Upper Deck Encore

craig44

I was largely out of the "modern" hobby during the late 90s-early 00s when Upper Deck released their Encore sets.

My question is, how were these perceived at the time? I have done some research, and know that the packs sold for more and had fewer cards than the base upper deck sets. Encore also had thicker card stock. It seems they were a higher quality parallel of the base upper deck set for a given year. I also dont know if they were released concurrently with the base set or later in the season?

were they held in similar regard as topps chrome? was it considered a high end set? I have some in player collections and just got curious.

thanks in advance!