2015 Upper Deck The Cup '05 Tribute Connor McDavid ROOKIE PATCH AUTO /10 #180CM PSA 10 GEM MINT

Cards like Connor McDavid’s 2015-16 Upper Deck The Cup ’05-’06 Rookie Tribute /10 RPA began with ground-breaking developments from two other sports more than a decade before its release. In 2001, Upper Deck pushed the boundaries of rookie card design with the first Rookie Patch Autos in the SP Authentic football set. Two years later, LeBron James led a star-studded rookie class in basketball, and the first basketball RPAs drove the development of Exquisite Collection—a barrier-breaking high-end product with a first-of-its-kind $500-per-box price point. Two years later, in 2005-06, Upper Deck wanted to take advantage of the double-rookie class necessitated by the 2004-05 NHL lockout by bringing an equivalent high-end product into the hockey card industry. With Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin leading the way, The Cup was born. Because Upper Deck heavily targeted Canadian collectors with its hockey products, the company decided not to use the Exquisite branding for the hockey version because the $500 per box price expectations in America would have resulted in a 15-20% markup in Canada due to conversion rates of the time. When workshopping alternate product monikers, one brand name continued to stick out. “The (Stanley) Cup is the grail,” recalled Karvin Cheung, one of Upper Deck’s leading product developers of the era. “So, we said, ‘That’s the name we’ve got to use.’” Rookie patch autographs of Crosby and Ovechkin drove demand for The Cup’s debut, and cards from the high-end set have remained popular staples among hockey card collectors ever since. More than a decade after the inaugural release of The Cup, Upper Deck recycled the design of the original RPAs for a special /10 Tribute insert. McDavid leads the 15-card set. This example, stamped 03/10 and showcasing a glorious multi-color Oilers patch and on-card autograph, is a printing deserving of the design on which it's based. Graded a Gem Mint 10 with an Authentic autograph, this card is a pop 1 in the PSA registry with none higher. Learn more about the outstanding Oiler’s RCs in our Guide to Connor McDavid Rookie Cards: https://www.fanaticscollect.com/definitive-guides/a-guide-to-connor-mcdavid-rookie-cards The certification number on this card has been checked against the third-party grader's online database and is active as of 04/21/2026.