2009 Upper Deck Icons (Retail)

Another one of those packs that's been sitting around for almost four years.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
36 Edinson Volquez (Camo is not a good look for the Cincinnati Reds organization.)

99 Vernon Wells

1630 20th Anniversary Retrospective New England Patriots (Every time I clicked on Yahoo to check my email this week, there was a headline suggesting that I feel sorry for Tom Brady, Wes Welker, whoever will be replacing Wes Welker, and anyone living within 500 miles of Boston. What's up with that?)

97 Tim Lincecum

7 Alfonso Soriano

Grade: B-

2009 Upper Deck Icons Football

Let's open a pack of football cards. I've had a retail pack of 2009 Upper Deck Icons lying around for years. Let's see if this will be a crystal ball into this weekend's future. Let's say the likelihood of a team winning is increased by the presence of a card in this pack. The chances double if the player is still active for that team.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
61 Eddie Royal
The Broncos gain a slight advantage, but Royal played with the non-playoff Chargers this year.

89 Andre Johnson
The Texans are guaranteed victory over the Patriots on Sunday. Andre Johnson pulls in 26 catches for 417 yards.

44 Earnest Graham
Retired. The Buccaneers never make the playoffs again.

7 Brandon Jacobs
The Packers dodge a huge bullet here, with Jacobs being released by the 49ers this past New Year's Eve. Jacobs reportedly celebrated the holiday by retrieving a box of noisemakers from the basement and eating three Banquet brand pot pies, alone. The Giants insignia on this card ensures that for the 2013-14 NFL season, Eli Manning will squeak a 6-10 team into the playoffs and then tear through them by an average victory margin of 39 points.

5 DeMarcus Ware
No prognostication from this card, other than the offseason strangling of Tony Romo by a defensive teammate.

Well, the pack had little to say other than predicting the Texans' upset of the New England. Have fun this weekend. If you get a chance, build a time machine so UD can make their '09 Icons baseball cards look as good as the football brand.

2009 Upper Deck X

This is one of those products I keep going back to if I find a Target cheapie. I'm working on the die-cut set, so hopefully I'll get one I need.


Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
65 Alex Rodriguez

34 Garlos Guillen
44 Bobby Abreu Die-Cut (Got it already, dang.)

X3-PF Prince Fielder X3 Xponential (Didn't have this one yet. Even though he's no longer on my team, I still like getting his cards.)

68 Jack Cust
19 Aramis Ramirez

Well, I only needed one of those, but it was a good one. Most likely not my last pack of X.

Repack Resurrection: 2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions

With a four-card pack, there's not a whole heckuva lot to write about. To keep things interesting, I will share my favorite thing about each card.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
75 Carlton Fisk
Favorite Thing: The funky design element behind those red red socks

102 Curtis Granderson
Fave: Flip-ups

66 Buffalo Bill Cody Mini
Fave: The push-broom 'stache/wily Van Dyke combo and the 5"x7" picture frame belt buckle (tie)

62 Yogi Berra
Yogi's disproportionately small head.

Four cards per pack? No wonder I didn't buy this stuff.

Repack Resurrection: 2009 Upper Deck SP Authentic

All y'all thought Thorzul had quit this project and wasn't going to post again until Guy Fawkes Day, didn't you?
Y'alls were wrong.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
48 Joakin Soria

20 Carlos Quentin

158 Mat Gamel
YES!

29 Adrian Beltre

85 Brad Hawpe

That Gamel rookie makes the pack for me. On eBay you will have trouble getting one of these for less than four bucks shipped. I looked at the checklist, and it seems as if base cards #130-170 are all rookies. I don't know the first thing about SP Authentic, but would I be wrong in assuming the high-numbered rookies are SP's? Just a hypothesis. Feel free to correct me if it makes you feel like a big man.

Repack Resurrection: 2009 Upper Deck Icons

I won't bore you with another retelling of the circumstances surrounding the purchase of this repack pack, but I did allow a reader to choose the first pack I would open.


Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
53 Jim Thome

26 Cole Hamels

15 Carlos Lee Silver Board Parallel

16 Carlos Quentin

79 Michael Young


Silver board...
Silver board...
This Icons pack's kinda shitty.

Actually, not that bad a pack. Just none of my favorites here.
Nine more to go.

2009 UD Signature Stars

*Pfff* *Pfff* Whoa, what is up with all the dust around here?  This is a pack a *DAY* right?  Man, we need to step up, fellow bloggers!

The 2009 Upper Deck Signature Stars cards come in a box that lets you know in BIG, BOLD PRINT that these cards are NOT AUTHORIZED by the MLB.  I'm sure if I look hard enough, I will find a little logo of a guy sticking his tongue out on there somewhere.

Each Signature Stars box comes with an autographed card.  What that really means is that of the whole six packs you get, one of the packs has an autographed card in it.  Though I opened all six packs, I will only show the one with the "hit" in it. 

First up, Jason Kubel - Twins.  I actually like the looks of these cards a lot.  The picture is center and large enough that the starred border does not take away from the player.  The player's name, city name and position are shown at the top along with the UD logo.  The "SignatureStars" script is centered at the bottom. 

Next up, Brian Roberts - Orioles.  The backs of the cards mimic the name/city at the top, then some biographical info is provided along with a paragraph about the player.  At the bottom of the back are stats from the last four years or so.  They are very clean without a lot of distraction (though the back does have the same starred design altered slightly from the front)

Third, we have the signature card.  This is the "hit" of the box.  This is the reason this box retailed for $30 when first sold.  Who is the reason?  Jason Anderson - Royals.  I don't follow KC, so I don't know if I struck gold or struck out.  Given my genral history with such things, I'm guessing the latter.

Fourth, batting clean-up is Andruw Jones - Rangers.  Oh sure, I couldn't get HIS auto...

And rounding out the pack, we find Pablo Sandoval - Giants.

2009 Upper Deck 1st Edition Basketball

2009 Upper Deck 1st Edition Basketball

108 David West
143 Brandon Roy
155 Manu Ginobili
198 Ty Lawson
BA-11 Troy Murphy - Behind the Arc insert
1007 Michael Jordan Legacy
189 Jeff Teague
88 Jermaine O' Neal
74 Sasha Vujacic
#27 Delonte West

2009 Upper Deck First Edition Football

2009 Upper Deck 1st Edition Football

50 Calvin Johnson
28 Lance Briggs
177 Shonn Greene
102 Domenik Hixon
89 Wes Welker - silver parallel
CT-5 Ed Reed - Crunch Time insert
72 Rashean Mathis
56 Greg Jennings - Lambeau Leap
199 Josh Freeman
129 Frank Gore

2009 Score Football

Being a baseball guy, I actively ignore other sports cards, because it is more simpler to focus on one sport - impulsively, I guess I'd grab cheap base cards of stars from other sports as well as a few of the most cheapest packs [maybe a dollar each] of football and basketball, just so I can casually keep up with the names of the game.

2009 Score Football

177 Ted Bruschi
232 Troy Polamalu
138 Maurice-Jones Drew
280 Barrett Ruud
153 Chad Pennington
387 Ramses Barden
281 Albert Haynesworth - glossy

2009 Topps T-206

Last night I picked up a retail pack of Topps 206. I've been having a great weekend, which is following a horrible week, the low point of which was a near-snow day. Almost every school in the state was closed on Wednesday, but Milwaukee was caught in a narrow band of rain that just made the three inches of snow heavier to remove from what ultimately is city property. Baseball cards make me happy, and I'll let you know what percentage out of 100 each card makes me smile.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
62 Dan Haren (2%: Nobody receiving this card is happy. Haren is a collecting black hole. Even when his mom opens packs and gets one of his cards, she checks it against her want list and then shakes her head in disgust if she already has it.)

108 Alex Rios (71%: I like his chain, and I like that he's playing a game somewhere in hell, judging from the background.)

293 Troy Tulowitzki (49%: Troy has a goofy, constipated look on his face. I enjoyed the comeback he had in 2009.)

13 Bobby Parnell Mini - Piedmont back (3%: Common ad back, plus a guy I've never heard of. I wish it was a card of Chris Parnell. A state of disillusionment persists.)

159 Rick Ankiel Gold (1%: Not a big fan of the guy.)

46 Cliff Lee (50%: Love the guy, just wish he was still on the Indians.)

OK, so I guess that pack didn't make me that happy after all. But it the proper perspective, a bad day opening a pack of cards beats the hell out of a good day at work. Or shoveling. And having wet feet all day.

2009 Topps Chrome Baseball

One of the things that made Topps' 2009 flagship product such a critical success this year, but has gone mostly unheralded because of its position on the back of the card, is the bevy of interesting stats Topps included in an arching graphic on the back of each card. I'd like to share something interesting from each card in this pack of 2009 Topps Chrome (retail).

207 Mike Hinckley (RC) - According to this card, the Nationals lost no fewer than 11 games in 2008 due to a cause labeled as "league-wide indifference."

26 David DeJesus - In the off-season, David's family plays a variation of the game known as "Australian Rules Baseball," depicted in the photo here.

W65 Greg Halman - "Did You Know... that Greg is third in line of succession to take the throne of the Kingdom of the Netherlands?" As it turns out, the only citizens standing in his way are Johann Cruyff and Paul Verhoeven.

55 Daniel Murphy - Oddly enough, the Six Degrees of Mantle factoid is replaced on this card with the original Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Daniel Murphy plays with David Wright who once rented Zoolander starring Owen Wilson who tried to kill himself on the same day a home run was hit by Jason Bay who once fantasized about Denise Richards who was in Wild Things with Kevin Bacon.