Upper Deck has announced a promotion in which the first five people to collect the full set of its “Yankee Stadium Legacy” cards will win a trip to the new stadium and a meeting with Derek Jeter.
The set of special cards numbers 6,661 and chronicles every Yankees home game that will have been played in the old yard. The cards began appearing in Upper Deck products this year, and the final ones depicting this season’s 81 contests will be released in the same manner in 2009. Yankee Stadium is in it’s final year of operation.
Because the set isn’t sold separately, anyone trying to reach the goal will have to go about seeking out the single cards in shops and at card shows (at least, whichever ones still exist). As far as I’m concerned, the feat may well prove impossible, which could make for a strong marketing ploy by the trading card company.
We all know that sales on sports cards have tanked as companies priced themselves out of their core market of child and adolescent fans. Anyone seeking to win the meeting with Jeter, though, will have to spend a lot of money on Upper Deck products, and the pursuit of the goal itself could lead some back to a hobby (card collecting) that they might have previously abandoned.