any future baseball products. Despite this limitation, Upper Deck commented that they would still continue to produce baseball-related cards without using those trademarks. On September 29, 2009, Upper Deck created

792-519: A fifth card that was either a low numbered parallel or an additional autographed patch card. Suggested retail price of the product was $ 500, making it the most expensive basketball card product ever produced at the time (the few packs that remain unopened now sell for over $ 4,000). Autograph cards include veterans such as Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Carmelo Anthony. The most sought after cards from

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864-588: A license from Chaosium to have his company produce a series of supplements for Call of Cthulhu . Petersen and Darrell Hardy wrote the Nocturnum adventure trilogy for Call of Cthulhu : Long Shades (1997), Hollow Winds (1998) and Deep Secrets (1999). Petersen and Kevin Wilson designed the Game of Thrones (2003) wargame, and Doom: The Boardgame (2004). As CEO of Fantasy Flight Games, Petersen led

936-423: A monthly or near-monthly basis, each containing 60 cards, with a number of copies of each unique card equal to the limit of the number of copies a player is allowed in their deck (e.g. three copies of each card in an Android: Netrunner pack). Larger "deluxe" expansions are released less frequently, and typically contain many more cards and sometimes introduce new game mechanisms. Many games from other companies use

1008-450: A prototype. Pelton designed and produced the cards for Upper Decks first three-year rise. Pelton's agencies, Pelton & Associates and Digital Artists, were replaced by Chiat/Day . Paul Sumner resigned with the understanding that he would be known as the "Co-Founder of Upper Deck," something that the company's owner and CEO, Richard McWilliam , recognized until McWilliam's death in 2013. On March 20, 1990, Upper Deck received licenses from

1080-536: A series of supplements and adventures for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition under the Open Gaming License . This series was collectively known as Legends & Lairs. These books included supplements for classes, expanded magic, and environments, as well as a series of Instant Adventure booklets. In 2008, FFG partnered with Games Workshop to represent Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 settings in role-playing, board, and card games. FFG announced

1152-430: A similar distribution model, but because "Living Card Game" and its initials "LCG" are registered trademarks of Fantasy Flight Games, other publishers do not use this term. For example, Upper Deck Entertainment relaunched VS System in 2015 as an LCG-style game but markets it as a "Two-Player Card Game" or "2PCG" and similar Doomtown: Reloaded was called an "expandable card game". Fantasy Flight Games currently prints

1224-562: A special reception with one of the company's spokesmen. Fewer than 125 members are chosen to be a part of the program each year. On August 6, 2009, Major League Baseball announced it entered into a multi-year deal with Topps giving it exclusive rights to produce MLB trading cards. Upper Deck would retain its rights to produce cards bearing player likenesses via its contract with the MLBPA but will be unable to use team logos or other trademarked images. On February 1, 2010, Major League Baseball filed

1296-472: A website so that collectors could find out more about the Yankee Stadium Legacy set. Alphanumeric codes found on the backs of Yankee Stadium Legacy cards can be entered at the site, and collectors would be able to use the site to manage their collections online, and track their collections against other collectors via a leader board. Tommy Baxter, a 36-year-old from Little Rock, Arkansas, was

1368-630: Is a term trademarked by Fantasy Flight Games for expandable card games . FFG defines a "Living Card Game" as a variant of collectible card games . LCGs have regular expansions and deck construction like CCGs, but do not have the "blind buy purchase model" of CCGs. Instead of randomized starter decks and booster packs , LCGs have starter sets and expansion packs with fixed non-randomized distribution of cards. Their starter sets come with pre-constructed starter decks, and are designed to be self-contained; they can be played by themselves or expanded for constructed play with expansions. Expansion packs are released on

1440-456: Is no longer produced or supported by Fantasy Flight. On November 17, 2014, it was announced that Fantasy Flight Games had agreed on a merger with French board game publisher Asmodée Éditions . Asmodee has helped to bring some of Fantasy Flight's board games to digital form, and in October 2017, Asmodée and Fantasy Flight announced the formation of Fantasy Flight Interactive, a division of

1512-559: Is still undeniably wrong. And I am in here, as counsel for the two defendants, asking you to hold my clients accountable for that behavior; asking you to hold my clients responsible for this conduct that there is no dispute, and there was no disputing even before this case started today, that it was wrong." After the second day of court proceedings, Konami and Upper Deck reached an out-of-court settlement. The terms were not publicly disclosed. Maxx produced racing cards from 1988 to 1996. Upper Deck started producing racing cards in 1995, acquired

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1584-550: The World of Warcraft Trading Card Game based on the popular MMORPG . UDE lost this license in early 2010. The Marvel Trading Card Game and the DC Comics Trading Card Game , using their proprietary VS System , was canceled in early 2009. It has since been relaunched as VS. System 2PCG. In October 2005, UDE introduced a trading card game based on Nickelodeon 's Avatar: The Last Airbender series and

1656-426: The 1994 baseball strike , Upper Deck's business stalled. Buice then agreed to a six-year payment plan. Sales in 1995 and 1996 fell so far that for those two years, virtually all the company's profits went to Buice. On the day in 1998 that Upper Deck cut Buice his final check, the company threw a party at its Carlsbad, California, headquarters. The top brass ordered employees to work just a half day. Later that year at

1728-570: The Barry Halper Collection auction held at Sotheby's in New York City. One of the items was a Ty Cobb jersey that Upper Deck paid $ 332,500 for. As part of a sweepstakes prize, it gave the jersey to 14-year-old Robert Shell of Milwaukee. At the time, the estimated tax Robert was going to pay on the prize was $ 125,000. The amount, his mother said, would force the family to sell the jersey. In May 2005, Richard McWilliam

1800-563: The Milwaukee Brewers , Sandy Alomar Jr. of the San Diego Padres , and Ken Griffey Jr. Geideman was a Seattle Mariners fan and decided that Ken Griffey Jr. should be the prospect featured on card number one of the 1989 set. At press time, Griffey had not yet played a major league game, so Upper Deck used an image of Griffey in a San Bernardino Spirit uniform. Competitors such as Score and Topps neglected to include

1872-808: The National Hockey League and the 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 Upper Deck the first trading card company in 10 years to be licensed by all four leagues. Upper Deck quickly rivaled Topps , which had been considered the standard, and other competitors, such as Fleer , Donruss , and Score. By 1991,

1944-668: The 2010 season. Upper Deck will continue to focus on its exclusive license agreement with the Collegiate Licensing Company and co-exclusive agreements with NHL Enterprises and the NHL Players Association, as well as its multiple entertainment licenses." On January 8, 2015, Panini America acquired the Collegiate Licensing Company exclusive trading card agreement that Upper Deck formerly owned. DeWayne Buice , then

2016-624: The 20th Anniversary Retrospective set were found in 2009 Upper Deck Series One Baseball. An additional element to the set was the 100-card memorabilia set that was found in all sets beginning with 2009 Upper Deck Spectrum Baseball (released on February 24). In April 2009, the company announcement that longtime company spokesman Michael Jordan would be honored with an 1,170-card tribute insert set chronicling every single Chicago Bulls game Jordan played in. The set will begin with his NBA debut on October 26, 1984, through his final Bulls appearance in Game 6 of

2088-514: The Bulls, regular-season and playoff battles included. The cards will fall, on average, 1:4 packs across all four brands. In addition to the 1,170 Jordan game cards, Upper Deck also included 100 different game-used memorabilia cards, each one crash-numbered to 23. The cards will sport swatches from Jordan's game-worn jerseys. More than 100 different action photos showing Jordan through the years were used for card front photography. Upper Deck acquired

2160-476: The Christmas party, Upper Deck CEO Richard McWilliam told employees the company's deal with Buice was the worst deal it had ever done. In the 1989 Upper Deck baseball set, Ken Griffey Jr. was selected to be featured on card number one. The decision to make Griffey Jr. the first card was reached in late 1988. A teenage employee named Tom Geideman was the one who suggested the use of Griffey as its choice for

2232-699: The Diamond Club. Diamond Club members consist of the top individual purchasers and collectors of Upper Deck and Fleer brands throughout the United States, Canada and Japan. The criteria were that the members distinguished themselves not only by the amount of money they spent, but by how they helped to promote these products within the hobby and to other collectors. Diamond Club members receive special promotional items, receive invitations to special events and are invited to an annual summit where they can share ideas with members of Upper Deck while participating in

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2304-569: The Maxx brand in December 1996 and discontinued the line in 2000. Upper Deck became licensor of the O-Pee-Chee brand in 2007, after the original Canadian company was sold to Nestlé in 1996. O-Pee-Chee's collections of baseball and ice hockey cards had been commercialised by Topps from 1997 to 2004. Since Upper Deck succeeded Topps as licensor, it has released several collections up to

2376-486: The NBA Finals on June 14, 1998. The 1,170-card set will pack out across four 2009 Upper Deck basketball products: Lineage (April 1); Radiance (April 29); Upper Deck (Sept. 22); and First Edition (Sept. 29). Each of the cards will include Jordan's specific box score stats from the game in question. Every card in the set will be given some historical significance as the overall set captures every game Jordan ever played with

2448-531: The Rings , as well as board games based upon popular computer games: Doom: The Boardgame , StarCraft: The Board Game , and World of Warcraft: The Board Game . They are also known for revising and reprinting popular or cult classic games, including Cosmic Encounter , Arkham Horror , Talisman , and Netrunner . From 2010 to 2013 FFG was Dust Studio's partner in publishing and distributing Paulo Parente's miniature wargame Dust Tactics . Commenting on

2520-483: The Rings Trivia Game , and his credits as co-designer include Diskwars and Vortex (also entitled Maelstrom ) with Tom Jolly , the A Game of Thrones CCG with Eric Lang , and The StarCraft Board Game with Corey Konieczka . Christian T. Petersen served as its CEO until FFG's merger with Asmodee in 2014, at which time he moved into his role as CEO of Asmodee North America. On July 30, 2018, it

2592-494: The Yankee Stadium Legacy as the largest baseball card set ever produced, once all the cards were released. The official recognition will take place only after all of the 6,500 cards are released in Upper Deck's various baseball card launches throughout the year. The various sets where the Yankee Stadium Legacy cards were inserted into were: Spectrum; Piece of History; SPx; Upper Deck Series Two; SP Legendary Cuts (hobby-only); SP Authentic; UDx; and UD Masterpieces. Upper Deck started

2664-481: The authenticity of such 'memorabilia", which often includes items manufactured specifically for insert cards, patches, and other desirable content. Upper Deck premiered its NBA Exquisite Collection line 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

2736-411: The back of each card and a counterfeit-proof tiny hologram marking. Upper Deck 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 stars. All Upper Deck brands bear an exclusive trademark hologram, and Upper Deck

2808-471: The beginning of the 1992–93 NHL season , Upper Deck made Patrick Roy a spokesperson. Roy was a hockey card collector, with more than 150,000 cards. An ad campaign was launched and it had an adverse effect on Patrick Roy's season. Upper Deck had a slogan called "Trade Roy", and it was posted on billboards throughout the city of Montreal. A Journal de Montreal poll, published on January 13, 1993, indicated that 57% of fans favoured trading Patrick Roy. Before

2880-602: The brand name "Upper Deck Authenticated", with athletes including Michael Jordan , Tiger Woods , LeBron James , Wayne Gretzky , Serena Williams , Roberto luongo , Connor McDavid , and Ben Simmons . Under the Upper Deck Entertainment name, the company also produced card games such as World of Warcraft and Vs. System . Upper Deck is also the current licensor of the O-Pee-Chee brand since 2007, having released several baseball and ice hockey card collections. On December 23, 1988, Upper Deck

2952-591: The cards. The Beckett Grading card service has evaluated over 25,000 of the Ken Griffey Jr. rookie cards. Upper Deck has changed its practice of using materials certified as "Worn" by the player depicted on the front of the card. The changed wording on the backs of Upper Deck insert cards makes it less clear as to how the materials were used or what player wore the item. Upper Deck's authenticity has been questioned in regards to players' jersey and uniform materials, but with no real founding. The cards state that

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3024-417: The company added another line to its Exquisite Collections brand, focused on rookie players. This recent addition is retailed at US$ 249 per pack. The Yankee Stadium Legacy set is a 6,742-card compilation chronicling every single game ever played at Yankee Stadium . The card set made its official debut inserted in random packs of Upper Deck's 2008 Series 1 Baseball. Other cards in the set commemorate some of

3096-406: The company built a 250,000-square-foot (23,000 m ) plant of brown marble and black glass on a hilltop 30 miles (48 km) north of San Diego. After Upper Deck introduced its premium baseball series, other companies followed with improved photography, better design, and higher-quality paper stock. The sports card market grew from $ 50 million in 1980 when Topps' monopoly was broken by Fleer, to

3168-480: The company owed him even more money, Buice sued Upper Deck executives. After the battle over Buice's stake in the company was settled in court, he became a millionaire who reportedly made $ 17 million on the deal, far more than he ever made as a baseball player. In two-and-a-half seasons with the Angels, Buice made $ 212,500. Upper Deck was originally scheduled to pay Buice his millions over a four-year period, but due to

3240-476: The company to publish more than 400 titles, making it one of the most successful publishers in the hobby games industry. In addition to his responsibilities as CEO, Petersen managed the day-to-day operations of Fantasy Flight's development and design department. Petersen designed many of Fantasy Flight's games throughout the years, including Twilight Imperium (all editions), the A Game of Thrones board game, World of Warcraft: The Board Game , and The Lord of

3312-479: The company's first-ever packs of Finnish - and Swedish-language Victory hockey cards. In February 2010, Blizzard Entertainment ended its licensing deal with Upper Deck, which had previously produced the World of Warcraft trading card game . On April 7, 2010, Upper Deck announced it would no longer be licensed to produce NFL trading cards. Upper Deck spokesperson Terry Melia noted on his Twitter account that, "UD

3384-489: The end of that partnership on September 9, 2016. Effective February 28, 2017, FFG no longer offers for sale any games made in conjunction with Games Workshop. In August 2011, Fantasy Flight Games acquired the license for card, miniature and role-playing games set in the Star Wars universe. They have also created board and card games for the well-known licenses Game of Thrones , Battlestar Galactica , and The Lord of

3456-456: The eventual buyer. Upper Deck originally included the year of the trading card set's release on its logo, with the "19" above "Upper" and the last two digits of the year under "Deck" (but both inside the green diamond). This practice was dropped midway through the 1994 season. In 2008, Upper Deck retired the green diamond logo and replaced it with a new design that it could better use to market all of its products. In 2009, Upper Deck introduced

3528-433: The first collector to put together Upper Deck's Yankee Stadium Legacy (YSL) Collection. The NHL Biography of a Season cards was a 30-card set capturing the greatest moments of the 2008-09 NHL Season . The cards were available through Upper Deck Certified Diamond Dealers. A collector had to redeem five wrappers of 2008/2009 Upper Deck hockey cards at a participating hobby store and receive an exclusive Upper Deck Biography of

3600-607: The following LCGs: Fantasy Flight Games has previously printed the following LCGs: Fantasy Flight has also printed Blue Moon Legends , which is a comprehensive collection of Blue Moon and its expansions. Although it has similar gameplay and a fixed card set like a Living Card Game, it was not released in the Living Card Game line. Fantasy Flight Games published the card game KeyForge in 2018. Created by Magic: The Gathering designer Richard Garfield , KeyForge differs from other collectible card games (CCGs) in that

3672-570: The game uses procedural generation to create unique decks. Commonly, CCGs are sold in pre-built decks or boosters packs. Fantasy Flight Games calls KeyForge a "unique deck game" because each deck contains a procedurally designed character unique to that deck called an Archon. IGN described the game as "a bold new idea and a vastly different kind of game format", but questioned the randomization model, speculating that "people won't be spending tons of money on single rare cards, but that may have been replaced with spending tons of money on random deck boxes in

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3744-445: The gaming field, so he took his experience with Danish gaming and started with game publication by designing Twilight Imperium (1997). Fantasy Flight Publishing became known as Fantasy Flight Games (FFG), and sold Downtown Distribution by early 1998, the last part of its comic book business, to focus on the gaming market instead. Petersen had been a fan of Call of Cthulhu for many years, and this interest led Petersen to get

3816-445: The hopes of getting lucky with a great card combination. On June 22, 2022, it was announced that Ghost Galaxy had acquired KeyForge from Fantasy Flight Games. 45°0′56″N 93°11′5″W  /  45.01556°N 93.18472°W  / 45.01556; -93.18472 Christian T. Petersen Christian T. Petersen is a game designer who has worked primarily on board games and role-playing games . Christian T. Petersen

3888-449: The inserted items are known to Upper Deck to have been used or worn, and authenticity is certified by third-party memorabilia vendors. Some of Upper Deck's jersey materials are harvested at events like rookie photo shoots, during such events, players will wear provided uniforms to generate event-worn material that never sees the field of play, but these practices are reserved to rookies or retired players. Collectors still debate and question

3960-407: The license, he would receive a 12 percent stake in the card company. Buice would become a key figure in getting MLBPA officials to agree to a meeting. By the end of the 1988 season, Hemrick and Sumner received the license and by 1989, were making baseball cards. By the time Buice retired from professional baseball at the end of the 1989 season, he had collected $ 2.8 million from Upper Deck. Believing

4032-563: The line 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 Exquisite series' success, the company has released 2004–05 and 2005–06 basketball sets,

4104-614: The merged companies to bring more of Fantasy Flight's physical board games to digital implementations. However, as part of a company-wide layoff, Fantasy Flight opted to close Fantasy Flight Interactive in January 2020. In December 2019 through January 2020 Asmodee announced they were moving towards focusing on Fantasy Flight Games' core boardgame-, dice- and card- games. Their tabletop role-playing games like Star Wars and Genesys will move to Edge Entertainment and Miniatures games like X-wing and Armada to Atomic Mass. Living Card Game

4176-639: The most famous sporting events that have taken place at Yankee Stadium. Some of these events include: Lou Gehrig's "Luckiest Man Alive" Speech (July 4, 1939); Babe Ruth's "Final Visit to Yankee Stadium" (June 11, 1948); Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling heavyweight title bout (June 19, 1936, Schmeling won), the 1958 NFL Championship between the New York Giants and the Baltimore Colts and Muhammad Ali's title defense against Ken Norton (Sept. 28, 1976). Guinness World Records stated an intention to certify

4248-477: The number-one card. Traditionally, Topps had a system for reserving various numbers in their sets (such as numbers 1 and 100) for the biggest stars in the game. Geideman decided that a top prospect should be honored with the number one card in the inaugural 1989 set. After reviewing Baseball America, Geideman narrowed the list of candidates to four: Gregg Jefferies of the New York Mets , Gary Sheffield of

4320-573: The present day. Upper Deck Entertainment (UDE), a division of The Upper Deck Company, used to produce the English , Spanish , Portuguese , German , Italian , and French language versions of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game , a collectible card game , licensed from Konami . Other collectible card games have included the Winx Club trading card game for girls, which has since been canceled,

4392-434: The process of starting Upper Deck. Unfortunately, the two lacked the business and personal connections to help land the necessary Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) license, which would allow Upper Deck to use players' names and likenesses on its cards. The only response they received was that the players' union was not accepting another card company for three more years. Buice was told that if he could help secure

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4464-680: The rights to distribute the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game from Konami in 2002. That same year, second quarter American sales reached $ 17 million. In October 2008, Konami sued Vintage Sports Cards for distributing Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Game Cards, along with counterfeit cards. The cards were found in a Los Angeles Toys-R-Us . Vintage denied any wrongdoing, claiming they legally obtained all cards (counterfeits included) directly from Upper Deck. Konami added Upper Deck as defendants on December 11. December 2008, Konami announced they were assuming full control over Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, which includes distribution and customer support. In response, Upper Deck filed

4536-449: The shift in 2013 Petersen stated “it became clear that Paolo and the Dust games would be better served by a partner who specializes in the unique business of miniature games.” Fantasy Flight Games was known for their game franchise Midnight , which was also made into a movie called Midnight Chronicles by the company's short-lived Landroval Studios. As of 2012, it appears that Midnight

4608-611: The trade deadline, Canadiens general manager Serge Savard insisted that he would consider a trade for Roy. The Canadiens ended the season by winning only 8 of their last 19 games. Upper Deck was also the first to insert swatches of game-used material into cards when it made jersey cards in 1997 UD Basketball. 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 Ordóñez . In 1999, Upper Deck Company spent in excess of $ 1.1 million in acquiring vintage baseball memorabilia items at

4680-680: Was announced that Petersen would be stepping down from his role as CEO of Asmodee North America at the end of 2018. Upper Deck Entertainment The Upper Deck Company, LLC (colloquially as Upper Deck and Upper Deck Authenticated, Ltd. in the UK) is a private company primarily known for producing trading cards . It was founded in 1988. Its headquarters are in Carlsbad, California , United States. The company also produces sports related items such as figurines and die-cast toys on top of having exclusive agreements to produce memorabilia, under

4752-976: Was born in the United States, but spent his childhood in Denmark ; while he was still only just in high school there he founded the company Pegasus Spil Import which imported games from Avalon Hill into Scandinavia, and he also founded Games Weekend , the second games convention in Denmark. Petersen came back to live in the United States in 1991 and started studies for his BA degree in Economics at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. Petersen founded Fantasy Flight Publishing in June 1995 after completing four years of college. Petersen at first wanted to call this company Pegasus Publishing but he found that aside from his own first company "Pegasus" had been used as

4824-483: Was created and voted upon by the staff of conference organizers F+W Publications . In July 2005, Upper Deck won the liquidation auction of former competitor Fleer - SkyBox International 's brand name, assets, and business model, as well as the Fleer collectibles die-cast business assets. In March 2007, Upper Deck made an offer to buy competitor Topps , competing with Madison Dearborn Partners and Tornante Company ,

4896-467: Was granted a license by Major League Baseball to produce baseball cards , and just two months later, on February 23, 1989, delivered its first two cases of baseball cards to George Moore of Tulsa's Baseball Card Store in Tulsa, Oklahoma . Its inaugural 1989 set stood out from other trading cards with its glossy fronts on heavy-duty cardboard (thicker than other card stocks), with an additional color photo on

4968-455: Was name the sports collectible industry's "most influential" person of the past 20 years at an annual trade convention in Hawaii. In addition to McWilliam's award, Upper Deck was also recognized for the debut of its legendary 1989 baseball trading card set, which included the then 19-year-old centerfielder Ken Griffey Jr., as the "most influential" event of the past 20 years. The list of nominees

5040-477: Was named "Card Set of the Year" every year from 1989 to 2004. Paul Sumner created the Upper Deck concept in 1987. He worked in printing sales and came up with the idea for a premium card. When he heard about card counterfeiting, he realized that he knew a way to protect cards. He had studied holograms in college and had used them in printing his company's brochures. He hired Robert Young Pelton to design and produce

5112-415: Was that if a customer found a damaged card in its package, the company would replace it. Many Griffey cards were returned and the result was that Upper Deck printed many uncut sheets (sheets consisting of 100 cards) of just the Griffey card. According to Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), the Ken Griffey Jr. card would become the most graded card of all time with the company; PSA graded over 50,000 of

5184-414: Was unable to come to terms with NFL Properties. No NFL Properties-licensed football cards from UD in 2010." Upper Deck owner Richard McWilliam said, "Over the past year, Upper Deck has attempted to negotiate a new licensing deal with NFL Properties. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we were not able to reach agreeable terms, and therefore will not be issuing any NFL Properties-licensed trading cards for

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