How Upper Deck's Deal with Michael Jordan Went Down with Paul Zickler | The Hype Special Edition

Before we start, a quick word from our sponsor, ebay Live. If you've never checked it out, Ebay Live is ebay's live shopping experience. Built for collectors. It's where you find rare, exclusive and hard to find items through live auctions and special drops you can only get there. What makes it different is the energy and the community. Real sellers, engaging hosts like sports cards, nonsense and streamers that make it fun and interactive. It's all backed by ebay's protection and authenticity guarantees, so you can shop with confidence. Just download the ebay app and hit the ebay Live button under the search bar and jump in. Now back to your show. Foreign. What's up everybody? Welcome to a special edition of the Hype Cody. With you flying solo, the team's out at Fanatics Fest in New York City. If you're over there in New York, check us out. Booth 2146 all weekend on long. Plus we're going to be at the national in two weeks. You can check us out there with our friends. Sports cards nonsense. And we do talk about that a little bit today with upper deck director of sports brands, Paul Zickler. A huge agreement with Michael Jordan made over the last couple of weeks. One of the biggest stories in the hobby, a legacy partnership with the goat Michael Jordan. We talk about that and a lot more with Paul Zickler on today's special edition episode. But before we get to that, we want to let you know of course about where you can find us all over the place. Motorbreak.com, whatnot, fanatics live, all that. Plus of course ebay live. You can find us at ebay live almost every day of the week. We're ripping all the latest tcg including Pokemon Pitch black. We've been ripping it since the beginning of the week. Huge hits every single day. We're pulling sirs like nobody's business over there on ebay live. So check out Mojo Break gaming on eBay live. Plus every single Thursday you can find all are sports cards, single stream. Check that one out. That one is a lot of fun. You do not want to miss it. If you go on ebay live, you go on your ebay app, find Mojo Break. And when you're in that live stream, just hit the bell. So you know every single time when Mojo Break goes live on ebay live. Like I said, it's almost every day of the week. Sports cards, tcg, all the latest Pokemon releases. Ebay Live follow Mojo Break. We're ripping there all the time. We do get into some ebay talk as well as there is going to be a signed box of 86, 87 Fleer basketball signed by Michael Jordan. It's going to be auctioned on ebay, proceeds going to the Boys and Girls Club. We talk about that. We talk about the future of Upper Deck, the present, the past, all of it with Paul Zickler of Upper Deck. Here is our conversation. Upper Deck making big news over the last couple of weeks. Michael Jordan is not going anywhere. A legacy partnership. Big, big news. And we're here to talk about it with Paul Zickler, director of sports brands at Upper Deck. Paul, thanks for joining us on the show today. How you doing? I'm doing great. Pleasure being here, so thank you. Yeah, it's a pleasure talking to you and actually it's a great time to talk to you because Upper Deck coming off a big win at the ESPYs, if I'm not mistaken, the exquisite one of one Macklin Celebrini RPA the Shield RPA is the winner for best card of the year. So congratulations to the whole Upper Deck team. And obviously here in the Bay Area we're pretty biased, I would say. Yeah, that's, that should be the number one card. Yeah, a lot of positive stuff going on in San Jose these days for sure. You had a hell of a draft and Macklin had quite a year last year and to see that card win, win the award was quite cool. And it's been a really busy few weeks for the Upper Deck team. But that was a nice award to receive. Yeah, I'd imagine things have been very, very busy for you guys. So to have that as a moment to take a step back, celebrate and really I think, you know, and I, I, I've said this on plenty through the years. I think it's totally a testament to the work that you guys do with these products because I just feel like year in and year out, the thing I always think when I'm, when I'm ripping Upper Deck hockey or whatever it may be is I just think the consistency of the quality is really second to none with Upper Deck. It's something that I think when I associate your brand it is some of the best looking cards, some of the most consistently just top notch looking cards always come out nice and nice and clean. So just a, you know, I guess a, an applause from our end of like it's always great and the fans and the collectors, I think it's something that they notice as well. Yeah, I think one thing for sure that you'll, you'll notice when you meet someone that works for Upper Deck is. Is we all take a lot of pride in what we do, and we're passionate about it. You know, a lot of our employees have been here for a very long time across all departments. And, you know, I think that comes through with. With our products. And that's one thing that I think collectors are starting to see is. Is the value proposition in hockey. Not only is the. The game on the ice and the awareness of the sport in general continue to grow, but I think that that's starting to translate more, you know, with collectors that have maybe done other sports, you know, sort of now looking just because of our products and, you know, the content delivery and to your point, the quality and the authenticity and all the levels that Upper Deck really takes pride in. Yeah, you know, it's. It's something too. I think you kind of talked about sort of the. The value proposition. Like, it's something I've always pointed to with people who are like, how do I get into collecting? What should I collect? What are you looking for? Obviously, you know, collect what you love, whatever your sports are. But I think for a lot of people, they're always like, man, it's. I want to get huge hit, that big hit out of something. But, you know, it's. We hear it day in and day out from a lot of people. Like, there can be some barriers of certain boxes of like, I can't maybe afford that one or whatever. And I think the one thing with Upper Deck in hockey, and especially with stuff like Series one and Series two, is that you can buy a box that I think is still relatively. That has a. The price tag is still very attainable for, you know, young families maybe of, like, kids who just want to rip boxes and that they can get something like a Macklin Celebra, Young Guns or something like that, that can. This huge card that feels like this massive win, but it is, again, something that is not gonna hurt your wallet too much, I think, is always such a massive win for collecting and such a. A great thing for the community to rally around. So, you know, another one where I always just say series one, Series two. If you're just looking for, you know, going for those big hits and. And getting the kids excited and stuff like that, I will always point people to. To those types of products for. For Upper Deck. Well, and even extended series. Now with the launch of the rookie debut Jersey program, you know, that was another piece of, you know, we got a lot of questions of placing it there. And you Know, sort of in the position of the calendar. And obviously it was a really iconic design that we sort of paid homage to, you know, and the timing of the hard sign autographs. But we all also wanted to make it accessible, you know, of launching, you know, a really meaningful card that was accessible, whether it was hobby customers, retail customers, you know, even just given the price point. So, you know, that those are just examples of how we like to engage and really collect or really entice meaningful collectors that are going to be in hockey for a long time. Yeah. And that was exciting to rip around these parts. Believe we get the Michael one of the Michael Mises on day one. So of course, again, locally here we were very, very excited to get that. And definitely customers were loving it. So I'll shift gears to what is one of the big stor stories for you guys and throughout the entire hobby right now is that Michael Jordan is back with. Not back, but not going anywhere with Upper Deck. A huge moment. Saw a lot of. I think I saw in Times Square that it was promoted and everything. So a very cool moment in a. In a huge storyline here that not only is Michael Jordan not going anywhere, but is the first legacy partner. If you could kind of walk us through what went on, maybe behind the scenes, how this all sort of percolated, how long this has been going on, and just kind of take us into what went into this historic partnership. Yeah, it's been going on for over 35 years. It is pretty impressive how long MJ has been a partner with Upper Deck. And it speaks to sort of the quality that you noted in our trading card products. You know, at the end of the day, you know, the core tenets of Upper Deck has been quality, authenticity, and innovation. And, you know, those three tenets are what we strive to do every day. And MJ has been along since 91. He's been there along since the beginning. And, you know, he really represents a lot of those core tenants and what he did in the sport and sort of how he manages his brand and, you know, sort of to take it to this next level with the Upper Deck's first legacy partners is a massive announcement. It's. It's the biggest announcement that I've seen while being an Upper Deck. And, you know, it was just a really big defining moment as we look forward with. With the company. Yeah, it's incredibly exciting to see that. And of course, Michael, just one part of obviously the star of the huge amount of stars, the roster of stars with Upper Deck. And I think obviously one of the big calling cards for you guys, the fact that Michael is there, that you have Wayne Gretzky, you have Tiger woods, you have all of all time legends under one roof with Upper Deck. And, you know, I'll just say from the. From the outside looking in, it felt like a statement that Upper Deck is as strong as ever, not going anywhere. This is. This is a brand that, like you said, almost four decades of consistency, of quality of iconic cards, and this just reinforces that position. And then things like, you know, I know we're mostly focused on sports here, but also I think the entertainment brands, things like DC Comics joining the fold, the Warner Brothers partnership. I know a lot of fans and collectors were very excited to hear about the Harry Potter products that are coming out in the future as well. So it does just feel like this is a moment here for Upper Deck for you guys from the outside, where it's like a big flex, a big statement and saying, we're as strong as ever and we're going to be a force to be reckoned with throughout this hobby. Yeah, no, at Upper Deck, we always coined the phrase that you're part of the Upper Deck family. And, you know, a lot of questions that we got, you know, when we were in New York with the announcement was circled around what, what makes a legacy partner? You know, obviously it speaks to the longevity of how long we've been working with mj, but really, you know, there's other big pieces to it. And, you know, MJ is the most counterfeited athlete within the collectibles industry. And as you know, and you can see through Upper Deck's history with our authentication process and just how even with the slabbing of the cup and sort of seeing the uncirculated slabs now coming out is we are constantly looking at ways to improve authenticity. And we've made that mandate with MJ that we're going to continue to prioritize that. You're also starting to see elevated levels just in terms of how we are involved with each other's businesses. So whether it's new product innovations on our side, but you can also see with sort of what we're starting to do with his 23Eleven Racing team, which he's quite passionate about. So the week before we made the announcement, we were in Chicago Celebrating the 30th anniversary of space Jam, you know, the Chicagoland race. We had that unique car wrap with Bubba Wallace. You know, we activated around the city. You know, we had Bugs Bunny at the. At the race. You know, but we're going to continue to elevate it. And it's not just our side of the coin. It's on his, his side of his passions too. So we're excited to elevate that component too. And you know, we've had some, a lot of cool things going on with his racing team as well. Yeah, that's been the other whole side of this thing too that I'm glad you mentioned it. The 2311 team. And to see to, you know, my, that's my generation with Space Jam, one of my favorite all time movies as a kid. So to see that push, to see it on a, on a car, to race car was absolutely awesome. Really, really cool stuff. And also I think I saw a lot of the, the, some of the posters and some of that stuff that' out there now is stuff that I'm definitely going to be talking to our, my bosses to be like we got to get a few of those just to decorate the studio, which we already have plenty of great Upper Deck sign memorabilia around the shop and the office. So hopefully get some Space Jam stuff around here too. But I do want to ask you too because I think the last five years in this industry, in this hobby, tumultuous to say the least. Maybe putting it pretty lightly. And I think from the collectors and here we are on, on our podcast, I could tell you we, we got to speculate and we got to talk about what's going to happen here. So many moving parts with licensing deals and all the sorts of stuff. And now that it feels like the dust is settling a little bit where people are, the deals are being signed and the leagues have gone to wherever they said they were going to go. You know, four or five years ago. It feels like that you guys are again, like I said, in a, in a position where it feels stronger than ever with, with all these deals you have locked in with these huge stars. And I guess I just want to know whatever you can share internally maybe over these last five years of just how you guys went about some of these, these changes and how you saw like where can we be strongest? Where can we say, you know, things like this Michael Jordan deal and stuff like that. How, how was the, the vibe, I guess within Upper Deck over the last few years as we have seen this massive change throughout this hobby? No, I think at the core of it we've always stayed true and I think we've all been blessed since COVID in terms of the growth of the industry. But it's really been growing even the last two Decades when I spent some time at mlbpa and it was starting with Judge and Bellinger's home run record chase. And, you know, it's really been building. I think we just got some, some sort of launch points with COVID and then obviously, you know, with the growth of hockey. And so we've seen obviously a lot of sort of upticks there, but it's been a sort of a myriad of factors and. And I think we've consistently stayed true in terms of what our mandate is. And we wanted to develop meaningful products that are going to perform well in the market. And, you know, even when we went back to reconfiguring series one in 2324, you know, we spent a lot of time deliberating on sort of what, you know, the, you know, sort of the right mix was. And we had a lot of constructive sort of feedback. We talked to our distributors, we talked to our key customers, we talked to collectors, we talk to our licensing partners. We really are engaged at every level. And I think that that's what you'll see when you see these products and sort of these ideas that come out is they're really thought after. And we do, you know, encourage a lot of feedback and, and all. But ultimately our sort of core tenants hasn't changed since the beginning. So it's been fun. But we really hold true to sort of what. What we do here at Upper Deck. Yeah, and it definitely tells. Like you said, you know, we've been saying. I've been saying it this whole time and say it on plenty of other things. You can tell with when you rip into a product, there is a different vibe and a different feel and you can tell it's an Upper Deck product. A few more minutes here with Paul Zickler and I, I want to talk about the big chase that's in Goodwin champs right now, obviously to introduce the legacy partnership. The signed FLIR basketball packs number to 23. This has created a ton of excitement, I know, around these parts. The moment we heard it, everybody wanted to get their hands on a box and try. Try to rip into the Goodwin. Always a super fun rip as it is. Tell us what into went into that decision of, of getting that in there, getting Michael to sign those packs, all that sort of stuff and maybe some plans for stuff like this maybe in the future as well. Maybe with some of these other legacy athletes. Yeah, I know. So. 86, 87. FLIR basketball is often referred to the most iconic basketball product ever made. You know, the legendary status comes from a few Attributes, timing, star power, obviously historical significance. But at the end of the day, the centerpiece is MJ's rookie card card number 57. You know, you could say that that's the most. One of the most recognizable cards in the history. And it's the benchmark sort of for the rookie card, the. One of the greatest rookie cards of all time. You know, it's interesting. I've heard a lot of sort of funny things, obviously, after the. The launch. And I think one of the unique things that I've heard is, you know, he inscribed pack number 12 out of 23 with rookie pack. And I think there were some regional cards before that product was released, you know, but now everyone's saying, well, since he signed rookie rookie pack on there, it has to be true. And that's what's really unique about that specific product is there wasn't licensed NBA cards for, I think, five years before that release. So there were some regional cards, but nothing that was nationally distributed. And so when they came out with that product, I think there's four or five rookie classes included that in there. I think there's 11 hall of Famers that have rookie cards in that product. Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Elijah, on Malone. So it's a truly unique product. And then obviously to take it this step further in signing the wax packs in the white pen is just bringing it to a whole nother level. Yeah. And I could tell you around these parts with some of those other cards that people might say, this is the true Jordan rookie. This is the true Jordan rookie. Yeah. No, we felt very validated hearing that Jordan believes this is the true rookie. We said it has to be. Yeah. You know, there's something to be said too about the card. Just looks great too. It's him dunking. It's iconic. It is. And everybody else in the set too. It's. It's all of these factors factor into it that this is the true one. To that even Michael Jordan recognizes that. And I do want to talk about too, that upper deck is collaborating with ebay to auction the one of a kind full box of 8687 FLIR basketball featuring Jordan's exclusive autograph. 10% of the auction proceeds going to a great cause to the Boys and Girls club of America. If you could tell us a little bit more about that auction going on and the partnership with ebay. Yeah, no, it's just another extension of obviously the announcement and with the national coming, you know, and a neat avenue to also give back to the boys and Girls club that continues to sort of encourage and elevate youth sports from the ground up and making them accessible. That's one thing that we're seeing, at least in North America. Okay. It's getting harder and harder for everybody to participate in youth sports, and so to have that avenue. But just going back, you asked about behind the scenes and signing the packs. You know, there was one unique thing that I can tell you is that signing the wax packs is quite difficult. Right. There's a residue on those packs. So we actually had to use a different pen for each pack because once it touched the wax, sort of finish, it kind of started to make it streaky. So I know our talent team obviously did a great job and we tested a ton of packs, but that was one unique thing, is we had to use a new pen for each pack. And same with the numbering. So, you know, those are the levels of detail that sort of people don't see behind the scenes when we're testing substrates or pens or packs or. It's. It's not an easy process, and especially with this sort of level of product value, you know, we took that very seriously. Yeah. Okay. So good to know if I'm ever bringing some classic wax packs to sign with us, you know, bring an extra Sharpie as a courtesy, you know, maybe they'll sign mine. But, you know, if there's a line of people behind me, it's like, sorry, tough luck. We use the Sharpie already. A couple more for you on the way out, Paul. So you actually just mentioned the national, which is just a couple of weeks away. Upper deck, always a huge presence at the National. I do remember a couple years ago, I think it was, was the Connor Bedard rookie year that was massive being in Chicago and the excitement and the. You could just feel it go into the booth. And it was the first chance to get the Connor Bedard rookie stuff, though, always very, very exciting. Is there anything that you guys can share with us maybe now, obviously, you know, coinciding with this news about Michael Jordan and the timing of being in Chicago, anything that you guys are able to share with us about your presence at the national this year? No, I think the only thing I'll tell you is that it is going to be unbelievable activation. We are working on a lot of things behind the scenes, and I think people, once they see our booth, are going to be extremely proud and excited. One thing I think that I've seen over my years in the industry is the hockey side of things is a little bit harder to find you know, but we're really going to make a pitch this year to profile just the growth of the game, the growth of hockey card collectors and really showcase that across all of our partners, whether it's the NHL, the nhlpa, the Hockey hall of Fame, and we're going to have some surprises along the way as well, so buckle up. You know, if the last three weeks were big, we're going to continue that momentum here for the next two weeks. I love it. I love to hear that again. We can't wait to see it at the National. And boy, you said it too. The. I know we did. We touched on it a little bit. But hockey right now, what a great time for it. And again, obviously here we feel it in our backyard that the Sharks and, and what they're doing, building that young core has been so exciting to see a guy like Macklin celebrating doing what he's doing. But just not, not just that, but we have felt it, I'd say for the last three, four years, where the rookie classes have just been tremendously talented. You had an Olympic Games where so many new fans were made, especially here in the United States. So, yeah, it's. If there's, there's never been a better time to start collecting hockey. And all the additions too, that you guys have made. You mentioned an extended series, some of the, some of the best looking cards and really, I mean, those rookie debuts have been awesome to see an awesome chase. Yeah, no, I think the skill on the ice and the competitive amongst the teams, you know, has been unbelievable in terms of how you see the trajectory of, you know, the level of play and just how it is, how exciting it is, even watching the Stanley cup this year and just how competitive and fast and skilled the players are. And then you couple that to your point of the growth with the four nations face off, you know, and these young stars, you know, performing, you know, right off the bat and having some personality too, both Macklin and Matthew in the last couple years, you can see they're showing their personality, they're showcasing it and they're also performing on the ice, which is unbelievable. But you add sort of all of those ingredients up and, and it's not a surprise that, that the attendance, revenues and everything keeps going up and the cap too. So I, I saw your Sharks are starting to dip into the free agency market. The rich get richer. But it's really exciting time. And you'll see too that any team is, is competitive and they're close games and that's, you know, all, all sort of contributing to the success. But we're just getting started. This is our time. We're going to continue building just, just like we have with these recent announcements, because this is the time for hockey and, you know, to really showcase that on the collectible stage is exciting. Yeah, a great time for hockey. A great time for, for Upper Deck. You know, it's funny, I just was talking to someone who's going to San Diego Comic Con, and I believe Upper Deck is going to have some big products out there as well. So it's all across the board, sports, entertainment, and of course, this huge Michael Jordan. Paul, thank you so much for the time. Really appreciate it. Cannot wait to see what you guys got in store for us in Chicago. Should be a lot of fun. Awesome. Thank you very much. Big thanks once again to Paul Zickler. Cannot wait to see what they have in store at the national in Chicago. The timing could not be any better with the announcement of the Michael Jordan Legacy partnership. Who knows? I don't want to make any promises, but certainly would be nice to see the goat out there with the fans. Who knows? Make sure to follow us on social media, Instagram, TikTok, all that good stuff, of course. Subscribe to Mojo Break Media if you are listening to this. If you're watching it on Mojo break Media on YouTube, make sure to subscribe to the podcast. Just search Mojo Break wherever you get podcasts and watch the Hype on Collect. That's our new live show every single Friday. In fact, if you're watching this on release day or listening to it, hop on over noon Pacific time. We're actually getting into a lot of tcg. With Pitch Black now available and with Big RIP Party coming up here at mojobreak Shop. Thanks for listening, guys. Thanks for watching whatever you were doing. Thanks for hanging out with us here on the Hype. Mojo Break Media, we'll see you guys next time.