I Heart Old Upper Deck

I make it no secret that I like on card autographs and don't particularly care for sticker autographs.  I also tend to like Hall of Famers, regardless of the sport.  There is just something special about knowing that your sports idols and icons actually handled the same piece of cardboard that you did.  It seems more meaningful.  I also like clean designs without a lot of distraction.  I know I'm not alone in this.

Upper Deck traditionally did a masterful job of doing this was their products.  Their old insert and autograph sets really set an industry standard for the ultra premium content.  One could argue that in Football, the 1997 Legends autograph set was really the best modern set of all time.  It'd certainly be in my top 5.

Now, like many middle-aged collectors, I took a collecting hiatus in the late 1990's and the early 2000's.  When I came back to the hobby in the late 2000's, I found myself attracted to some of the earlier Upper Deck stuff.  Thus originated my interest in the 2000 Upper Deck Game Jersey Greats set.  It's comprised entirely of Hall of Fame quarterbacks and includes a bold on-card autograph and a swatch of actual game-worn jersey, none of this event worn junk.  I believe that the cards were inserted across the 2000 Upper Deck NFL line, and there are several versions of some of the cards.  In my set, I only have one of each player, not one of each version.  The Steve Young and Joe Montana ones were particularly hard to find, and I'm confident in saying that they were comparatively short printed relative to most of the other ones

 One of the advantages of the set is that it includes a brilliant on-card autograph of Johnny Unitas, the original and true Johnny Football.  Unfortunately, he passed away at much too young an age, and before the true glut of autograph cards hit the market.  He does have some great on-card autographs, and had signed for quite a few of the early sets, but his untimely death does give these cards a bit of a premium.