Upper Deck’s collectors are the best reminder that I work for a company that knows how to treat people right. A job in Upper Deck’s Customer Care Department can be rich and fulfilling for a lot of different reasons. For me I really loved learning about the products, different programs the marketing team runs with collectors and how trading cards can really make a difference in someone’s life.

I was asked in my interview what my first Upper Deck collectible item was and I didn’t even have to wait to think about my answer. It was a 1994 Jason Kidd rookie card. I fell away from collecting in my teenage years as I was playing sports and working to help the family. Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought I would get back into the collecting world working for Upper Deck. I have loved every minute of it.

I recently moved to a new role with Upper Deck and while I’m sad to leave the Customer Care group, I’m excited for the new challenge. I wanted to take a moment though to share my experience in Customer Care as I know a lot of our fans are curious about what it is like to work for a manufacturer. Here are just some of the things I loved about working in Customer Care at Upper Deck:

• Helping Collectors – Being a helpful first point of contact for customers is a huge part of any customer care job and having experience as a host for the San Diego Padres previously, I was able to bring a passion for helping people to my interview. Chris Carlin and Jeff Dotseth on the team saw that and gave me the shot to be part of the team. Whether it be via telephone, in person, through email, or on social medial; being a Customer Care Representative at Upper Deck gave me the power to help people. Although difficult at times, there’s no greater feeling than when you manage to help someone you have come to know achieve the best possible results and give them a “Wow” moment. We were taught to be thoughtful with our collectors; to embrace new collectors and respect seasoned fans. It was very rewarding to help people out guiding them along their respective collecting journeys. Our goal was to provide remarkable care to our collectors, service so good, they just had to remark about it.

• Sharing Knowledge – There are so many different aspects to each product Upper Deck makes and different places you can find the products (hobby shops, retail locations, Authorized Internet Retailers, Authorized Group Breakers, com) so sometimes it can get confusing for collectors. We open product internally to get a really good feel for what the pack opening experience is like for consumers and we watch a lot of breaks as well. It’s pretty neat when your job involves doing something you love like that and we get the same thrills as collectors when we pull cool cards, they are all just ultimately used with other collectors and shops. I really enjoyed being able to share my product knowledge on each release to help our collectors get the most out of their experience. It was instilled in us each day how important it is to help and embrace our customers.

When you enter Upper Deck’s Customer Care area, you see the company’s Customer Experience Principles.

• Collector Engagement – There is a genuine love between Upper Deck and the vast majority of our collectors that is built through reliable and friendly engagement across a variety of platforms. Talking on the phone, emailing, tweeting, etc. was always fun, but I really loved getting out and meeting collectors face to face. Right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit North America, Upper Deck was planning on doing more of that than ever in 2020. I enjoyed attending one event in Los Angeles when we partnered with The Bullpen and created personalized cards for fans. Seeing the smiles on our fans faces as they opened packs with us, asked questions or scored some cool Upper Deck promos was something I really loved.

I was excited to share personalized Upper Deck trading cards with fans at the Trade Fest Upper Deck helped out with. I even got one of my own!

I have had the pleasure to speak with collectors from all over the world. I have listened to their stories of how they have collected Upper Deck cards and Upper Deck Authenticated Memorabilia for years. It’s amazing to hear how passionate our fans continue to be about the products we make and service we provide.

One of my favorite moments was just the personal touch Upper Deck provides fans through our Random Acts of Kindness program. Fan often hear collectors talking about their personalized mail days through social media when fans use the #UDRAK hashtag. We are encouraged to make personal connections with our collectors and make sure they know they are appreciated. While we can’t send care packages out to everyone, we try to surprise families and collectors who have been patient and easy to deal with. It’s always a thrill seeing fan’s reactions to our service and probably one of the reasons Upper Deck is the only trading card manufacturer with an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.

Many of these mail days are not even reported and that was the case with one I was involved in. I was working with a collector who is a firefighter in New York. He told me that many of the firefighters in the station house enjoyed collecting and we were just coming out with our most recent Goodwin Champions product. There is an insert in this set called, “Genuine Heroes” which pays tribute to courageous individuals across North America and we’ve had a few firemen in the set previously. I asked my boss if we could possibly make a personalized Genuine Heroes card for him and send the first responders there some product. A week later our amazing prepress team had it done and we surprised them with the product. They sent our Customer Care team some shirts from their firehouse and we loved sporting them for a group picture to share with our FDNY Engine 168 friends.

I am happy I will still be doing what I love in my new role with Upper Deck, making our customers happy and helping to deliver them the products they love. Thank you to all the collectors for being part of the Upper Deck family! I am glad I was able to be there for you and I look forward to assisting in new ways in the future!

If you are interested in a career opportunity with Upper Deck, check out http://www.upperdeck.com/Corporate/Careers.aspx. We are always looking for amazing people who love the Sports and Entertainment collectibles industry.