Topp’s director of product development, Clay Luraschi, recently talked with Tracy Hackler at Beckett.com about the trading card industry, and dropped big news as it relates to the very popular line of UFC sports trading cards.
Luraschi and Topps knew they were on to something big when they partnered with the UFC for Round 1, but didn’t know exactly how big the impact would be once the product dropped.
“We knew we wanted to put out a solid product,” said Luraschi, “and we worked very closely with the UFC in doing that.”
“We weren’t really clear on how big our collector base was going to be. We didn’t know how many UFC fans out there were going to be drawn to trading cards, but we were absolutely blown away by the response.”
Without a doubt, the biggest hit of Round 1 were the autograph cards, with the highly coveted red autograph cards (limited to 25 cards) for some stars such as GSP, Anderson Silva, and Royce Gracie fetching upwards of $600 each on Ebay auctions.
One of the biggest surprises from Topps executives including Luraschi himself, is that the more he and others looked and collected the cards, the more intrigued he became as a casual fan, to began to really learn more about the fighters and MMA itself.
So how does Topps elevate the game now with Round 2? Luraschi had one name to promote the new line of autograph cards…. Brock Lesnar. Lesnar will be highlighting the series 2 autographs, along with the entire cast of The Ultimate Fighter season 9. That’s right you heard it here first, you could be the first to own your very own TUF 9 Jason Pearce sports card!
The official drop date at this time is August 26th, 2009 for Round 2.
I absolutley cannot wait for these to arrive. There are so many autographs this time around. I’ve got an excel spreadsheet checklist for anyone who wants it. Just email me at [email protected]