Yet Another Exclusive Deal......

[DodgerBlue]

Upper Deck has announced that they will have exclusive rights to produce all NCAA college themed products starting with the 2010 season. This has by far been the worst of the exclusive deals IMO. Press Pass had carved out a nice niche market with their on card AUTOS, unique inscriptions, and Legends product that featured college stars from years past. At least they have Nascar to fall back on. Sage is left with nothing. They had been struggling for a while now so this could very well be the end of another company. I think UD did this from a strategic standpoint to secure them the rights to NCAA basketball more than anything else so they can continue to incorporate Michael Jordan into their products. I can see them keeping their Draft product and maybe going with a Legends themed product and of course a high end overpriced watered down product or three.

So besides companies producing unlicensed products that feature no team logos, the 2010 sports card market will look something like this:

Topps: MLB, NFL, WWE
Panini: NBA, NFL
UD: NHL, NCAA, NFL
Press Pass: Nascar
Sage: .........
Razor: MILB
Tri-Star: MILB, TNA

How long before some company mortgages their future to throw crazy money at the NFL for an exclusive license? It may seem far fetched but with a new NFLPA leader in place and all the other major sports going to exclusive agreements it may become a reality sooner than later.