If you haven't read it anywhere yet, Upper Deck is cutting production levels for its remaining 2007-08 offerings. This means hobby shops that purchase direct from Upper Deck will not be guaranteed allocations of the products with cards available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
 
“The cuts actually started with SP Authentic Basketball and have been pretty significant,” said Chris Kollmeyer, Upper Deck’s basketball brand manager. “The cuts are difficult to take from a financial standpoint, but allow us to make improvements to the brands.” Kollmeyer said the lower print runs for UD Black Basketball means a higher concentration of superstar autographs. There are two autograph cards per box. “This is the type of enhancement the production cuts allow us to make to improve the brand and ultimately the market.”

Production levels of two of Upper Deck’s higher-end products are being cut significantly. UD Premier Basketball, scheduled to be released April 2, will be limited to just 499 cases. SP Rookie Threads, scheduled to be released April 18, will be limited to just 599 cases. The cases will now be sequentially numbered.

Upper Deck reported that after its announcement, interest in its UD Premier product line has gone up dramatically.  They recently conducted a signing with Michael Jordan who was kept very busy with the sharpie as he added his signature directly to many of the cards in the set.  The photo above is a sneak peak of some of the cards Jordan will have in the 07-08 NBA Premier product.