{"product_id":"2001-02-del-german-hockey-cards-box-24-boosters-factory-sealed","title":"2001\/02 DEL German Hockey Cards Box | 24 Boosters | Factory Sealed","description":"\u003cp\u003eA factory-sealed box of \u003cstrong\u003e2001\/02 DEL German Hockey Cards\u003c\/strong\u003e — \u003cstrong\u003e24 boosters of 6 cards\u003c\/strong\u003e, 144 cards in total. Covering the Deutsche Eishockey Liga. Published by \u003cstrong\u003eUpper Deck\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eAn American company made trading cards for a German league\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat sentence is the reason this box is interesting, and the manufacturer line is not a mistake. Upper Deck of Carlsbad, California — the firm behind Series 1, Young Guns and the 1989 Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card — produced a set for the DEL at the turn of the century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is the opposite of what the market would predict. The trading card, in the American sense, is a North American format: wax packs, a licensed league, chase inserts, a hobby shop. Europe went a different way entirely. Here the collecting habit belongs to \u003cstrong\u003ePanini\u003c\/strong\u003e and the sticker album — cheap paper stickers, a printed book with numbered spaces, and a playground economy of swaps. Generations of European children collected that way and never touched a trading card.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUpper Deck tried anyway, in several European hockey markets around 2000, and the DEL was one of them. It did not become a fixture. The German league's cards have been made by City-Press of Berlin for many years now, and an Upper Deck DEL set is a closed chapter rather than a series.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhich is what makes a sealed box of it a document: proof that for a couple of seasons, a German league was worth the attention of the largest card manufacturer in the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe league at the time\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2001\/02 was the DEL's eighth season. The league had been founded in 1994 when the clubs broke away from the old Bundesliga to run themselves as a closed licence competition — no promotion, no relegation, an American structure imposed on a German sport.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt was a turbulent period. Several clubs went insolvent in those years and disappeared or reformed, and the league's membership changed from season to season in a way that makes historical sets genuinely useful for working out who played where.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eSpecifications\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e24 boosters per box · 6 cards per booster · 144 cards\u003c\/strong\u003e · \u003cstrong\u003eFactory sealed\u003c\/strong\u003e · \u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Upper Deck · \u003cstrong\u003eSeason:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2001\/02 · \u003cstrong\u003eLeague:\u003c\/strong\u003e Deutsche Eishockey Liga · \u003cstrong\u003eEAN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 4042323321611\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGerman-market release. Long out of production.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Upper Deck","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52866653094170,"sku":"UD-DEL-0102-BOX","price":399.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0837\/3134\/9786\/files\/IMG_3016.jpg?v=1789362047","url":"https:\/\/notjustcollectibles.com\/products\/2001-02-del-german-hockey-cards-box-24-boosters-factory-sealed","provider":"Not Just Collectibles, LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}