2006 Ultra

I've been fussing over the Javier Vazquez trade all evening so I need a quick & easy post for tonight. 2006 Ultra retail? Five cards a pack? Perfect.

74 Victor Martinez
18 Rich Harden
179 Mariano Rivera
SOK1 Roger Clemens Strikeout Kings
128 Michael Young Gold Parallel

Three base cards in a pack. Lots of sets were built of this stuff, I'm sure. Not a terrible pack though, there are two future Hall inductees in the pack (I'm assuming the voters overlook the steroids and teenagers for Rog) and some second-tier stars. Ultra looks good though, and the design never drastically changed from about '96 to it's last set in '07. What I want to know is why Upper Deck murdered them off by making them an expensive hit-per-pack product last year. I also want to know why Topps copied that exact same strategy with their ridiculously priced return of Stadium Club. UGH. Can some one please give a license back to Donruss? Or will they just bring back Leaf as a $100 tin with an autographed fake letter patch per pack? Ya know what, forget all that, BRING BACK TOPPS TOTAL.