Upper Deck Hoping Less is More for Remaining Basketball Cards

When demand for your product isn't as strong as you'd hoped, you can always decrease the supply. Upper Deck announced Friday that it is applying that school of thought to its 2007-08 NBA basketball card line, cutting production runs on all remaining releases.

Even though analysts have been touting this as one of the best NBA seasons in recent memory and the fact that Upper Deck has the top rookie - the Sonics' Kevin Durant - locked up to an exclusive autograph contract, that excitement hasn't necessarily carried over to the hobby. Upper Deck admitted that hobby shop owners have been reporting slow sales, but it's hoping that limiting the number of cases on brands like UD Premier Basketball and SP Rookie Threads to several hundred cases will spark some interest.

"The cuts actually started with 2007-08 SP Authentic Basketball and they have been pretty significant," said Chris Kollmeyer, Upper Deck Basketball brand manager, in a company press release. "The cuts are difficult to take from a financial standpoint, but allow us to make improvements to the brands in ways collectors appreciate."

You can read the full press release for more details. Will this seemingly drastic step work? Keeping supply levels down certainly can keep consumers hunting for a product - the Nintendo Wii is a great current example - but that's usually true if it's already hot. Time will tell if scarcity alone is enough to drive sales of basketball cards, which have yet to recover the magic of the 2003-04 season that gave the world rookie cards of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony, to name a few.

One thing's for sure: store owners won't miss the extra basketball cards if they aren't selling.

Image courtesy of and copyright Upper Deck.