In The Game is a sports card manufacturing company with offices in Canada and the United States. In The Game, often abbreviated to ITG, and was founded by Brian Price in 1998. Currently, In The Game mainly produces hockey trading cards.
In The Game's first entrance into the trading card market came in the 1998-1999 season, when they produced the NHL Players Association's "Be A Player" brand trading card set, which featured one certified autograph card per pack. Since then, In The Game has expanded its production to include other sets.
In 1998, Price was asked by Ted Saskin of the NHLPA to determine what should be done with the NHLPA's Be A Player hockey product. The product was started in 1994 and was supposed to give to each of the NHLPA licensees for two years. Pinnacle had the license for 1996 and 1997 but they went bankrupt and Be A Player needed a home. Price was hired by the NHLPA as a consultant to determine the fate of Be A Player. He advised Saskin that Upper Deck should be given back the Be A Player brand because of collector loyalty. However, Saskin asked Price if he would come back into the hockey card market and manufacture Be A Player in partnership with the NHLPA. Price agreed.
In 2005, in conjunction with the 2004-05 NHL lockout, the NHL Players Association (NHLPA) terminated its license agreement with In The Game. The company has continued to produce trading card sets featuring active and retired NHL players and minor/junior hockey players. After the 2005-06 season, In The Game obtained a license to produce cards featuring players and logos under the umbrella of Hockey Canada. During the 2006-07 season, ITG produced the International Ice Signature Series along with boxed sets commemorating gold medal wins by the Canadian national women's team and World Junior men's team.
Famous quotes containing the words game, trading and/or cards:
“It is usual for a Man who loves Country Sports to preserve the Game in his own Grounds, and divert himself upon those that belong to his Neighbour.”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)
“His farm was “grounds,” and not a farm at all;
His house among the local sheds and shanties
Rose like a factor’s at a trading station.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“The world is a puzzling place today. All these banks sending us credit cards, with our names on them. Well, we didn’t order any credit cards! We don’t spend what we don’t have. So we just cut them in half and throw them out, just as soon as we open them in the mail. Imagine a bank sending credit cards to two ladies over a hundred years old! What are those folks thinking?”
—Sarah Louise Delany (b. 1889)