Saturday, January 17, 2015

Upper Deck Ovation

Today I've got the complete run of Upper Deck's Ovation.

The brand had a run from 1999 through 2006, though no sets were made in 2004 and 2005.  The 2003 set was also renamed Standing O.  The sets were relatively small, usually not more than 100 cards. Because of that, there were only 27 Cubs cards.  During this time Sammy Sosa was SAMMY!, so he was on twelve of the 27 cards.

The card design on most years included a baseball and red stitches.  Four of the six released used thicker card stock and had the ball laces stamped into the card.  You can feel the bumps of the laces on the card.

It's an interesting and unique design element.  What confuses me is why the set was called "Ovation."  If you were going to use the ball as your main design element, why not call the cards something related to the design.  Upper Deck Laces, Upper Deck Stitches, Upper Deck Hardball...but not Ovation.

Here's a look at one card from each year, so you can get a good look at the design.  The cards are in order, from 1999 to 2003 and then 2006.







See how the ball and red stitches are such a prominent design feature?

And I'll finish with all 27 Cubs from Ovation.


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