I think it is a bit of both.. I mean, when a player signs a contract to issue 1000 autos for a season with upper deck, how much can he care by the time he gets to number 200? And I think it shows too, if you go through the collecting season, the last sets of the year seem to be the nicest autos, cause guys start at the end of the collecting season, and finish their autos by the first couple months of the season, so the late products have some nice stuff, and then the first few products of the next year have crap!
ALTHOUGH! Sidney Crosby seems to put the same amount of effort every time, his is nice, but its not great, but he never seems to get really sloppy with it