Upper Deck secures DC license

[PurplesaurusRex]

Well the timing of MMXL is definitely weird. It could be seen as one final cash grab from the Marvel Masterpiece crowd...

[daverat]

DC Platinum has a nice ring to it

[Carrbeaz]

Would be nice to get PMGs of Batman, Joker, Superman, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and Power Girl

[Archangel1775]

The cards will be based primarily on the comic books rather than the versions of DC characters from movies, TV or videogames, at least initially.

I'm more of a movie guy myself but Step 1 is the proper way to grow the brand. Seeing Jambalaya and PMG's of these characters are going to be sweet!

[BipolarBear]

Originally Posted by CicadaMound

The distribution system is a major issue for all trading card companies. Giving them out with gum worked for sixty years and they never should've stopped. I'm only half joking about this.

I'm looking forward to any animation stuff they manage to get out, despite WB's disdain for the genre.

Distribution is definitely a major issue but I think the nature of collecting has changed in a way that has made it seem overwhelming to newcomers. In the 1990s, you had a base set of 100 to 150, maybe a parallel set, then 1-3 chase sets that were not huge and with reasonable odds (the big hit in most sets was 1 per box, the MU93 holo, MM95 Mirage, and OU96 Autos among the few recruiting).

Now you see these sprawling subsets of 30+ cards and 1:800 odds. A kid who wants to just put a set together isn't gong to touch that.

[finfangfan]

I think Upper Deck also needs to realize that DC (by and large) is not as widely collected as Marvel properties. So they need to price and create a print run to match DC level demand, not Marvel. And I don’t think DC interest can sustain the type of glut of products that UD has done with Marvel recently (I’d even argue that collector interest in Marvel can’t even sustain the glut of Marvel products that UD has popped out in the last year).

For what it’s worth, the print to order DC Superman card is priced at $4.99 which is lower than the recent $7.99 for similar Marvel print to order cards… so maybe UD is realizing pricing needs to be different for DC for it to have a chance with collectors. We will see.

[LittleJimmies]

Looks like the final count on the Superman previews was 3275 base, 112 blue, and 63 red. Wonder if we see Batman next.

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by LittleJimmies

Looks like the final count on the Superman previews was 3275 base, 112 blue, and 63 red. Wonder if we see Batman next.

Is this Superman promo card on COMC? What would the title be?

[finfangfan]

Originally Posted by DynaEtch

Is this Superman promo card on COMC? What would the title be?

Hasn’t been printed yet so not on COMc

[LittleJimmies]

Originally Posted by DynaEtch

Is this Superman promo card on COMC? What would the title be?

Epack only for now.



Sent from my Pixel 7 Pro using Tapatalk

[DynaEtch]

Ooh ok thanks. That explains why I couldn’t find it.

[finfangfan]

Originally Posted by LittleJimmies

Looks like the final count on the Superman previews was 3275 base, 112 blue, and 63 red. Wonder if we see Batman next.

Was it only a one week set? I thought we’d immediately get another weekly card after Superman weekly window ended.

[LittleJimmies]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

Was it only a one week set? I thought we’d immediately get another weekly card after Superman weekly window ended.

I'd assumed there was going to be additional weekly preview cards of the top characters, but don't think I ever actually saw anything stating such. I still can't imagine they wouldn't do Batman, Wonder Woman, and Flash at least.

[finfangfan]

Missed opportunity.

[DynaEtch]

Heck that was an easy ~$16k for UD right. May as well just do a few other characters with money rolling in like that.

I would have liked to see a super rare chase element to this- much longer odds than 1:50. Like throw in a 1:1000 black parallel or something. Adds about no extra cost, and probably leads to a lot more people buying hoping to hit big. I’m not sure the 1:50 is interesting enough as a longest odds chase.

[RJ MacReady]

Would be cool to finally get a set of classic DC comic cover cards like we've seen from Marvel

[LittleJimmies]

Really strange that UD hasn't followed up the Superman preview card with more characters. Could have sold around 1 gazillion Batmans as a cheap add-on when people were going Platinum crazy

[finfangfan]

Originally Posted by LittleJimmies

Really strange that UD hasn't followed up the Superman preview card with more characters. Could have sold around 1 gazillion Batmans as a cheap add-on when people were going Platinum crazy

Yeah… I thought the same thing. Next preview card would be good to make it a Collect Forever exclusive and include in slab of select DC comics in a given month. That could help drive people to collect forever and boost interest in the comics and the upcoming DC trading card sets. Or even arrange to have polybagged in comic shop DC comics in a given week. Something to boost interest would be good all around.

[Rictor]

Originally Posted by nabzy28

The problem with Marvel is that no casual collectors that might be interested in these products even know they exist.

Upper Deck does retail blasters for almost every release that are available at every Target and Wal-Mart store in the trading card/toy sections. How else would you reach the casual collectors?

[finfangfan]

Originally Posted by Rictor

Upper Deck does retail blasters for almost every release that are available at every Target and Wal-Mart store in the trading card/toy sections. How else would you reach the casual collectors?

Eh… it’s pretty hit or miss for Marvel showing up at Walmart and Target. Most of the Marvel Platinum blasters were probably bought on the UD store. Post a picture of your Walmart and Target if you are in an area where Marvel is well represented. In my area it’s all sports and Pokémon.

[BobCollects]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

Eh… it’s pretty hit or miss for Marvel showing up at Walmart and Target. Most of the Marvel Platinum blasters were probably bought on the UD store. Post a picture of your Walmart and Target if you are in an area where Marvel is well represented. In my area it’s all sports and Pokémon.

I still think Target blew through its allocation of Marvel Platinum blasters by accidentally shipping them to folks who ordered football blasters. I don't think they ever showed up on Target's website.

Off the top of my head, I can remember seeing Marvel Allure, Falcon and Winter Soldier, and 2021-22 Marvel Annual blasters at either Walmart or Target. Maybe Spider-Man: No Way Home. I found Marvel Metal Spider-Man at Barnes & Noble.

Retail non-sports boxes and packs are definitely not uniformly available at big box stores like sports, at least in my experience. And even if they were, are casual collectors going to know to look in the collectibles aisle? Or realize their Target/Walmart has a collectibles aisle?

Whatever Upper Deck decides to do with DC license, the better advertising/promotional option would be card shops or comic shops, like finfangfan suggested. Existing DC comic book collectors are the most likely to be interested in DC trading cards, right?

[Rictor]

I have 5 local Target stores I frequent, and they mostly stock Marvel blasters pretty deep. They keep the trading cards with the Funko Pops and collectible action figures at most stores. If you're a casual Marvel collector, I don't know how you could miss them, as you're probably in that area checking out the Marvel Pops, action figures, etc. anyway. I live in a city with huge Super Target stores that are the size of a Wal-Mart though. I know where real estate is more expensive, Target stores can be a lot smaller, like in California and New York.

[finfangfan]

Originally Posted by Rictor

I have 5 local Target stores I frequent, and they mostly stock Marvel blasters pretty deep. They keep the trading cards with the Funko Pops and collectible action figures at most stores. If you're a casual Marvel collector, I don't know how you could miss them, as you're probably in that area checking out the Marvel Pops, action figures, etc. anyway. I live in a city with huge Super Target stores that are the size of a Wal-Mart though. I know where real estate is more expensive, Target stores can be a lot smaller, like in California and New York.

Are you finding the Fleer Ultra Wolverine blasters on shelves? So far, I have only seen them at the UD Store.

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by BobCollects

Existing DC comic book collectors are the most likely to be interested in DC trading cards, right?

I will argue probably not, since comic and card collectors often tend to stay in that one lane. It’s amazing how many marvel comic collectors are barely aware of what UD is doing currently with marvel cards, and not collecting them either way (comic book collectors skew older now, and card collectors skew younger, thats one factor).

I believe the biggest buyers of UD’s DC cards will be ironically be….existing marvel card collectors branching over. We are already familiar with Metal, Masterpieces, Fleer Ultra. We generally are collecting for the art, and DC cards will be about the art just new characters to explore.

The other main people interested will be 2) sports crowd coming over to speculate on stuff like Batman and Superman PMGs, where it’s all about the $, and 3)the usual epack crowd that basically buys everything on epack, often using the product to gamble and/or build up trading material.

Sure I could see some big DC comic loyalists very interested, but it’ll be the existing card people doing most of the buying most likely.

[finfangfan]

The Superman preview card was recently made physical on ePack and quite a few have made their way to COMC in the $2 range.



It will be interesting to see how Upper Deck handles the DC property. They are currently dumping a ton of Marvel product on the market before that license ends. So Upper Deck’s DC intro sets will compete not only with Uooer Deck’s Marvel Overstock but also with the new Marvel sets that Topps will be rolling out in Q1 of 2025.

Things could get crowded.