Possibilities?

Olympics
Originally uploaded by Jumper48

Does anyone else see a missed opportunity?

Outside of the Dream Team(s) we do not see many Olympians showing up in card sets. Jennie Finch started showing up in sets back in 2002 and since then has made appearances in Donruss, Fleer, Topps and Upper Deck sets. Another USA Softball player, Cat Osterman, was picked up by Donruss in 2008 and then made a splash in the 2009 Allen & Ginter set.

The Winter Olympics seem to be the redheaded stepchild of the collecting world though, and understandable so when you see that American Idol outdrew the Olympics on NBC…sad sad sad.

How cool would it be to pull an Olympic event-worn Lindsey Vonn ski suit relic or an autographed patch from a Shaun White event-worn jacket?

The 2016 Olympics and Upper Decks Predictor Card

On Friday October 2nd, the IOC will announce which city will host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. The announcement may end up being some big news for the country, for the State of Illinois and for the city of Chicago, one of the final four cities up for nomination. It would be a tremendous windfall for the city, thousands of jobs over the next 5 years not to mention the billions of dollars that would be dumped in to the economy from international tourists.

But a Chicago selection would also be some good news for collectors thanks to Upper Decks Predictor cards. The company inserted “Predictor” cards in 2009 Upper Deck Series 1 baseball packs and one of the predictors was that Chicago is named the host of the 2016 Summer Olympics. UD has said that if Chicago is selected then they will do “something big” for the occasion. Yesterday Upper Deck announced that the special promotion for Chicago winning would be a free pack of baseball cards to fans across the nation while supplies last. I guess we will find out where things go tomorrow after the announcement.