Months after losing its Major League Baseball, and only weeks after settling a lawsuit by MLB for allegedly illegally using its trademarks anyway, news has broken that the National Football League will not renew Upper Deck’s licensing agreement.

This means no more (official) baseball or football cards from UD.

Upper Deck released the following statement:

"Over the past year, Upper Deck has attempted to negotiate a new licensing deal with NFL Properties. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we were not able to reach agreeable terms, and therefore will not be issuing any NFL Properties-licensed trading cards for the 2010 season. Upper Deck will continue to focus on its exclusive license agreement with the Collegiate Licensing Company and co-exclusive agreements with NHL Enterprises and the NHL Players’ Association, as well as its multiple entertainment licenses.”

Trouble for one of the younger companies in the teetering sports card industry.

Management at the Upper Deck Company today settled a copyright infringement lawsuit brought against them by Major League Baseball in February. MLB granted Topps an exclusive licensing deal over the summer, but Upper Deck started producing cards with MLB teams and logos anyway.

Topps had sought more than $2 million from the Carlsbad, Calif.-based memorabilia company, but under the settlement, Upper Deck promises to cease producing trading cards with MLB trademarks on them.

Upper Deck can and will continue to sell its last three recently released baseball products currently on store shelves: 2009 Signature Stars, 2009 Ultimate Collection and 2010 Upper Deck Series One.

"As a company, we are changing the direction of Upper Deck’s baseball products going forward. We are looking forward to creating fresh and innovative set content that will continue to get collectors excited,” said Jason Masherah, Upper Deck’s director of Sports Brands.

It’s been a bad go of it for Upper Deck since its failed bid last year to acquire Topps, its biggest rival. In January, the company agreed to pay millions to video game giant Konami after a dispute over counterfeit Yu-Gi-Oh trading cards.

Upper Deck is releasing several new, rare Joe DiMaggio cards in 2009

Upper Deck and the estate of the great New York Yankees slugger Joe DiMaggio reached an agreement to produce trading cards that include DiMaggio memorabilia and cut signature cards.

To commemorate the exclusive deal for UD, a limited Joe DiMaggio card, #0, will be packed inside 2009 Series One Baseball packs coming out this week. The card features “Joltin’ Joe” next to a chalkboard after he tied the Major League Baseball consecutive games hitting streak record at 44. On the chalkboard it calls out “44 EQUALS RECORD” with a smiling DiMaggio kneeling behind it.

“We are thrilled to be able to work with the estate of one of the biggest names in baseball history,” said Jason Masherah, Upper Deck’s senior brand manager. “Collectors and sports fans should be excited about finding Joe DiMaggio content inside of many of Upper Deck’s 2009 baseball card releases. In this day and age when records fall frequently, DiMaggio still holds one of the most amazing baseball achievements of all time.”

It’s baseball card season again kiddies!

Every now and then we like to throw down a mention about sports cards and trading cards.

Pay attention to Upper Deck 2008-09 Basketball, if you’re a fan of that side of the hobby. Whole boxes are coming out dirt cheap. It’s a 200-card base set without many bells and whistles — great for a younger collector or just a really good basketball fan who wants to collect a whole set easily. I cracked a square hobby-edition box with 24 packs of 18 cards. It’s very easy to form the whole set.

There are much better options on the football side of things with Upper Deck Icons 2008. Boxes are going for $75-$100 with 10 packs of six cards in each box. You get two jersey cards and an autograph in every box, so if you’re at the card store and pull a pack of these, there’s about a 1-in-3 chance that you’ll get something good.

On the cheap side, get 2008 Upper Deck Football First Edition. You can get a box for $20, and you get a Starquest Foil insert in every one of the 36 packs of 10 cards. The base set is 225 cards, and you will probably make it with one box. The big draw with this set is that it has 75 rookie cards.

If you’re a huge Peyton Manning fan, I’d spend the $20 on the box and just leave it sealed because he’s on the cover.

If you’re really all about the rookies, for under $10 you can get 2008 Upper Deck Football Rookie Premiere. It comes in a 30-card box set including Rashard Mendenhall and Limas Sweed from my always-using-their-draft-picks-well Steelers, and some guy named Darren McFadden.

I didn’t even crack open my box. It’s a set, and I’m holding onto it.

Remember, you’re buying these cards because you enjoy the hobby and love the sports. Cards aren’t worth anything anymore, and unless you get lottery-ticket lucky and pull a super rare card, don’t expect to turn a profit on your cards. And if you do get a super rare valuable card, sell it right away or end up like all those guys that held onto Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens rookie cards (or worse, bought it at their peak) and now have some useful toilet paper.

As Sunday marks the last game in the House that Ruth Built, Upper Deck posts a fitting tribute to one of the most legendary, beloved and despised sporting arena in American history with a 6,000+ baseball card set detailing every game very played at Yankee Stadium.

“As the wrecking balls ready themselves to start demolishing the old site, the Upper Deck Company has released the largest baseball trading card set ever assembled in tribute to the world-renowned sports shrine. The “Yankee Stadium Legacy” (YSL) collection is a 6,661-card compilation,” the company said in a statement this week. “It began its official debut in February by being inserted in random packs of Upper Deck’s 2008 Series 1 Baseball release. Since then, seven of the nine additional Upper Deck baseball launches including YSL insert cards have packed out.”

With the old Yankee Stadium playing out its last regular season this week, Upper Deck decided it was a great opportunity to acknowledge the incredible history and happenings that have occurred at Yankee Stadium since its doors opened in 1923. Besides chronicling 85 seasons’ worth of Yankees home games, this enormous compilation also includes some of the most famous sporting events that have taken place at Yankee Stadium including: legendary Notre Dame Football coach Knute Rockne’s famous “Win one for the Gipper” halftime speech inside the Yankees locker room (Nov. 10, 1928); the then-Baltimore Colts’ 23-17 overtime victory against the New York Giants in the NFL Championship game, which is often referred to as “the greatest game ever played” (Dec. 28, 1958); and Muhammad Ali’s title defense against Ken Norton (Sept. 28, 1976).‚ 

“Not only is this an ambitious effort by our Product Development Team, but it’s a timely tribute to one of the sporting world’s most celebrated franchises ever, ” said Kerri Stockholm, Upper Deck’s director of sports marketing. “And we packed the cards out in a very unique way as we decided to insert them inside of ten different Upper Deck baseball product launches during the course of the year, giving collectors everywhere a chance to share in the tribute.”

The card set has its own website‚ that includes message boards where collectors can share their personal Yankee stories. There is also a comprehensive YSL Checklist, which shows all 6,661 game cards within the set as well as seven “miscellaneous events” cards from Yankee Stadium’s glorious past that Upper Deck has included.

We’re curious about this one. If you somehow have assembled the entire or close to the entire set, contact us and tell us about it!