Yes, There Is a Connor Bedard Card in 2023-24 Upper Deck Series 1 Hockey
While many wanted him to be, Connor Bedard wasn’t expected to be in 2023-24 Upper Deck Series 1 Hockey. The NHL and NHLPA have clear rules about players not getting cards until they’ve made their debuts. So with the first installment of Upper Deck’s flagship hockey release coming out less than two weeks after Bedard’s first game, logistics suggested he wasn’t going to make the Series 1 cut. The set’s checklist put out by the card maker all but confirmed it.
It turns out there is a surprise 2023-24 Upper Deck Series 1 Connor Bedard card. It’s not his Young Guns Rookie Card. That’s likely to headline Series 2 (although there is no official checklist yet). Numbered SP-1, it’s a draft card commemorating the rookie going first overall.
The front has Bedard in a Blackhawks jersey holding a puck in one hand and pointing in the other. The back has a short bio with some of his accolades.
Like most every Upper Deck Easter Egg, neither the odds or the print run for the 2023-24 Upper Deck SP-1 Connor Bedard are not known. The company does not usually release this info either. Keeping a tab on eBay listings may be one way to get a general idea of its rarity.
Good Lord, I wish the card companies would stop messing around with these gimmicks. Enough already. Artifically creating demand for no reason is just plain greed.
Upper Deck has been doing SP cards since the 1991 Michael Jordan baseball card.
Wow we have another conner! When they become good players do they change their names to conner?
Obviously I know SP cards have been around forever.
The Jordan card in 1991 Upper Deck was not the reason people were chasing 1991 baseball products in general – it was an extra novelty card.
In this specific sitiuation, they are withholding the one base card everyone wants out of 2023-24 hockey products because of some nonsense rules as to when a player can appear in a card set, yet they find a loophole by designating it an SP – and massively short print it in the process.
They could have chosen to just “number” it CB-1 or something and insert it at the same rate as any other insert like Dazzle, Canvas., etc. so that actual collectors buying an actual amount of cards could pull one.
Just another nod to the celebrity online breakers, I guess.
Sad what the industry has become.
Is it massively short printed?
ware can I find a conner bedard series one card