Card Sharks: How Upper Deck Turned a Childs Hobby into a High-Stakes, Billion-Dollar Business by Pete Williams

Card Sharks is the full length expose wed been waiting for It willmake you sick But a good kinda sick sicker but wiser Williamsprovides pages of details on perhaps the sports industrys ultimateinsult to modern America Phil Mushnick, The New York PostA disturbing tale The Bergen NJ RecordA well researched, well written look at the cardboard industry, from both historical and ethical standpoints and Williams certainly does dig up the dirt New York Newsday A dim look into Upper Deck and some of its business practices The Orange County Calif RegisterSports cards were invented in the s when tobacco tycoon JamesBuchanan Duke thought of putting a piece of cardboard in cigarette packs to prevent them from getting crushed in shipping The cards served asfree advertising space and premiums to boost salesThings have changed in years No longer a premium for another product, sports cards are the product And a hot one at that More than million Americanscollect sports cards, hoping one day to reap their investmentbenefits How has the sports card industry, specifically the baseballcard market, become a billion dollar business in the past five years Pete Williams, who has covered major league baseball and sports memorabilia for USA Today Baseball Weekly since , has the perfect vantage point on whats caused thisexplosive success in the shaky and shady world of sports cards Hisgripping narrative takes us from the birth of trading cards to thepresent, when the buying and selling of cards has become everymansstock market At the center of the industry is the Upper Deck CompanyOnce a one man shop in Anaheim, California, it has grown into thelargest manufacturer of sports cards, with sales of billion since Along the way, Upper Deck has revolutionized the trading cardbusiness by introducing a stunning array of wildly designed cards withincredible action photos, ultraviolet coating, and holograms to preventcounterfeiting Williamss account is the first solid investigative look at what goes on at Upper Deck and he reveals the tactics its owners use to dominate the trading card marketThis book is a fascinatinginvestigation of yet another facet of sports that has lost its innocence at the hands of greedy power brokers But its not just a story aboutsports its an absorbing tale about business, the costs of always going for the quick buck, and the way commercialism has seeped into everypart of our society Card Sharks will have you marveling at what this once simple childs hobby has become