2009 Topps Unique Box Break & Review

Last week I went to my local card shop, Sports Card Depot, in search of some Topps Unique packs to bust, so I could get a feel for what this product is really like. Trolling eBay, it's damn near impossible not to run into one of the jumbo swatches, either of the autographed, or regular varieties. The autographed ones are atrocious, and like I've said before, a product with an MSRP in the $100 range should NEVER, EVER, EVER use sticker autographs... EVER! But I digress, I arrived at the card shop to find 4 sealed boxes, and zero individual packs for sale. If the box wasn't a good deal, there's no way I would have ever forked over this much cash for a product that has such high letdown potential. I'm no dummy, I've checked out the forum breaks. Most of them suck, but for $90, I figured it would make a nice early Xmas gift to myself, and perhaps I would get lucky (ha!) and pull something kickass. I could have definitely done worse, but Topps couldn't have. This product is about as Unique as my nutsack.

Here's the wrapper, it's pretty plain, as you can see.

Initially, I was unimpressed with what lay before me. the box very closely resembles retail, with 2 stacks of 10 packs, and in general was pretty plain. After cracking the first pack, and taking a peek at the base cards, my first impression was not altered. Very unimpressive. That having been said, here are some base cards of the blogosphere's favorite players.







Each pack also includes one red parallel. These cards are a little thicker, and are all numbered to 1199. I guess that means the print run for this set is 1200? Here's one of the reds I pulled, Matt Holliday in his new and soon to be old digs.

And another of NL Rookie of the Year Chris Coghlan. These cards are ok I guess, and since they're thicker they must serve as some sort of pack searching deterrent.

Along with #'d red parallels, there are also numbered rookies. These are essentially no different than the base cards, other than the serial numbering on the backside. All rookies are numbered to 2699, which is a number as arbitrary as it is high. Here, once again, is NL Rookie of the Year Chris Coghlan. If you look real close you can see that the base cards have the last name displayed vertically in a slightly darker and shinier black than the background on the left side of the card.

As is to be expected, Topps Unique also delivers a few insert sets, and if anything, these are it's only saving grace. First up we have the "Alone at the Top" set, which in my opinion looks a heck of a lot better than the base set. Overall the concept is pretty bland, certainly not UNIQUE, but it was refreshing to pull a somewhat well-designed card from this box, after multiple packs of base cards.

Next up is the second out of the three insert varieties lurking in this box, the "Unparalleled Performances" set. Yawn. Apparently, A-Rod's douchebaggery is "unparalleled".

The last insert I am going to show you is also my favorite. "Unique Unis" is an interesting set, and the design is also refreshing after staring at a box of black base cards. I pulled 5 of these, and these 2 are my favorite.

I have to second what Jay from The Mojo Hand suggested. It would be MUCH more unique to have relic & patch cards in this set featuring throwback uniform swatches. That would have been awesome.... and UNIQUE. Hey, you asked for it Topps. Is this opposite day? If it isn't then Unique is surely a misnomer.


Ok, it's time for the hits. First up we have more parallels. Yay. My box yielded one copper, and one gold. The coppers are numbered to 99, and the golds to 25. Yawn. Again, what is exciting about this concept? The only thing that's unique about them is instead of being called bronze and gold, these inserts are actually called "Reserve" and "Select". There is also a "Unique" parallel which is a 1/1.



Each box (Hobby only product) is guaranteed to contain 2 game used cards, and one autograph. One of those game used cards is also guaranteed to be of the patch or jumbo variety. I pulled exactly what the box stated I would. No more. No less.

Joba has a nice signature. Even though it's a Yankee hit, it's hard to be disappointed by this one. It could have been a LOT worse.

This is one of the most boring patch cards I have ever seen. At least it's 3 color. This is probably a patch from 2006, which is the last time there was a market for Hank Blalock. I'd still take him on the O's right now, but that's not saying much.

You should obviously be able to tell by now that I am not impressed. This seems like a total throw away effort by Topps. If this isn't a sticker and patch dump, then clearly I don't know what is. Is it Unique to put swatches of teams that players no longer play for in a new set? No, Upper Deck has been doing it for years. I understand that Unique features photos of players in those outdated uniforms as well, but if the card should have been released in 2006, you should have released it in 2006. I'm starting to think that there are going to be a lot more sets of this caliber in our collective future, now that Topps is the only licensed game in town.


FINAL BEARDOMETER RATING:

Ben Affleck.

It would have been lower if some of the inserts weren't well-designed, and nice. Let's be clear, we're talking about Gigli/Jersey Girl/Bounce Affleck here, and not Dazed & Confused/Mallrats/Chasing Amy Affleck. Everyone knows Ben Affleck is weak, and so is Topps Unique. Wow, unintentional rhyme. I really am a poet. All cards for trade, so come and gets 'em if you wants 'em.

'08 Upper Deck Masterpieces 2 Box Break & Review

Along with the box of Topps 206 which was reviewed last week, I also got one retail, and one hobby box of 2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces. Since the retail box was one of the all-day specials they ran on Black Friday, and since I had already ordered the 206, decided to throw that and the hobby version on to my order, in an attempt to qualify for free shipping. Basically, for $50 I am able to bust 2 boxes worth of Masterpieces. I've had grand delusions of maybe taking a shot at building this set, so it seemed like a good idea at the time.

First up is the retail box. Pretty standard procedure here, 24 packs per box, with each pack holding 4 cards. The whole 4 cards per pack thing is probably the biggest knock on Masterpieces, since it takes 647 packs to actually complete the 120 card base set, thanks to there being 30 short prints. I did not pull a single double out of this retail box, and was able to score 4 short prints, 3 framed parallels, and a jersey relic. Not too bad for $9.99, but these boxes were right around $50 at time of release. Ouch.

As usual, the base set looks incredible, and the canvas-textured card stock looks as good as it feels.

#104 Rod Carew SP

As you will see later, I also pulled this card from the hobby version.

#103 Jack Morris SP

#101 Cal Ripken Jr. SP

#107 Lou Brock SP

#42 Andruw Jones

#115 Roberto Clemente

#32 Justin Verlander #'d 57/125

A very nice looking card that looks even better with the navy blue frame.

#CC-RZ Ryan Zimmerman relic

At least it's not a plain, white swatch and at least it's of a player I like.

For $10, that was a great break. 4 short prints, a numbered parallel and a game-used relic for the price of a blaster. I really like the framed parallels, and think it would be cool to try and complete the black framed set. You'd really have to be insane to attempt it, but I imagine it would feel great to finish that, and you'd have a fine looking set to show off. Hmm...

Now it's time to move on to the second box of this break. The hobby version of 2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces offers up 12 packs per box, each holding 6 cards. Between the two boxes, I pulled a mind-boggling total of 58 doubles. Yes, you read that correctly, 58 freakin' doubles! With the base set only being 120 cards, 30 of which are short printed, doubles are unavoidable. The good news is that these 2 boxes left me only 6 cards shy of the 90 card short set.

Each Masterpieces hobby box guarantees one autograph and/or one relic card per box (on average). My box could most certainly be considered "on average", but you'll have to wait until later to find out just how average it was.

Short prints are seeded 1:2 packs, and as such, my box delivered 6 of them. Unfortunately, 3 of them are dupes from the retail break.

#117 Stan Musial SP

#94 Ryne Sandberg SP

#112 Mike Schmidt SP

#101 Cal Ripken Jr. SP (double)

I didn't mention it earlier, but this is an ugly painting of Cal.

#103 Jack Morris SP (double)

#104 Rod Carew SP (double)

Happy Hanukkah Mr. Carew!

Of the 6 framed parallels in this box, 4 were black, one was red, and one was surprisingly brown, and low numbered.

#83 Ozzie Smith

#72 Bill Mazeroski

#106 Don Mattingly

#77 Jake Peavy

#102 Nolan Ryan

#68 Rich Harden #'d 10/10

One of the lowest numbered cards I have ever pulled. Too bad it's of Rich Harden.

#CC-AJ Andruw Jones relic

There's been far too much of this guy in these 2 breaks. A Braves photo on a Dodgers card, and a plain white swatch. It doesn't get much worse than that. This card would be ideal for leveling the legs on that wobbly table in the den.

#SG-BC Clay Buchholz autograph

Nice card, crappy signature. He hurled a no-no vs. the Orioles in '07, and for that, I still hold a grudge. This card is for trade.

Final Beardometer rating:

GRIZZLY ADAMS.

Whether it's the 2007 or 2008 variety, Upper Deck Masterpieces is a generally affordable and fun box to break, and a nice set to collect. The base set is absolutely gorgeous, and all autographs are on-card, which makes an already affordable product even more appealing. I am officially going to attempt completion of not only the base set, but the black framed base set as well. If you have any for trade, please contact me. My lazy behind will get a want list up at some point, hopefully in the next few days.

Stay tuned later this week for another box break and review. This time it'll be the kick to the nards that is Topps Unique.

'09 Topps 206 Box Break & Review

Fasten your seat belts, this is a long one.

Topps 206 100th Anniversary Edition is a release I was most definitely looking forward to. After all, it's not every day that the hundredth anniversary of quite possibly the greatest card set of all time comes around. Topps pretty much had me at framed relic & auto cards, which I am a sucker for, and after seeing some of the old-timer game-used cards from various box breaks, I decided that despite my terrible box breaking luck, to go ahead and order some up for myself.

After busting this box, ordered from Blowout Cards, I am left feeling the same way I do about most new releases, there are some nice cards, and beautiful hits, but once again, the price point doesn't match up to what you walk away with.

We'll start with the base cards, which are pretty solid overall. You know the design, we all know the design. Topps didn't even have to really think with this one, especially since they just released a T206 set 7 years ago. You would think given that fact, that all of these cards would look stellar, which sadly, they don't.

The Ian Stewart card below is a prime example of bad photography. If it weren't for the jersey, we'd have no clue who the player featured on this card actually is. There's still no real proof that it's Stewart.
To me this looks like Nick Swisher when he was with the White Sox. This Chien-Ming Wang card looks pretty awful as well. He looks like a freakin' real girl doll.

That's not to say that there aren't some nice looking base cards in this set...
Cole Hamels' base card caught my eye almost immediately. The composition is excellent, and I really like his pose as well. Is it just me, or is this a pose you don't see a whole lot?

I also found myself really digging the horizontal base card design. In general the horizontal layout leaves more space for creativity when it comes to composition. Below are 2 prime examples of what I'm talking about, and I think both of these cards look great.

So as not to let the hurlers outdo the batters, these two are also quite nice:
One of the other appealing things about this set are the mini cards. They come one per 9 card pack, and offer one of 5 different back variations. I found 4 out of the 5 in my box, the only one missing was the 1 of 1 only Carolina Brights.

Piedmont

The front of this card belongs to "The Mick", and it's absolutely gorgeous.

Polar Bear

A nice Walter Johnson card. There were 2 Polar Bear backs in this box, I forget who the other one was.

Old Mill

This was the only Old Mill back I pulled. Bay had a pretty nice season, and rumor has it he may not be back in Beantown next season.

Cycle back

This design might be my favorite. The Cycle back minis come one per box, and are stamped out of 100. If there's one thing I don't like, it's the stamping. These cards would have been much better with hand numbering, ala Allen & Ginter's.

The minis aren't the only cards in this set that come with back variations. Topps also included short prints of several star players, both old and new, which are not numbered on the back, and only feature the player's last name. Here is the back of one of the short prints I pulled.

In retrospect, I should have showed you this one first...

The rest of my short prints consisted of a veteran who's been all over my breaks as of late, and 2 rookies.

Here's what the back of both rookie short prints looks like...

In my haste to get to the hits, I forgot to mention the one-per-pack gold inserts. These cards are a little thicker, thus serving as a deterrent for those pesky pack searchers. They've also got a snazzy gold border, which looks sort of odd.

There were a bunch of Orioles in this box, and it's nice to see so many of them make the checklist of any product. Unfortunately, a few of them are no longer on the team, which is a big no-no in my book for any product that is released well after the season ends.


Oh, yeah, there were some Mickey Mantle checklists in here somewhere too. I pulled 2 of them I think, along with that beautiful Mantle mini from earlier. Topps has made him someone who you're so used to seeing it doesn't feel special anymore. Way go Topps.

Lastly, we have the 2 promised hits per box. They weren't too great at all, and for $75, you should do better than this every single time.

Michael Young Piedmont bat relic

These framed cards look totally awesome, and I was hoping to pull two. I wasn't that lucky, but these still look amazing.

Jordan Zimmerman 206 autograph

Sticker autos in a retro product like this one? WHY?!?! This looks absolutely terrible! There are hard signed framed autos in this product, which look great. I don't know why they felt the need to incorporate their trademark rainbow sticker nastiness into this product as well.

FINAL BEARD-O-METER RATING:

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON.

In reality, it's probably somewhere between Sutcliffe, and Kristofferson, but there are no in between ratings on the Beardometer. My honest opinion is that this is just another mediocre retro set. The base cards are wholly unoriginal, and in some cases downright lazy. Oh, and don't even get me started on the use of rainbow stickers in a retro product. If it weren't for those beautiful framed autos & relics, it would score a lot lower, possibly even as low as the land of Affleck.