Not Even Sure What To Really Say (So I'll Just Say A Lot)

I opened that second box of Goodwin. While I pulled something pretty awesome out of it, I'm still pretty pissed off overall about how badly Upper Deck loused this release up. For some reason I never have as much fun opening Upper Deck products, and I'm not really sure why. They were my favorite brand in the collecting days of my merry youth, but for some reason now everything of theirs seems cheap, and sort of boring. This has nothing to do with me feeling jobbed about not getting an Entomology card (which I really wanted), and it's not about getting my money's worth (because I pulled something good enough to make it back right now), it's about... well, I guess it is sort of about getting your "money's" worth, in a sense.

Essentially, busting this box was ruined for me no matter what I pulled this time because I already knew going in to today's break that this set disappoints me. Getting a bunch of the same cards in this box, including one of the 2 per box inserts, that were in yesterday's box certainly didn't help things any. Doubles make my eyes bug out in that "I want to choke someone" kind of way. You know, like in my picture.

Anyway, if you recall, I pretty much had the same experience with Allen & Ginter's when it was first released. After opening FOUR boxes, I had a huge stack of doubles, and less than 1 complete set. I was pissed, remember? You would've been too. For some reason that didn't matter to me, it was Ginter. Is that fair? No, probably not. Is there a reason for that? Probably. To me, there's something about Allen & Ginter's that FEELS expensive. Maybe it's the nice cardstock, or the consistently convincing artwork? Maybe it's 8 cards per pack and beautifully framed relics? Or it could also possibly be multiple interesting insert sets to keep things from getting stale?

I can tell you what it isn't. It isn't a diverse checklist featuring the greatest and most obscure athletes from around the world. That it most certainly isn't. Both sets utilize them, and both sets utilize them well. If it weren't for Allen & Ginter's, Goodwin Champions just might be my one of my favorite sets ever. The checklist is interesting, you could even argue it's less campy and full of crap than this year's Ginter set. I'm a big fan of obscurity, and love weird base & insert cards in baseball sets. But Goodwin can't hold Ginter's jock. It sucks that the comparison is there to begin with, since it automatically tilts the playing field, but isn't this the set Upper Deck created specifically to slay the Ginterbeast?

MISSION FAILED.

It's a good thing I calmed down before writing this ;)

Here's my awesome pull from Goodwin box 2