Thursday, May 14, 2009

Thoughts and Observations on 2009 Upper Deck Series Two.

Since I seem to be the only person on the planet who has opened Series Two UD Baseball, (Yeah, I know, you're jealous. Don't hate, folks.) I figure I'd give you all a heads-up on what to expect when the UPS guy gets around to your neck-of-the-woods. Consider this a collector's guide to UD2.

1) The master checklist to UD2 has still not been posted to the Upper Deck website.
There is a link to Series Two, and it mentions a street date of next Tuesday. But if you're one of those collectors who, you know, actually wants to know what's in a product before you buy it, you'll be disappointed to learn that the UD2 link takes you to Upper Deck's generic "Collector's Zone" page instead.

2) As you may have noticed in my video break, the "Silver Common" StarQuests are back for Series Two.
For some strange reason the Silver's in UD1 were exclusive to loose retail packs and Jumbos. Not so for UD2.

OBTW, other than the words "BLUE" and "UNCOMMON" on the back, there is no noticeable difference (at least none to my discerning eye) at all between the Silvers and the Blues. Seriously, they are EXACTLY the same.

3) It appears that UD tacked a few extra cards onto the base set. Series Two was originally set at 500 cards (#501-1000). But according to the Team Checklists I pulled, there are a minimum of three extra cards in the set. Those additional cards -- all of which (surprise, surprise) are "Rookies" -- are:

#1001 Brett Anderson
#1002 Trevor Cahill
#1003 Jordan Schafer

4) Selected players who had base cards in UD1, are also in UD2.

You may have noticed that I pulled the Phillies Team Checklist out of my UD2 Blaster. Comparing and contrasting it with the Series One Team Checklist, five members of your 2008 World F'n Champions (Rollins, Hamels, Lidge, Howard, and Chutley) have base cards in BOTH series. And while UD2 DOES include many of the role players and backups you come to expect from a set like this, J.A. Happ and J.C. Romero are not to be found in either series. That sucks!

So there you have it; a taste of what's to come. Anyway, I think I'll be heading to the Audubon Wal-Mart tomorrow, if you know what I mean.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not looking forward to these, and I'm not biting at all until I see a checklist. The preliminary one that was floating around earlier this year had far too many Series 1 repeat players for my taste.

Jeffrey Wolfe said...

Other than the design and photography which I think are good, UD sucks this year from a collecting standpoint.