Upper Deck

The startup that ended the junk-wax era.

Upper Deck launched in 1989 as a premium challenger: tamper-proof foil packs, hologram backs, whiter cardstock, and a suggested retail price nobody had tried before. Giving the #1 slot in its debut set to a nineteen-year-old Ken Griffey Jr. was the marketing gamble that built the company. Within eighteen months Upper Deck had upended pricing, packaging, and packaging security across the industry. Every major junk-wax competitor eventually copied the format.