Oct 2, 2008 6:05 AM, PROMO Xtra, By Richard Tedesco

Upper Deck is issuing its latest set of political parody cards with caricatures later this week of vice presidential candidates Sen. Joseph Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin in special baseball card editions.

Biden is portrayed as legendary Washing Senators pitcher Walter Johnson. Palin is pictured in a tiara, driving a dog sled around a baseball diamond with a moose grazing on the White House lawn in the background.

The two cards will be the rarest of the “Presidential Predictor” cards released by Upper Deck during the current political season. They’ll be inserted into packs of an unusually late season Upper Deck SP Authentic Baseball series at a rate of one set in every seven of eight $4.99 packs to be sold.

“This is a last-minute edition,” Kerri Stockholm, Upper Deck’s director of sports marketing, said. “It is a special set that we created realizing that this is an historic election.”

Upper Deck saw a spike in its card sales when it issued eight parody cards of several of the Democratic and Republican presidential hopefuls last February, according to Stockholm. That included an initial release of a card depicting Sen. Hillary Clinton as Morgana, baseball’s notorious, buxom “kissing bandit.” The unintended release of that card, which Upper Deck had decided to strike from the set, drew lively bidding on eBay.

In June, it issued two cards parodying noted baseball brawls, featuring presumptive Republican candidate Sen. John McCain tussling with Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama.
The McCain v. Obama card was intended to parody a 1976 confrontation between Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk and New York Yankee outfielder Lou Pinella.

“The concept is not only to show politics in a humorous way, but there’s a promotion behind it,” said Stockholm.

Fans who find the Biden and Palin cards—or any cards in the series— can enter a contest to win a trip for two to an opening day Major League Baseball game next season and throw the first pitch. They enter by registering the static code on the back of the card online. Winners will be selected at random, based on the presidential and vice presidential candidates who ultimately win the election.

Upper Deck is relying on press coverage to drive interest among collectors, as it did with the prior parody cards.

Based on the response, Stockholm said Upper Deck is planning to produce similar politico caricature cards for the 2012 election season.

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