2009 Upper Deck First Edition

Ten cards for a buck. That's a price I can afford right now. Topps' dollar product is the new Attax game, while Upper Deck goes back to their First Edition standby. Unlike last year, the cards have a matte finish much like the 2007 set. No foil, no holograms, no frill, just cards. I like.

10 Max Scherzer
147 Manny Ramirez
234 Nate McLouth
24 James Parr
249 Matt Cain
118 Josh Johnson
SQ-11 Hanley Ramirez StarQuest
299 Ryan Zimmerman
207 Jorge Posada
194 John Maine

Scans of Hanley and Manny can be seen here, I'm too lazy to copy the pics right now. Manny, Hanley and Invader Zim make for a pretty good first pack. I haven't seen a checklist, but I think the set is 300 cards. At 99 base cards in a blaster (plus 10 SQ's) it is theoretically possible to get almost a complete set in three blasters. The odds of that happening is equivalent to that Tupperware container of old tuna fish salad in your refrigerator spontaneously evolving into a beluga whale, but it could happen. I would not recommend trying this though as you will most likely end up with 125 cards you need and enough doubles to choke that whale in your fridge. If you have a buck or ten burning a hole in your pocket, it could be a fun, cheap rip. Just don't expect any hits or inserts or gimmicks or anything, this is about as old school a set as you're likely to encounter this year.

2008-09 Upper Deck First Edition Basketball

Several years ago, when I succumbed to buying baseball cards again, I decided I would commit to buying cards from one sport and one sport only. Back in high school, when I worked for a hobby shop for a time, I collected three sports and had no idea what self-control was. However, I really do like basketball, and recently I've allowed myself to purchase one basketball card pack whenever I am making a decent sized baseball purchase. Upper Deck's First Edition is great for me, because it only costs 99 cents a pack and doesn't make me feel guilty. Not only that, since I don't really collect basketball cards anymore, I don't even notice how crappy the product is.

28 - Sasha Pavlovic (Pavlovic is a Bruce Bowen-wannabe who doesn't really do a whole lot of good things on the basketball court. Sorry, Cavs fans, I just don't see it.)
21 - Andres Nocioni (Nocioni is a decent player, but isn't quite the player that fellow Argentine Manu Ginobili is. Unlike Ginobili, however, Nocioni has stayed reasonably healthy.)

55 - Baron Davis (Highly talented, selfish scoring guard - the NBA has a lot of them.)
224 - Karl Malone UD Legends (I'm not sure how difficult it is to get these cards. Malone is one of my least favorite non-Lakers of all-time.)

237 - Kosta Koufos (Rookies are one-per-pack according to the wrapper. Koufos apparently played with Greg Oden at Ohio State and his name reminds me of doofus. That's all I really know.)

53 - Tayshaun Prince Gold (Here's a gold-ish parallel card. Once again, I have no idea how difficult these are to pull. Nice variety in this pack so far.)

SQ-1 Carmelo Anthony Starquest (The Blazers are one game behind Denver, who is in 1st place in the Northwest Division. That alone is enough for me to hate the Nuggets, but their players are reason enough. Starquest cards are one-per-pack, I think, and don't have parallel versions unlike the regular set.)
193 - Ronnie Brewer (This is an anti-Blazers pack. Two Jazz cards on top of the Nuggets card.)

103 - Michael Redd (Check out the look on Redd's face. Maybe he got a sign from the future that he was going to miss a huge chunk of the 2008-09 season and put his team at risk of missing the playoffs.)
165 - Mikki Moore

So... who wants to post a baseball card pack?

2008 Upper Deck First Edition Update

This is a weird post for me. I've got a ton of other stuff I need to be doing, and I even have several posts for A Pack A Day that are waiting to be written. This pack is something I shouldn't have even put in my shopping cart now that Allen & Ginter and Goudey are finally in stores. But for some reason I did buy this pack, and now I am compelled to write about it. First, the pack.

327 Kerry Wood
331 Bobby Jenks
346 Asdrubal Cabrera
315 Jon Lester
363 Luis Gonzalez
490 Alex Rios
445 Jason Bay
499 Ronnie Belliard
444 Tom Gorzelanny
SQ-51 Ken Griffey Jr. Starquest

Not a great pack, not a terrible one. Basically I got a Griffey insert and three cards that will go in my Sox, Indians and Marlins piles to be mailed out eventually to various other bloggers. The set is almost the same as the original First Edition that hit stores back in March. The main difference is that the subjects are from series two instead of series one. The StarQuest cards are the same as the Series Two cards, just with the First Edition Obnoxious Green (and I mean that as a compliment) backgrounds. There is one other change to the Update set which is probably insignifigant to most people but which cause me to do a double take. The stock now has a matte finish like last year's set instead of the slick glossy feel of this year's first First edition set. Which is something I complained about in my rip of FE a few months ago:

Anyone who bought First edition last year will remember that it was different from regular Upper Deck in two ways: it had no foil stamping and it was printed on a matte stock. This year's set still has no foil, but they changed back to the glossy stock which is a shame. Last year it was a distinct set from big boy UD, now it looks like a cheap knockoff.

While I'm not arrogant enough to think that my critiques of their products actually affect UD's production decisions, in the minuscule chance that some one from UD actually reads this blog, and takes any of my superficial bitching and complaining to heart, I have this to suggest for 2009 Upper Deck First Edition:

• Keep the matte finish. It distinguishes it from the base set and is great for autographs.
• Please, no foil. Give us one set with no foil. Foil up the rest of your stuff out the wazoo, but it's so refreshing to have one non-retro set that isn't all cluttered up with foil.
• The StarQuest cards are some of my favorites this year. Keep 'em or mine the old Collector's Choice sets for more ideas.
• Sneak in some insert sets too, the ones from last year's First Edition and Fleer sets made building a low end base set even more fun.
• Don't put less cards in the set, put more. Instead of cutting down the 500 card Upper Deck base set to make a 300 card First Edition set, ditch all the highlights and checklists and make First Edition a 600 card set and include all the middle relief and bench players that would never be considered for the regular Upper Deck set. Make it like UD 40-man, with full rosters for every team. Use the Update set late in the year to include traded players and a flood of RC's.
• This is the really, really REALLY important part: Keep the price a dollar a pack for 10 cards. I know printing and shipping is getting expensive as hell, but if you can put out a quality, comprehensive set at a buck a pop it'll sell. Topps has really screwed up their base brand lately, you have an opening right now to own the affordable base set niche.

Basically, if you merge 2007 Fleer with 2005 Topps Total and call it 2009 First Edition, I'll be your Best Friend Forever. Just some suggestions UD, from someone who has been impressed with what you've been doing the past calendar year despite the fact he is an unabashed fanboy for your competitor.

2008 BBM 1st Version

2008 BBM Baseball cards 1st version - these were from a friend who took a trip to Japan. Aesthetics and packaging are pretty good. The cards have a nice, glossy feel to them. The text on the cards are in Japanese, except for the identifying team names, positions and stat categories.

Pack one [8 cards per pack]
#041 Kenichi Nakata - pitches for the Chunichi Dragons

#181 Shigeru Takada - he's apparently a manager [as listed on the card] and it is refreshing to have a baseball manager pictured 'in-action' hitting fungoes.
#331 Kanehisa Arime -
#070 Ken Higuchi -

#519 Keisaburo Tanoue - Good-bye Heroes subset
#098 Shinjiro Hiyama -
#024 Noriyoshi Ohmichi -
#104 Issei Morita -

Pack two [8 cards per pack]

#261 Shingo Ono -
#279 Naotaka Takehara -
#445 Alex Ramirez - statistical leaders subset / when he was with the Cleveland Indians in 1999/2000, he was strictly the poor man's Ramirez.
#017 Tetsuya Yamaguchi -
#354 Akihisa Makida -

#492 Tatsuya Kojima - 2008 Rookie of the Year Candidate subset
#363 Shinya Okamoto

#362 Takayuki Kishi - silver signature parallel? It looks like a facsimile autograph printed on the card.

Comments - with the Internet, it is much easier to look up information on the product as well as the individual players. On the other hand, the names and faces just go over my head. Maybe one or a few of these guys will play Major League Baseball some day. For now, they are just a set of professional ballplayers pictured on foreign trading cards. Yu Darvish is a pitcher over in Japan who I've heard some hype about, but I didn't pull a card of his.

Hometown Showdown: Thorzul vs. dayf

Last night I had the pleasure of taking in a mid-week Brewer game. While the ticket price reads $1.00, I actually got in free of charge after my friend scored some complementary tickets from his dad. When I saw that the Braves were going to be our opponent, I got in touch with dayf to see if he wanted to place a friendly wager on the series. We agreed to an arrangement wherein the fan of the team that loses the three-game series sends the fan of the winner a pack. The rules stated that it has to be a pack of 2008 cards. Before game time, I headed off to the store and picked up a couple of packs. The one I'm risking will remain confidential until the end of the series, but I will be opening a few others as the games progress.

Things are looking good for me after the Brew Crew came out ahead in a 3-2 squeaker. It was the second game in a row that I attended during which Milwaukee won the game in the final at bat. Last night's hero: Bill Hall. He hit an 0-2 pitch to right for a single, advanced to second on a perfect bunt by Rickie Weeks, stole third without even soliciting a throw, and then sprinted home on a short sac fly by Mike Cameron, beating a pretty good throw. On the downside, lots of one-run victories are the hallmark of a bad team. We'll see what happens in the next two games.

Here's a for-kids pack I picked up.
Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
114 Ichiro (Off to a good start.)

179 Hank Blalock
246 Brian Bruney
49 Corey Hart (Sweet! Good player, bad entrance up-to-bat music. He approaches the plate with some really awful country crap that in no way gets me hype. A change is needed.)

133 Shawn Hill
69 Scott Dohmann (D'oh! Man!)
113 Richie Sexson (Always a disappointing pull.)
262 Willie Collazo RC
283 Josh Newman RC

SQ-5 Vladimir Guerrero Starquest (Although it's listed as a "common," I love the green.)

I hate to admit it, but that's a good-looking pack of cards. Upper Deck easily wins the kid demographic this year.

2008 Upper Deck First Edition

After my most recent let-down in the world of pack opening (1994 Fleer Sunoco-Atlantic), I just had to pick up a pack to redeem my faith in wax packs. It's hard to say if I accomplished my goal or not. You be the judge:


In a 10-card pack, there were THREE Oakland A's cards: rookie left-hander Jerry Blevins, right-hander Chad Gaudin, and the Piazza formerly known as catcher.


Also included in the pack were two Rockies (Yorvit Torrealba and Jeff Francis) and Yankees' Johnny Damon. His card is actually very well laid out, as the "position line" near the bottom adds a little "action line" to the card:


Let's see, we also have Dodgers' Matt Kemp, Blue Jays' Shaun Marcum, and Pirates' Jack Wilson. In addition to the regular issue cards, each pack includes a "StarQuest" card. This pack's insert turns out to be someone that "After 19 years in the Major Leagues, still garners a tremendous amount of respect. The 1997 AL MVP was intentionally walked 14 times during the 2007 season - good enough for seventh most in the National League. (paraphrased)" Uhhh... Well, I guess that's one way to look at it. Have you figured it out yet? It's none other than Junior himself:


All-in-all, not too bad, I guess... I mean, we're talking a 1st round HOFer (Piazza) and another possible potential HOFer (Junior). Still, three cards from one team and two from another strikes me negatively. Of course, if those were Tribers, I might not feel the same... LOL

2008 Upper Deck First Edition

Upper Deck finally has a second release out and...... it looks exactly the same as their first one. Well, not exactly the same, but close enough for government work. I've yet to find a Heritage blaster of any type anywhere so I grabbed a couple of packs of this instead.


167 Ian Snell
134 John Lannan
101 Rafael Betancourt
247 Jorge Posada
214 Mark Grudzielanek
180 Ian Kinsler
282 Bill Murphy RC
56 Jim Edmonds
265 Harvey Garcia RC
SQ-19 Jose Reyes Starquest Green

Anyone who bought First edition last year will remember that it was different from regular Upper Deck in two ways: it had no foil stamping and it was printed on a matte stock. This year's set still has no foil, but they changed back to the glossy stock which is a shame. Last year it was a distinct set from big boy UD, now it looks like a cheap knockoff. The checklist doesn't appear to be much different from the main set either, although I can't find an official checklist to compare yet. It looks like they cut out the checklists, highlights and a few base cards which unfortunately wipes out a bunch of the stars from series one. This pack wasn't all that great, with 300 cards you'd think they could do better than John Lannan and Mark Grudzielanek. The StarQuest cards are awesome though. To differentiate them from the StarQuest cards in the main set, they made the cards green. REALLY green. Jealous leprechaun green. Kermit the Frog with food poisoning green. The Chicago River tomorrow morning green. These cards are GREEN. I kinda like it too, it's just as gaudy as the horrible Opening Day red, but it's a more aesthetically pleasing shade of obnoxious. They fit in with the silver, gold and blue of the main set too. I haven't seen any uncommon or rares from First Edition, so I should probably be very afraid though. Fluorescent orange and hot pink may be in my collecting future.

2007-2008 Upper Deck Basketball First Edition

We now bring you the continuing story of Cardboard Junkie is a Lucky Bastard. I wanted to get a pack of First Edition Basketball for a while since I really liked the baseball and football versions. I never did get around to actually buying a pack though, even though I had every opportunity. The one time I actually picked one up it fell out of the shopping cart somewhere around the cereal aisle. So yesterday I was at Target looking for last minute presents. My wife didn't get everything we needed and I had to have the rest of them for a party this weekend. I looked around and found bupkis, not a dang thing I was looking for was there. That meant I was going to have to go down the street and go to The Avenue. Anyone not familiar with The Avenue, think a high class strip mall filled with overpriced yuppie stores like Pottery Barn, Abercrombie & Fitch and Williams-Sonoma. Plus it's the Holiday season so it's packed with mindless consumer drones taking up all the good parking spaces. I hate The Avenue. I went to the card rack hoping to find a pack of Bowman Draft to steel my nerves for the journey into Shopping Hell. Nope, not a single pack. Hey, there's First Edition, I could get that, it's only a buck.

32 Sarunas Jasikevicius
60 Nene
67 Craig Smith
50 Shawn Marion
157 Antoine Walker
126 Amir Johnson
117 Thabo Sefolosha
142 Maurice Williams
229 Gold Carl Landry Star Rookies
203 Al Horford Star Rookies

I have to admit, any pack with Sarunas Jasikevicius and Thabo Sefolosha is by definition full of awesome. Nene's another gem, what exactly has he done to warrant being a one-namer? I got a Gold rookie and The Matrix so that's good at least. None of that matters because I got the one card I really wanted out of the first and only pack of this stuff I'll buy. Al "Not a Bust" Horford. Al is kicking ass so far in his rookie season, all while playing out of position at Center because Billy Knight has no idea how to build an NBA roster. I would have bought this card outright anyway and here I go pulling out of a pack. Between this and pulling an auto out of a Topps Blaster, I'm on a roll. Time for me to go to Vegas.

Pack Playoff! Football Edition

I'm taking a break from vintage packs this week to honor the Colts-Patriots matchup with a football edition of Pack Playoff.Two packs of 2007 football cards face off to see who is the champ. The Indy-New England game isn't technically a playoff but it should feel like one. Our matchup isn't quite as good, as it features two bottom of the barrel products. This is more a Falcons-49ers showdown but it should be more fun than that game.

Upper Deck First Edition football will take on Topps Total in this battle of lightweights. You want good packs, you go buy 'em. The Colts will be represented by the old veteran Topps as they were an original NFL team, while upstart Upper Deck will proxy for the AFL Boston Patriots. We'll play four quarters with each card or design element representing one drive from the team. Here's the coin toss............. heads. Topps wins the toss and elects to receive.

First Quarter

Topps ball, wrapper design:
Topps has LT as their Total spokesman, shown here in a closeup with the Vader shield on his helmet. LT is nice and all, but the red is really dark and not very eye catching. Topps has the insert ratios on the back which is always nice. A good drive, but they stall in the red zone and settle for a field goal.

Topps 3, Upper Deck 0

Upper Deck ball, wrapper design:
Upper Deck features an action shot of Emmitt Smith on their wrapper. LT is nice, but he hasn't won a playoff game yet. Emmitt has championships coming out of his ears! He can't even lose a dance contest. Smith should run for president, he'd win in a landslide and couldn't do worse than the other clowns running. The wrapper has a classic looking design and stands out more than the Total wrapper. UD takes the ball to the 1 yard line, but are denied the endzone when I discover there are no insert ratios on the back.

Topps 3, Upper Deck 3

Topps ball, front design:
How to describe this mess... Green borders with curved neon lights and shockwaves in the corners. They don't even put the team name on the front. This looks like 1991 Fleer football got an extreme makeover. Ugly is still ugly however, no matter how you dress it up. Interception returned to the 10 yard line.

Topps 3, Upper Deck 3

Upper Deck ball, front design:
This is what Upper Decks base set should look line. The silver borders look good and there's no goddamn unreadable foil name. It's not a that great a design to begin with but thanks to the interception, they don't have far to go. Upper deck punches the ball in the endzone with their fullback.

Topps 3, Upper Deck 10

Topps ball, back design:
Topps is at least consistent, the back is as awful as the front. Too busy, the stats suck and you have to hunt for the card number. At least they remembered the team name this time. Topps muffs the kickoff, Upper Deck's ball on the Topps 18.

Topps 3, Upper Deck 10

Upper Deck ball, back design:
This is what a card back is supposed to look like. Big name, card number in the top left corner, concise bio, full career stats, plus it has the team logo as well as a small head shot that isn't swiped from the front. Very, very nice. Upper Deck lofts a beautiful pass to a wide open receiver in the corner of the end zone for the TD. The holder screws up the snap on the extra point, but the kicker picks it up and flattens a lineman on the way to paydirt for 2.

END OF QUARTER ONE: Upper Deck 18, Topps 3

Second Quarter

Topps ball, Card 1: Barry Cofield, Fred Robbins, William Joseph
Reeling from Upper Deck's onslaught, Topps counters with three Giants D-Tackles who have combined for 20 tackles and two sacks this year. Three and out.

Upper Deck 18, Topps 3

Upper Deck ball, Card 1: Alge Crumpler
He's not having a great year, but Alge's my favorite player on my favorite team. Upper Deck caps a long drive with a 7 yard touchdown pass to their big tight end.

Upper Deck 25, Topps 3

Topps ball, Card 2: Tye Hill, Fakhir Brown
Two defensive backs with zero interceptions this year. The Topps offense is being completely shut down by Upper Deck's front four. Punt.

Upper Deck 25, Topps 3

Upper Deck ball, Card 2: Steve Smith
A great receiver on a terrible team, and he's still putting up decent numbers. He's got David Carr and Vinnie Testeverde throwing to him and he's still on pace for a thousand yards and a dozen touchdowns. Upper Deck goes for the kill with a long bomb on first down and hits it with a long TD strike. They go for two to rub it in but fail on the conversion.

Upper Deck 31, Topps 3

Topps ball, Card 3: Jason Witten
Topps finally stops trying to be cute and comes up with a single player card. Witten's a good tight end, but TE's don't normally top Beckett's Hot List. Topps engineers a long drive that stalls at the 45. Punt.

Upper Deck 31, Topps 3

Upper Deck ball, Card 3: Braylon Edwards
Braylon is finally coming into his own and is averaging almost 100 years and over a touchdown a game. If he can keep this up, he'll finally live up to that #3 overall pick the Browns spent on him. Upper Deck runs the ball to kill the clock and takes a knee instead of attempting a 52 yard field goal.

END OF FIRST HALF: Upper Deck 31, Topps 3

Holy crap, what a slaughter. I don't think anyone saw this coming, except maybe someone who cracked open a box of Total. I won't be offended if you switch over to the Topps Chrome-Playoff Contenders matchup over on CBS. You never know though, Topps might have a Frank Reich up their sleeves. On to the second half!

Third Quarter

Upper Deck ball, Card 4: Jay Cutler
Upper Deck opens the half strong with a good young quarterback. No one's forgotten John Elway in Denver yet, but he's not doing too badly for having less than a full season of starts under his belt. Upper Deck runs the ball down Topps' throat and come out of the drive with a 32 yard field goal.

Upper Deck 34, Topps 3

Topps ball, Card 4: Tim Carter, Leigh Bodden, Kenny Wright
The coach gave a fire and brimstone speech in the locker room, the assistants have made their adjustments and the players are all geeked up. And Topps comes out with... another triple player card. Hey, Leigh Bodden's on my fantasy team! He better get an interception, Larry Fitzgerald's done crap for me today. Topps' drive stalls at midfield, they pooch a punt into the corner and stick UD deep in their own territory.

Upper Deck 34, Topps 3

Upper Deck ball, Card 5: Tony Gonzalez
Upper Deck is not letting up on the gas at all. Here's another star card, this time future Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez. Another long grueling drive from UD results in points on the board as a 28 yarder goes through the uprights.

Upper Deck 37, Topps 3

Topps ball, Card 5: Mark Bulger
Finally, Topps delivers with a good card. He's hurt, has no offensive line and the team sucks, but Bulger is still a decent card of a QB. Topps finally puts together a decent drive and scores on a TD pass to the back of the end zone.

Upper Deck 37, Topps 10

Upper Deck ball, Card 6: Deuce McAllister
Out for the season and Reggie Bush is 4-1 in games Deuce hasn't started. Not good for Deuce. Topps' defense gets an emotional boost from the success of the offense and stuff Upper Deck's rushing attack. First punt of the day for UD.

Upper Deck 37, Topps 10

Topps ball, Card 6: Walter Jones, Chris Spencer, Chris Gray
Topps gets the ball back from Upper Deck after stopping them and they counter with... three offensive lineman. NFL success begins with the o-line, but football card success most assuredly does not. Topps' vaunted line lets through a jailbreak and their QB gets slaughered and coughs up the ball. A big fat defensive lineman rumbles it back for a 72 yard TD. Oh the humanity.

END OF QUARTER THREE: Upper Deck 44, Topps 10

It's the start of the final quarter, the stands are emptying and Michael Eisner is looking extremely sour in the owner's box. The coach for Topps better be getting his resumé together. Don't leave now though, maybe some rookies will take the field for garbage time.

Topps ball, Card 7: Champ Bailey 1st Edition parallel
Topps has run out of base cards and enters the Insert phase of the pack. Maybe a miraculous comeback is in order? Champ Bailey is a superstar defender, a Georgia Bulldog, and a 1st Edition insert to boot! Touchdown all the way! What are the odds for this card? One in... two?!? Topps has spent years trying to position first edition as a rarity and they turn it into an 18-per-box parallel for a crappy football product? You gotta be kidding me. The Topps QB lofts a beautiful 48 yard touchdown pass only to have it overturned on by a flag due to offensive pass interference. They cough up a fumble on the very next play. Upper Deck ball deep in Topps territory.

Upper Deck ball, Card 7: Willie Parker
Upper Deck don't need no stinking inserts. Willie Parker is rushing for over 100 yards a game for the 5-2 Steelers. The Upper Deck running back blows through a wide open hole and dives into the end zone.

Upper Deck 51, Topps 10

Topps ball, Card 8: Kerry Rhodes, Erik Coleman Gold parallel
A three per box parallel of two safeties. The exits are jammed, the mezzanine level is on fire and the Totals' head coach is being escorted from the stadium at gunpoint by security. Not for his own safety either. Three and out, negative yardage on the drive.

Upper Deck ball, Card 8: Mark Bulger
The only decent card in the pack for Topps is mirrored by Upper Deck. To add insult to injury the photo is much better on the UD card. Upper Deck keeps the ball on the ground to run out the clock, but the Topps defense is exhausted and provides no resistance. The tailback waltzes into the endzone through a huge hole.

Upper Deck 57, Topps 10

The game is pretty much over and the rookies are all in the game. Let's end this quickly for mercy's sake.

Topps ball, Card 9: Darius Walker RC
Rookie running backs are the best bet to have an immediate impact on the team that drafted them. Too bad this one was cut from the team in July. Topps is forced to punt on first down when their QB hides inside the instant replay monitor and refuses to come out, screaming "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" over and over.

Does the score really matter at this point

Upper Deck ball, Card 9. Calvin Johnson RC
Ok, this isn't fair now. The Topps defense late hits the UD quarterback on a kneel down play on first down with 36 seconds left. The irate QB audibles a hail mary on the next play and hits his rookie receiver for a 68 yard touchdown. They go for two and make it. They then on side kick.

Chicago Bears 73, Washington Redskins 0

Topps ball, Card 10: Jason Hill RC
One catch in 9 games. Upper Deck recovers the on side.

Georgia Tech 222, Cumberland 0

Upper Deck ball, Card 10: Chris Houston RC
It's a Falcons rookie card, but I just can't pile on Topps anymore. Upper Deck takes a knee and time expires.

FINAL SCORE: Upper Deck 65, Topps 10

What a horrific slaughter. Topps has a gripe in pointing out that I am comparing pulls from a single pack of a 200 card set with 100 veterans to a 550 card set that squeezes in 900 players. That doesn't make up for the hideous design and rainbow of useless parallels. Dollar packs are supposed to appeal to kids and casual collectors, right? Which of these packs do you think that demographic would be happy to open?