He Thinks He Has a Good Hand of Cards

In the face of concern about a saturation of baseball cards on the marketplace, stands the new kid on the block, Upper Deck, and its president, Richard McWilliams.

Upper Deck began printing cards last season.

“When we opened, I had 20 employees and 25,000 square feet of space,” McWilliams said. “Now we have more than 360 employees and need 80,000 square feet. Right now we are in three locations. That’s why we’re moving to Carlsbad next year.”

The Yorba Linda plant is running its presses 24 hours a day, seven days a week. McWilliams figures to be finished filling the orders he has already received by Thanksgiving.

“Last year we didn’t even come close to the demands,” he said. “The market was twice what we had projected.”

Possibly of greater concern to McWilliams is which baseball cards people will buy. With four other major manufacturers--Topps, Score, Fleer and Donruss--competition is keen. Part of the value of a card, McWilliams contends, is the quality, reproduction, color and design.

McWilliams keeps his Upper Deck cards under wraps--protected by an extensive security system--until they hit the stores.

“We have equipment that no one else is using that gives us an advantage in the quality of the cards, even in how they are cut (from the sheets),” he said.

McWilliams seems proudest of the variety used in the player pictures. Some are posed, some are natural, such as Rick Honeycutt signing autographs, and others are action photos.

How important is the quality of a card?

Consider Score’s 1990 card of Bo Jackson, posing with the shoulder pads and the baseball bat from the Nike ads. It is considered the hottest non-error card on the market. It has sold for as much as $20.

“The key is to appeal to the real collector,” McWilliams said. “We try to make the perfect card, from color separation to the packaging. We try to make cards that people will want to keep forever.”

Along with Fleer, Score, Donruss and, of course, the granddaddy of all card makers, Topps.