Soccer Cards Desperately Need Upper Deck's Touch

Upper Deck has a bit of a shady history with past incidents ranging from their production of counterfeit yu-gi-oh cards to unauthorized baseball cards as well as the Beckham "error" autographs from 2010 World of Sports. Despite these troubles as far as I'm concerned they generally produce the best quality trading cards of any manufacturer around. Unfortunately at the moment the only soccer license UD hold is with MLS. Obviously for collectors that's not the most attractive league around, however in terms of card content, collectibility and quality UD's MLS offerings are vastly superior to the garbage TCG products from Panini and Topps (who both have the trading card rights to all major football leagues and competitions around the World). Just take a look at what's available on eBay from Panini and Topps.

Both Panini and Topps have actually released nice looking higher-end products within the last year, Panini with their Premium Champions League set and Topps' Authentics Premier League brand but unfortunately these types of products lack high end cards of the top players that everyone wants as well as being very poorly marketed and distributed, (Topps Authentics is a direct order only product) not to mention these collections seem to be an afterthought for both manufacturers. UD on the other hand produced some of the better collections ever seen with their excellent Manchester United collections among several others. I for one sorely miss UD's presence in the market of international football cards and hope they can soon get back into the global game.

My Thoughts On 2012 Futera Unique

Well the latest Futera Unique high end product was released earlier this month and from the images I've seen I have to say I'm not very impressed. Apparently Futera was going for a retro/vintage look but it just doesn't work due to the poor design, especially considering that the product retails for around $70.00 per pack.

The autographs are lazy and unimaginative, not that it really matters to me since I now avoid them due to questions over the authenticity of the signatures. The memorabilia cards are quite simple which is something I don't mind. The 'Legends' cards however are especially horribly designed, check out what I mean: 'Legends' inserts.

One of the bright spots of the collection, at least in terms of secondary market value, is the super short printed 'Mythicals' insert set.

These cards have been selling for absolutely CRAZY money. The one I posted above sold for a whopping $1699.99! I don't really know what makes these so valuable, they're very powerful cards in the Futera World Football online game and are serial numbered to only /10 each so I suppose that helps but it still seems a bit ridiculous to me. Apparently they're also encrusted with 5 diamonds but I doubt these are legit...

Sadly when it comes to high end international football cards Futera is pretty much the only option out there. I would normally be inclined to buy some of the more interesting singles such as a Lionel Messi jersey but the authenticity issues that continue to plague Futera products (more on this subject in future blog entries) will prevent me from picking them up for my PC. Overall I would say this product is a typical Futera disappointment.