Upper Deck seems to be loaded up with photo shoot jerseys of modern players and that's about it. And with their designs seemingly so easily modified or faked, if there is one with one of these older HOF players that pops up you question whether its even real. Ill take the "unlicensed" but genuine game used memorabilia from Leaf vs "licensed" Upper Deck photo shoot material any day, it doesn't matter to me if the players face is on the card or not.
Yeah, this is what I mean though.....
For Leaf to use Plante's image (for example) they would need to have an agreement in place with his estate. They pay the estate $X to license a particular image(s) that it holds the rights to.... at least that's how I believe this would work.
So if they're no longer using images of Plante, I assume it's because they're no longer paying any kind of licensing fee to his estate. I would assume one of two things must be true:
1. Leaf no longer wants to use his images
2. The estate no longer wants Leaf to use his images
I can't imagine why the first one would be true, so I have to assume it's the 2nd. Why would the estate not want to take Leafs' money?
Well, the only reason I can think of - is because Upper Deck offered them more $$$, but wanted it to be exclusive.
I just can't see why Upper Deck would do that. They've produced two cards of Plante (so far) in 2019-20. They must have gotten a hold of a GU Stick.... as he was in Engrained in 2018-19, and Chronology. Prior to those 18-19 cards, he was used three times for cut signatures between 2011 & 2016.
Jaques Plante just doesn't seem like a player that UD would be trying to lock down an exclusive with. They've produced fewer than 100 cards of him, ever.