Upper Deck announced a new authentication feature Wednesday that aims to protect some of the most coveted cards in one of its most important sets.
Inspired by similar features used for comic books and figurines, every Rookie Patch Autograph in 2023-24 Upper Deck The Cup Hockey, which is scheduled to release June 4, will be slabbed, photographed and serial-numbered with a QR code.
Using the authenticated slab, collectors will be able to see an image gallery of the card from multiple angles to ensure the card, and more specifically the patch, hasn’t been tampered with.
“I think what we’ve seen over the last decade-plus is that we are fighting counterfeiters and scammers and tamperers at an unprecedented level because of all the interest in the industry,” Upper Deck president Jason Masherah said. “One of the biggest issues we have is patch swapping. … It’s been an epidemic for quite a while, and we’ve been working hard to figure out how to combat that.”
Memorabilia cards have been highly coveted since Upper Deck released the first licensed game-worn jersey cards in 1996, but the expansion of the hobby has elevated the category, especially the Rookie Patch Autograph, to the top of the hobby hierarchy in recent years.
Of the top 10 most expensive publicly reported sports card sales, all three modern cards are considered Rookie Patch Autographs, including the record-holders for both basketball and football.
Among modern and ultra-modern cards, RPAs dominate high-end auction results, with sets such as Upper Deck’s Exquisite Collection and The Cup among the most sought after.
To date, 16 of the top 20 publicly reported sales for NBA legend LeBron James have been RPAs from 2003-04 Exquisite Collection, including the record $5.2 million sale in 2021.
Currently considered Upper Deck’s most high-end product, The Cup first debuted for the 2005-06 season and has been one of the most important hockey sets since.
According to Card Ladder, there have been more than a dozen sales of The Cup cards of $100,000 or more, including the $381,000 paid for an Alexander Ovehckin RPA at Sotheby’s in April. That card is the most expensive public Ovehckin sale to date and the third-most expensive hockey sale of all time.
Those record-setting sales have provided motivation for counterfeiters to alter ultra high-end cards, and the process of tracking and policing top-tier patches has largely fallen on the community.
Upper Deck wants to change that.
“The problem is that you really have to send it back to either a third party or the manufacturer to verify it,” Masherah said, “which is kind of uncomfortable and, quite frankly, a little bit too late, if you’ve already purchased it.”
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture. He was previously the Collectibles Editor at Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on X and Instagram @benmburrows.