Upper Deck was once a major producer of sports cards, particularly baseball cards, but they have not held an MLB license to produce cards since 2018. There are a few key reasons why Upper Deck lost their license and exited the baseball card market.

First, the sports card industry went through a major downturn in the late 1990s and 2000s after an enormous boom period in the late 80s and early 90s. During the boom, Upper Deck was extremely successful and innovative, introducing higher quality cardboard and new technologies like holograms that drove collectors crazy. After the bust there was an oversaturation of product on the market which hurt sales and demand declined significantly. Many retailers were left with piles of unsold inventory which damaged the industry.

At the same time, Upper Deck’s experimental ultra-premium products like E-X premium cards failed to catch on with collectors. These products came with extremely high price points of $100 per pack or more. While they attracted attention, overall sales did not justify the huge costs of these products for Upper Deck. Between flagging baseball card sales industry-wide and some failures to execute on high-end concepts, Upper Deck started to struggle financially in the early 2000s baseball card market.

Another major factor was the rise of competition from companies like Leaf and Panini. Where Upper Deck had once dominated, they now faced serious challengers looking to capitalize on the opportunity left by any companies struggling in the tough market. Both Leaf and Panini offered competitive, high-quality MLB licensed baseball card products that collectors enjoyed and that ate into Upper Deck’s market share. They also undercut Upper Deck on price in many cases.

At the same time, MLB itself became more savvy about card and memorabilia licensing after seeing the enormous profits that could be gleaned. No longer were they satisfied with just a single licensee dominating the market. MLB sought to leverage licensing across multiple companies to increase competition and drive up bidding and royalties to the league from card sales. Where Upper Deck had enjoyed mostly exclusive access to MLB players for over a decade, now they had competitors nipping at their heels.

When Upper Deck’s MLB exclusive license expired in 2018 after 30+ years, MLB opted not to renew solely with Upper Deck. They instead awarded multi-year licenses to both Panini and Topps. This excluded Upper Deck from baseball cards entirely going forward. Reportedly, Upper Deck was unable or unwilling to meet MLB’s increased financial demands for a new exclusive deal. With competition and market changes squeezing Upper Deck, they no longer had the resources or leverage to outbid others for the MLB license.

Without MLB player access and rights, Upper Deck could no longer produce baseball cards competitively. They had to exit that segment of the trading card market entirely. Since then, they have refocused their business on other sports like basketball, soccer, and entertainment properties like Disney where they still hold licenses. But baseball cards were once their bread and butter, and losing the MLB relationship was a devastating blow from which they have not recovered their past dominance in the trading card industry. So in summary – market changes, increased competition, and an inability to meet MLB’s new financial terms led to Upper Deck losing their baseball card license and having to get out of that business.