North Las Vegas, NV, Friday May 29, 2009
Twenty years after Upper Deck revolutionized the sports collectibles industry with its groundbreaking 1989 baseball card set, many of the company’s staff members posed the question: “What if?” And as packs of 2009 Upper Deck Series Two Baseball began trickling into the market last week, collectors couldn’t wait to see what they had come up with.

Starting from where the original Upper Deck 1989 set left off (card # 800), Upper Deck inserted four extremely limited cards that are numbered and designed as if they were part of the 1989 release to allow collectors to play, “What if?” The cards that can be found as well as the “What if?” scenario tied to each of them is listed below:

Card # 801 (Ken Griffey Jr.) – What if Junior’s rookie card (# 1) would have been an action shot instead of a head-and-shoulder portrait?

Card # 802 (Randy Johnson) – What if the Big Unit’s rookie card showed sporting a Seattle Mariners uniform instead of the Montreal Expos?

Cards # 803 (Ronald Reagan) and # 804 (George H.W. Bush) – What if “pop culture” cards that are popular in baseball sets today would have been popular back in 1989?

“These cards are now stirring interest from collectors as they’re discovering them stealth like in packs since we didn’t formerly announce that they would be included in our 2009 Upper Deck Series Two Baseball product,” said Gabriel Garcia, Upper Deck’s associate baseball brand manager. “It’s a fun way to look back on that 1989 set and get people talking about it again.

“While many purists may not go crazy for some of the ‘pop culture’ cards, there’s no denying their impact and the value they add to today’s trading card sets.”

Upper Deck’s 2009 Series Two Baseball is available in stores now.



About Upper Deck
Upper Deck is the leading sports and entertainment trading card and collectibles company. For more information on Upper Deck and its products please visit www.upperdeck.com.