2010 Upper Deck First Looks

Awesome, really. From the limited number of inserts (almost no base cards) listed on eBay, this is a pretty solid release. Here's some highlights:
Decent. Ramon Vazquez is one of the only base cards I could find...the rest had "Star Rookie" logos on them. I think due to the lawsuit, UD also cannot use the RC logo on their cards, so they designed their, own, and it's kind of obnoxious, but whatever. This Vazquez is actually a gold parallel /99.
Holy Fleer Ultra circa late '09's. These are siiiick. Die cuts are back with a vengeance...and Joe Mauer dons this one. Absolutely awesome insert, saw some others with Pujols and other stars, looks like a legit checklist for a sweet die-cut set. Very cool, will be collecting all of these.
So after seeing the Mauer and promptly jumping up and down (both for the return of die cuts and, let's face it, FLAMES!) this set stunned me equally. Perhaps it didnt need to be die-cut, but it's still really badass and features one of my favorite parts of the game, it's World-Wide reach (I'm a WBC homer, too, want to fight about it?!) This insert is a great cool-coloured answer to the too-hot-to-handle Pure Heat inserts.
And lastly, the relics. I am yet to see a patch or a multi-colour patch, but they're okay. The big portrait on the right is great, but instead of the small action photo on the left, I think they should have transferred the patch to inside the diamond and rid the card of a busy, second photograph. I'm so tired of circular patches, it's a waste of a swatch seeing as ~20% of the swatch ends up between cardboard.

I dig 'em. What do you guys think?

Fat Pack Loveliness + This Week in eBay Scores

You know, eBay sucks. Often. Not eBay itself- they've revolutionized independent commerce (is that the right term?). The sellers are the villians, but most of the time bad sellers can be avoided, and it's your own fault if you win an auction for a Rocco Baldelli jersey card (JUST $0.35!!!) and forget to read the $6.99 s&h fee. But I digress.

I love eBay. if you use it right, you can score sweet loot like I did this week. Here we go.

I snagged a 2007 Fleer Ultra Fat Pack (32 cards) for a swell $5. These are on sale at certain SprawlMarts right now for $2.49..but this one was special. The seller advertised it, with scan as "Dice-K Gold Medallion Showing." Nice! So I grabbed it. Here's what I got out of it:



Daisuke Matsuzaka Lucky 13 Gold Medallion Rookie Card.

Since Daisuke was an international free agent, Bowman couldn't get their trigger-happy rookie card logo on Daisuke before other, ENJOYABLE brands could. Take that, Bowman. So this is more or less a "true" rookie card, and a base set parallel to boot. It's numbered to /999, which is irritating, because Lucky 13's are short-printed, but base card GMs are also numbered to /999.

Fleer Ultra 2007 Set Progress:



For those who have read this before, you may remember my affinity for this set and my run at completing it. I bought THREE Fat Packs last week and got nine cards (out of 96!) for completion. Bummer. This ONE Fat Pack yielded fourteen. I am starting to suspect there is some seeding of cards based on geography (as this pack came from Texas, and contained two Rangers I needed.)

Other Sweet Scores:

I mentioned the Kei Igawa Lucky 13 last week, which I got in the mail yesterday. Not worth a scan.

2000 Skybox Skylines #6 of 10



I love these things. Got any? I only have two so far, Piazza and Chipper, so I would love to take 'em off your hands.

Saving the best for last...

2000 Metal base Shredders #NNO Matt Williams



These are the greatest inserts EVER. Back when relics were hard to come by, these were a tough pull, seeded 1:288. My buddy in high school, when we were collecting 2000 Metal, bought a Eurubiel Durazo for $10 on Induction Weekend (Kirby Puckett, Dave Winfield, Bill Mazeroski). It will be mine.
Again, if you have any of these, I want 'em. The checklist is awful, full of players like Eric Munson and the aforementioned Durazo, but they're sooooo sick.

See you later kids, should have another post tonight.