Wednesday, February 06, 2008

2008 Upper Deck


Topps got pushed until Friday, but Upper Deck was waiting for me there at the hobby shop. Sweet, beautiful, wonderful, ON TIME, gorgeous Upper Deck. First pack of the year, bitches.

52 Dave Bush
13 Woody Williams
169 Austin Kearns
286 Juan Uribe - first Sox of 2008, sorry Steve
233 Jared Burton
155 Aaron Heilman
272 Boof Bonser
116 Bengie Molina
77 Aramis Ramirez
96 Miguel Montero
57 Prince Fielder
18 Ty Wigginton
291 Andy Pettitte
291 Andy Pettitte

(sound of needle scraping over record)

WHAT THE HELL UPPER DECK?!?! THIS IS FREAKING 2008, NOT 1990! DUPLICATES IN THE SAME PACK ARE NO LONGER ACCEPTABLE! I'M ALREADY TIRED AND CRANKY FROM WATCHING ELECTION RETURNS FOR TOO LONG LAST NIGHT AND AM SUFFERING FROM CRUSHING, BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT BECAUSE THE BOX I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR TWO MONTHS IS DELAYED AND NOW YOU PULL THIS?!?!?! I PAID FIVE BUCKS FOR THIS DAMN PACK! YA BLEW IT, UPPER DECK, YOU HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO WIN ME OVER TO YOUR BASE SET AND YOU GODDAMN BLEW IT!

"That was a highly articulate outburst, Vyvian"

back to the pack rip.
321 Rob Johnson RC
339 Justin Ruggiano RC
375 Matt Holliday Checklist
312 Willie Collazo RC
393 Johan Santana Season Highlights
YSL6208 (!!!) Tino Martinez 08/05/2000

Ok a brief break while I catch my breath and scan the cards.


Ok. First of all I have to say the stuff looks good. The 1995 rip-off design looks nice although I'm tired of having to squint and hold the card up to the light to decipher the name on the front. The backs look great. The portrait stands out and is a different photo from the front, there's full stats, a bio or blurb if there's room, name and personal info, a big logo and the card numbers are readable and all in the same spot. This is how the back of a baseball card should look. There's five more cards per pack than last year, which is nice as long as YOU DONT GET DUPES. Seriously, there is no excuse for that and it turns a decent pack into epic fail. Here's another nice thing about 08 Upper Deck:

Hey look! Odds are back! Not much in there... but there are odds at least. I don't know why they didn't put the Yankee Stadium insert odds on the pack. I know it's 1:2, you know it's 1:2, but not everyone who opens a pack will know it's 1:2. Oh well, I'm being nitpicky again I suppose. A step in the right direction for UD. I'm still disappointed in this pack, I just don't think this is five bucks worth of cards. I know about the two game used and auto in the box, but I'll buy a scratch off lottery ticket if I want to gamble. At least it's a little easier on set collectors now with the extra five cards in the pack. There is one thing about this pack I thoroughly enjoyed:

Ok that's damn funny. "Unleaded" cards. That's why they're so freaking expensive, they are made out of gasoline! Perfect for little pyromaniac children to play with. At least Upper Deck has a sense of humor. I however, do not. I feel like a starving dog that just got thrown a rubber bone. I guess I gotta wait till Friday for my Topps.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Baby, please, post the Prince. Is that to much to ask?

dayf said...

Ya know what? I'm scanning every card for posterity. However, just for you, I'll post Prince twice.

William said...

The readers have been called "bitches" in 3 of the last 4 posts. Reminds me of Prince from Chappelle's Show -- "You guys want some grapes?...Bitches."

Note: I misquoted "Prince" in my last 2 posts so I had to delete them so as to not get shamed publicly. I posted that he asked if they wanted brownies, not grapes. Then in the second post I copied and pasted but forgot to change it again. I'm an idiot.

dayf said...

No worries, I flushed the deleted comments so no one will ever know you're an idiot.

Oh wait... sorry.

Oh and I almost forgot.

I'M RICK JAMES, BITCH!

Captain Canuck said...

No Braves? What the h-e-double hockey sticks?

Steve Gierman said...

Hmmmm... me thinks my White Sox luck peaked with the Magical Pack Genie. At least I know they are out there. Something that keeps me opening packs.

Chris Harris said...

"That is the single most predictable... and BORING thing that anybody, could ever say whilst ripping open packs."

Voltaire said...

Dude, any pack with a Boof Bonser card is an automatic win.

Steve Gierman said...

The big, fat, puffed up teddy bear named Juan Uribe has to be thinking in that shot, "Should I throw it or should I hold it, should I throw it or should I hold it? Crap, dude's on first already. I think I'll throw it!"

Andy said...

Wow, the shots of guys playing on defense are QUITE awesome. On the other hand, the pitchers' cards all look virtually identical.

Bay Rat North West said...

One Pack and you pull an Austin Kearns and a Reds player? You have got to be the luckiest man opening packs. Except for the double. And that is a nice design this year.

meadows boy said...

Love the 'Young Ones' reference!
cheers

Andrew said...

I am pretty damn tired of every upper deck product looking the same. With that being said, their photography is great.

Chemgod said...

That picture of Austin Kearns is a great representation of what he's all about, before every home game he is out signing autographs. I got him to sign a Nationals hat for me.

Jinxo56 said...

I just got done ripping 5 of the fat packs and only got one duplicate, which amazed me. In the fat packs you get one of the Yankee Stadium cards and all mine were from 1923 and 1925. I got Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, wally Pipp, Waite Hoyt, and Earle Combs. I wonder if they have a resin bag fetish. 122 Jake Westbrook, 284 Matt Thornton, and 285 Ryan Bukvich are all shown flipping a resin bag.