Welcome to the UD Hockey Card Error Blog!

Starting in 2004-05, the Upper Deck (UD) trading card company signed an exclusive license with the NHL and NHLPA to become the sole producer of NHL cards. I don't want to use this blog as a reason why this is wrong. What I want to do is show how UD is inadequate to hold such a license unless things start to change. This blog is purely for showing the lack of attention to detail that UD has given to the hobby with their exclusive license. Hopefully, by educating collectors, UD will take notice and actually put more effort into their future products. Can a sole producer of trading cards work? Probably. But if we're forced to buy UD products due to the exclusive license, then they should be forced to a higher standard

One thing a lack of competition in a market does is allow the provider of the products to become lazier and disinterested. The consumer suffers. Not the producer.

The cards I want to show collectors are not ones that are in doubt, but ones that are blatantly incorrect. Cards that leave you scratching your head wondering how that happened or how the card ever got past their Quality Assurance department.

Hopefully this helps educate fellow hockey card collectors and one day causes UD to retool their card making process.

If you have any errors or variations that you would like added to the blog, feel free to e-mail them to me at vegaspuck@yahoo.com.

Thanks,
Chris

Capital mistake

On this 05-06 UD The Cup Luc Robitaille Signature Patch, either UD accidentally placed a Capitals patch on the card, or I missed the season he played for Washington:

Even more Exclusive...

On the 06-07 UD Series 2 Evgeni Malkin Young Guns Checklist Exclusive Parallel, Upper Deck failed to individually number the cards to 100 like the rest of the cards in the Exclusive set:

Bruins double dip?

Mark Stuart must be a pretty valuable prospect. Not only did UD put him in the 06-07 UD Series 2 Young Guns rookie set, they also used his picture on Nate Thompson's Young Guns rookie card as well:

Who you callin' a Berkhoel?

Poor, Adam Dennis. He finally gets his first NHL hockey card and UD doesn't even put his picture on the card. On this 06-07 UD Series 2 Young Guns Adam Dennis rookie card, UD mistakenly pictured Adam Berkhoel instead:



Here's a picture of the real Adam Dennis who wears #35:

Signing while standing on your head....

Poor, Cam Neely. UD just can't seem to figure out which way his signature goes. In 05-06 they put autograph stickers of Cam Neely on some of his cards the wrong way. Seems like it's happened again in 06-07 as can be seen on this SPx Flashback Fabrics card:



Here's what his auto should look like:

Chico and the man...

On the 06-07 UD Artifacts Billy Smith Auto-Facts Signature card, UD mistakenly used the picture of everyone's favorite Devils color commentator, Chico Resch:

What's red, white, and blue all over?

On this 05-06 UD Ice Dany Heatley Frozen Fabrics jersey, a red, white and blue swatch somehow made it's way onto the card:




The back states it came from a Thrashers jersey, but Atlanta never had those colors on their jersey and neither have the Sens. Based on the ultrafill material and the colors, it seems like a Montreal Canadiens jersey somehow found its way onto this one.

Everyone wants to play for my Flyers...

Here's another example of the details on the back of the card not matching what's on the front. This probably lead to the omission of jersey origins on a lot of the 06-07 UD memorabilia cards. On the 05-06 UD The Cup Tomas Vokoun Limited Logos Auto Patch, it incorrectly states that the patch came from a Flyers jersey:

Wrong dynasty?

In this error, UD mistakenly labeled the origins of the Grant Fuhr jersey on this 05-06 UD The Cup Scripted Numbers Dual Auto jersey. The back of the card says the Fuhr swatch came from an Islanders jersey. While Fuhr did manage to play for a few teams during his career, the Islanders weren't one of them:

Why update it?

In this example, UD created a redemption rookie for Rob McVicar in packs of 05-06 UD Artifacts. When collectors redeemed the Canucks rookie redemption, they received this card:



One must not have been good enough. UD then inserted another Rob McVicar rookie card in their 05-06 UD Rookie Update product:



Perhaps they wanted to update the jerseys he wore that year...

Kyle Brodziak received the same double rookie treatment in the SPx and SPx Update set:

Diamonds are tough...and so is building the set

With the 06-07 UD Black Diamond set, Upper Deck incorrectly numbered the quad diamond veteran cards. They share the same number as the triple diamond Rookie Gems cards. There are two cards that share numbers for cards 148 through 168. While card numbers 169-189 do not exist in the set:

Maybe it's a Steve Moore jersey...

In this example, another jersey was mistakenly placed on the wrong card. This 05-06 UD Ultimate Todd Bertuzzi patch card is definitely taken from a Colorado Avalanche jersey:



Here's the part of the Avs jersey that the patch originates from:

Questionable 1/1 tags...

In 06-07 UD Artifacts, Upper Deck created some unique patch cards with their tag patches. The problem is, did the right tags get on the right cards? Here's two examples of questionable tags in their 1/1 cards:

This Cheechoo card features a tag that was last worn in a Sharks Nike jersey a few years before he laced them up for the first time:





The Boyes has the same thing. The Custom Crafted logo had stopped being used before Boyes made his debut with the Bruins:

Return of the Upside Down Stickers....

It seems that the upside down sticker autos haven't stopped in 06-07. As proven in this 06-07 UD Trilogy Manny Legace Scripts autograph:



This is how Manny's auto really looks:

Sleeping with the enemy?

On this 06-07 UD Series 1 Ladislav Smid Young Guns rookie card, Upper Deck has Smid helping out the Vancouver blue line. The only problem is...he plays for the Oilers:

19...20...who's counting?

Another example of a numbering error. This Jean Beliveau 06-07 UD Trilogy Scripts 2 autograph is supposed to be numbered to the stat on the card. Beliveau played 20 NHL seasons and the card should be numbered to 20. Somehow, one got lost on the way and only 19 exist:



Or maybe Ray Bourque found his extra year, and UD gave him credit for it. Ray played 22 seasons, but UD added an extra year and numbered the card to 23:

Well....2 + 3 does equal 5....

For the 06-07 UD Trilogy Scripts 2 set, UD used player stats to number the amount of cards made. It was based on seasons played, trophies won or other stats. Sidney Crosby had 5 game winning goals as this card suggests. However, UD decided to only credit Sid with 3 of them:

Can you please define "Official"?

For their 06-07 UD Artifacts and Trilogy sets, UD used many retired NHL players in their memorabilia sets. They provided for some very colorful pieces. However, they are incorrectly certified on the back. The back of the cards state that the jerseys were worn in "Official NHL games". In this example, Ray Bourque's card has a red and white stripe:



Bourque never wore that type of jersey in an official NHL game. However, he did wear it in an official Hockey Hall of Fame Legends Classics game that was sponsored by UD:



Seeing as how the HHOF and NHL are different entities, I'm not sure how they can claim it as being an official NHL game.

Who stepped on a Duck?

This card seems to be a case of "What could have been". The back of the card states that it contains pieces from the Blue Jackets and Ducks. However, no former Duck appears on the card, and no swatches came from a Ducks jersey. Perhaps UD was planning to add Sergei Fedorov after his trade, but they failed to do so:

Mini - Oops?

In this example, UD inserted a mini-jersey in 06-07 UD Mini Jersey Edition that had the patches sewn on the wrong side of the jersey. The numbers should be on the back and the logo on the front: