Upper deck gets the Harry Potter license

[Sickleclaw]

Upper Deck is excited to bring its iconic brands and flagship products to the world of Harry Potter. Initial releases will include Upper Deck Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone 25th Anniversary Trading Cards, a cinematic journey celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Sorcerer’s Stone. The set will include iconic Upper Deck flagship inserts, including UD Debuts featuring UD exclusives, high gloss, and Outburst parallels including a gold 1/1. To follow that, fans can also look forward to Fleer Ultra Harry Potter, which will showcase iconic Fleer Ultra inserts and original art trading cards. Key characters from the Harry Potter franchise will make their Upper Deck debuts, including Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Professor Dumbledore, and Professor Snape. Both trading card sets will be available at Certified Diamond Dealers, mass retailers, as well as Upper Deck’s e-Pack™ platform

https://upperdeck.com/upper-deck-ann...ct-collection/

[finfangfan]

This will sink or swim based on the autos they are able to get.

[kyle1707]

Pmg Harry Potter

[oldgoldy97]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

This will sink or swim based on the autos they are able to get.

I could see them try to pump products without autos.

[PrinceVegeta]

This may be a non auto type release..which would be doa for most of us.

[dd316]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

This will sink or swim based on the autos they are able to get.

I'm sure they'll do fine. The got a lot of grief for their MCU sets but they did get damn near every major person at some point.

[YayNJ]

Originally Posted by PrinceVegeta

This may be a non auto type release..which would be doa for most of us.

no chance, PMG Potter chase will be wild.

[Rictor]

They could definitely do some non-auto products and try to pump PMGs and numbered parallels. They could also do sketches or manufactured relics like diamond cards, wands, etc.

If they want to do autos, they could probably get most of the cast. I believe they all still sign and many of them do conventions.

I'm not a Potter fan (I was too old when the books/movies came out to really get into them), but it's definitely a good license for Upper Deck and should lead to a lot of new Epack activity. Unfortunately, I assume these sets will transfer to Upper Deck's lame new storage site instead of COMC.

[YayNJ]

Originally Posted by Rictor

They could definitely do some non-auto products and try to pump PMGs and numbered parallels. They could also do sketches or manufactured relics like diamond cards, wands, etc.

If they want to do autos, they could probably get most of the cast. I believe they all still sign and many of them do conventions.

I'm not a Potter fan (I was too old when the books/movies came out to really get into them), but it's definitely a good license for Upper Deck and should lead to a lot of new Epack activity. Unfortunately, I assume these sets will transfer to Upper Deck's lame new storage site instead of COMC.

Pretty sure their 'lame' new site doesn't take a quarter of a year to ship you your cards though.

[finfangfan]

Originally Posted by YayNJ

Pretty sure their 'lame' new site doesn't take a quarter of a year to ship you your cards though.

They’ve been slow to ship off Collect Forever comics in the past and they probably do like 2% of the business that COMC does. I don’t think The Authority is that big of an operation yet. They likely will have growing pains when they have to start scanning in hundreds of thousands of ePack cards. I also think they slab a lot of the stuff which is labor intensive and probably a waste for the lower dollar items (like the common Collect Forever comic books).

[PrinceVegeta]

Originally Posted by YayNJ

no chance, PMG Potter chase will be wild.

I could care less, but I'll still order max to flip.

Love that upper deck using the old ways of distribution. Still able to get product direct.

[cmixer]

What makes the sketch card option wild is the HUGE variety of creatures and secondary characters.

Miss me with those Ron & Draco sketches.
I want Luna Lovegood & Moaning Myrtle.

[YayNJ]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

They’ve been slow to ship off Collect Forever comics in the past and they probably do like 2% of the business that COMC does. I don’t think The Authority is that big of an operation yet. They likely will have growing pains when they have to start scanning in hundreds of thousands of ePack cards. I also think they slab a lot of the stuff which is labor intensive and probably a waste for the lower dollar items (like the common Collect Forever comic books).

.. and it never will be a 'big operation' if they avoid putting stuff like this on there

[daviswr7]

Harry Potter cards are back? I am so here for that! Love that this license is being brought back!

[HiltonL]

I traveled to Orlando for Xmas break to visit Universal theme parks. The amount of demand for HP and Nintendo is enormous (Epic Universe theme park)
After the JKR controversy, I thought the demand would die down some, but it's shoulder-to-shoulder and people enjoying their wands and rides and butterbeer.

It's a good move for UD to obtain the license. Cherry on top for me would be new original trio autos

[finfangfan]

Originally Posted by YayNJ

.. and it never will be a 'big operation' if they avoid putting stuff like this on there

Point is they will face the same delays when volume ticks up. And it already takes them 2-3 weeks to ship off comics even though they have low volume.

Being located in Western PA should help them attract low wage workers tho. That seems to be one thing that is hurting COMC… being located in a high wage area.

[itsbaytime]

Originally Posted by HiltonL

I traveled to Orlando for Xmas break to visit Universal theme parks. The amount of demand for HP and Nintendo is enormous (Epic Universe theme park)
After the JKR controversy, I thought the demand would die down some, but it's shoulder-to-shoulder and people enjoying their wands and rides and butterbeer.

It's a good move for UD to obtain the license. Cherry on top for me would be new original trio autos

Was also there with the family at all 3 parks. It was bonkers in the Potter and Nintendo sections.

[Brobocop]

The stuff about JKR is mostly online, the vast majority of people don't know or don't care.

[WhacksPacks]

The way I read it is this isn't for any of the movie image rights. This is for character rights to the novels. The wording leads me to believe these won't be auto products outside of maybe the artists who illustrate the cards, if even that.
Still a cool license to get but saying "Weasley, Hermione, Harry" and not Emma, Daniel etc tells me this isn't going to be like those incredible Artbox sets.

ETA: Welp disregard. I read the press release in full which is key. It's literally to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the movies.
Cool

[Rictor]

Originally Posted by YayNJ

Pretty sure their 'lame' new site doesn't take a quarter of a year to ship you your cards though.

Three months in after creating an account, I'm still blocked from buying/selling on there, so I have no idea if shipping is possible either. What I like about COMC is that I can sell all the Epack junk and only keep the hits. I probably ship maybe 1 out of 1,000 Epack cards home. I don't want any commons. Is there even a single buyer yet on The Authority?

[finfangfan]

The other thing that might upset *some* of the ePack card collectors is that it appears The Authority is slabbing many of the red flash hits people pull out of packs on ePack that are stored at The Authority.



I haven’t held any of these cards in hand yet, so maybe they are easy to pop out of the case. There is a surprisingly large amount of old school collectors that don’t want to be forced to mess with slabs.

[notoriousrmb]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

The other thing that might upset *some* of the ePack card collectors is that it appears The Authority is slabbing many of the red flash hits people pull out of packs on ePack that are stored at The Authority.

I haven’t held any of these cards in hand yet, so maybe they are easy to pop out of the case. There is a surprisingly large amount of old school collectors that don’t want to be forced to mess with slabs.

Ugh - slabs would completely turn me off from future purchases. I have no room or patience to deal with more plastic on cards.

[finfangfan]

Originally Posted by notoriousrmb

Ugh - slabs would completely turn me off from future purchases. I have no room or patience to deal with more plastic on cards.

Right. I’m not anti-slab, but I am well aware how vocal a lot of Blowout is when people slab nonsports. lol.

[DynaEtch]

Man HP is big- huge fan, prob the 2nd biggest genre I PC- but it comes down to whether they can do any autos. Even Leaf was able to get multiple HP signers in recent years including Ron, Ginny, Neville, Bellatrix, and Voldemort.

*If* they end up getting cast signers, like most of them…I wonder…what happens to the Artbox autos, market-wise? They are always the OG movie-era autos. But it sure helped them being basically the only game in town with HP (besides like the sporadic leaf signers). Only way to get Emma Watson auto for example on a card I’m pretty sure. So it’ll be interesting to see what happens when (if) we start seeing more.

I think HP sketches and PMGs would be cool and I’m looking forward to this.

[dd316]

Originally Posted by DynaEtch

Even Leaf was able to get multiple HP signers in recent years including Ron, Ginny, Neville, Bellatrix, and Voldemort.

It's a lot easier to get signers when licenses aren't involved. If I were willing to pay, I could probably get any of them to sign for my own unlicensed sets.