Collector's Corner by Arnold Bailey
Rhode Island news | Sports

Softmotion receives NHL card license

In keeping with winter's icy theme, here's a collection of cold facts that sports collectors should know about what's going on in hockey:

ONE EQUALS TWO: At the start of the hockey season, Upper Deck had secured a virtual monopoly as a manufacturer of NHL trading cards. The company's exclusive agreement with the NHL lasted about four months. Now, a competitor has gained an NHL card license because its product will be larger and feature a so-called "lenticular" format.

Softmotion, a Quebec-based producer of 3-D lenticular images, will release two new NHL Replay card sets that focus on the game's action and attempt to recreate it through multiimage photography. It's a 3-dimensional effect that some compare to the Sportflics cards of the mid-1980s.

It was the size of the cards -- slightly oversized at 3 inches by 4 inches (Upper Deck's are the standard 2 inches by 3 inches) -- that opened the door to a second NHL license, allowing Softmotion, the league and the players association to get around what had been Upper Deck's trading card exclusivity.

Softmotion's first series of 30 cards featuring action photography was released in Canada this month and will enter the U.S. market next month in the form of one-card packs with a suggested retail price of $1.98 (U.S. collectors can also buy the cards on the company's www.replaycards.com Web site).

A second series of at least 72 cards, due in September, will show players in highlights from the 2005-06 season. Also available next month will be larger versions of the cards, 12 by 18 inches, priced at $39.95 each. Even with the cutback in the number of licenses, collectors won't be lacking for new cards sets. For example, Upper Deck can produce up to 20 new hockey sets under its various brand names.