Yu-Gi-Oh Becomes Upper Deck's #1 Best Seller! New York Times October 6th

Racing ahead of Upper Deck's sports cards, Yu-Gi-Oh TCG has become Upper Deck's "MVP" ("most valuable product!") among all its products this year. Yu-Gi-Oh sales reached $17 million in the second quarter of this year ((April - June 2002). That's an awful lot of boosters!

Not only are sales going up, so are prices. Upper Deck recently announced that it was increasing the wholesale price of its Yu Gi Oh products and eliminating the MSRP. When ICv2 talked to Upper Deck's Mark Irwin about the price increase, he cited increasing costs for marketing and organized play support as the reasons for the higher wholesale cost. Upper Deck has never before had a CCG hit on the scale of Yu Gi Oh, and in-store gaming and tournaments are far more important elements in marketing card games now than they were when Upper Deck entered the field years ago with its Digimon cards.

Irwin also told ICv2 that Upper Deck was working hard to provide retailers that have regularly scheduled tournaments and events with more product. The company has recently begun selling directly to game retailers in its tournament program; it has previously worked through distributors to provide larger allocations to tournament stores.