Tuesday, July 29, 2008

2008 Goudey


Why did Allen & Ginter and Goudey both have to be released within a week of each other? I have a mortgage to pay, dammit. I know I've already opened a pack today, but what the hell, let's open a second one.

No. 111 Delmon Young
Well, here's your first look at Goudey. The photos are artwork now and the backgrounds are lame compared to last year's set. The got the Lou Gehrig/Derek Jeter says... bit right though.

No. 59 Grady Sizemore
Nope, not as good as last years...

No. 172 Scott Rolen
Scott's card is even more boring so it's a good card to show off the back. The copy on the back has nothing to do with what Derek Jeter says... They didn't even have a ghostwriter act like he was doing commentary by Jeter and then put a fake signature on the card like in the original '34 Goudeys. There are also stats on the back this time which is another departure from the originals. The backs are not too bad overall though. There are no Red/Green variations on the large size base cards either.

No. 186 Josh Hamilton mini card
Aw yeah, THIS is more like it! Why couldn't the whole dang set be like this?? It worked last year, why mess with success? Spectacular card. Mini cards have red backs, so UD didn't completely abandon the color choices.

HPC-25 Reggie Jackson Hit Parade of Champions
Upper Deck swipes the 1951 Berk Ross set design for this insert. I'm not sure why they went with black & White photos when the originals were in color, but I'm a total sucker for this old obscure Retro crap so I love it. Plus it's Reggie!

No. 120 Billy Wagner
Billy just smelled a fart. As you can see, Derek Jeter doesn't get all the glory in this set, Ken Griffey Jr. gets his face on all the National League players' cards.

No. 16 Melvin Mora
The orange background is appropriate I suppose.

No. 295 John Elway Sport Royalty
Oh goody. The year I decide not to bother with football cards, I pull an Elway card out of my first Goudey pack. Ah well, it's a nice looking card. And a short print. I still don't have a Sport Royaly card from last year's set, so I suppose it's nice that us low rollers are allowed to have such cards this year.

Overall it's not as nice as last year's set. Once again, they only put 8 cards in a $5 hobby pack so retail is the way to go for set builders most likely. It certainly is not a bad product though. Not as good as Heritage or Allen & Ginter certainly, but this definitely won't be the last pack I get of this stuff.

14 comments:

Kevin said...

I agree, last year's were better. There's no way in hell I'm collecting a set with Jeter's smarmy mug all over it.

--David said...

WTF? If I wanted a blankety-blank football card, I'd, um, oh I don't know, BUY FOOTBALL CARDS! Give me a friggin break...

madding said...

I can't really think of a single thing I like about this year's Goudey, at least based on what I'm seeing here. Maybe last year's stuff will get put on sale somewhere or something.

Chris Harris said...

I think UD is trying to make Goudey too much like TA&G.

I think I was the only one who hated the mini-format of last year's set, and the mini format works better as a one-per-pack parallel.

But with that said, do we really need football cards in a baseball card pack? It works in TA&G, but not in UDG.

dayf said...

Last year's stuff *has* been put on sale. I just found about 30 packs in a $1.59 box at the Target in Kennesaw.

But yeah, it was disconcerting to see a football player in a baseball card pack. I don't recall there being any football players in A&G, though I may be wrong. I would have preferred a swimmer or a boxer or something and not the guy who embarrassed my ex-favorite team in the Super Bowl. The card looks nice though...

jv said...

I was completely against this years set until you mentioned that are no red/green variations on the base.

That was the most frustrating thing about trying to build the base last year. I wasted tons of money on blasters and still never completed it.

I guess pulling the Ruth g/u from one of the blasters balanced it though... Too bad I don't want to get rid of it or I could recoup some of the cost...maybe one day.

dayf said...

I've only bought two packs, so there might be some red/green weirdness I don't know about yet, but I haven't heard about it yet at any rate.

Chris Harris said...

Yo Junkie,

Just curious, but is the Elway licensed by NFL Properties?

dayf said...

It's got the NFL Players logo and the NFL Shield on the back of the card in the legalese section so I would suppose so.

orguss1 said...

I enjoy the Goudey product personally. I also had problems with last years red/green back fiasco, it is real hard to put a set together when half the pack is a different variation then the rest, i started it and after 2 boxes i kinda gave up (that reminds me i need to get some of last years to finish it). The size was perplexing also because finding something to store them in was hard because nothing was made for it i finally had to use penny sleeves for them and use a regular box so they didn't get all banged around. so i like the fact they went with the traditional size this year and used the smaller size as a parallel instead.

Andy said...

What the fucking hell is up with Jeter being on every card? That makes no damn sense to me at all. Can anybody explain it?

dayf said...

The 1934 Goudey set had Lou Gehrig on the front of every card and a "Lou Gehrig (or his ghostwriter) says..." comment on how good the player on the front was. Second series added Chuck Klein to the fronts of some of the cards. Upper deck copies this and replaced Lou with Derek Jeter on all the American League cards and Ken Griffey Jr. on the National League cards. I just happened to pull an AL-heavy pack here.

Andy said...

Am I missing something? Does it actually say anything after "Derek Jeter says...." on any of the cards?

dayf said...

Check my blog on Thursday. All shall be revealed about Derek Jeter says...