Four 2015 Upper Deck football value packs

While at Meijer today picking up some other stuff I used some very timely rewards money to buy my first packs in quite a while:  a quartet of 2015 Upper Deck football retail value packs!  As many of you know I did UD's designs and college focus with this set so I was eagerly anticipating this release.  I'm showing these off with less than a week until the draft so it'll be fun to see how the guys I pull do come Thursday through Saturday.

I don't recall the exact price but these were something like $5.69, though I also got 10% off today, which was nice.  You get 32 cards with two of those guaranteed to be Heroes inserts of top-two QBs Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota; each has 10 different cards in their respective sets.  Vets in their college unis comprise #s 1-45 while the non-SPed rookies come in at 46-145.  Two levels of short-prints cover 146-215, followed by hobby and retail photo variations from 216-255.  As usual my main concern is the non-SPed rookies set, though if I can find a cheap 1-45 vets set I'll pick it up.

Here's a look at a base card front and back, both of which are essentially par for UD's course.  The Star Rookie logo's changed a bit throughout the years while the layout's been fairly static; if it works, don't break it!  As usual the photography is excellent and features great college action.

My one veteran pull from the four packs was RB legend Eric Dickerson, shown here with SMU; his card is #36.  My experience is that hobby boxes reverse the retail trend and skew way towards vets with a couple promised rookies; since my focus is on the latter, these retail packs are always the way to go, plus hobby boxes can get really expensive, even when there isn't a player like Winston to chase.

Out of four packs of 32 I ended up with 118 base cards, one of those being the Dickerson above.  From the regular Star Rookies group I pulled 88/100 with 29 doubles.  Those dupes all came in one pack and included a pair of dupe inserts and one new insert, so that tells you how collation goes with these.  I may try one or two more value packs if I find them, but it shouldn't be hard to track down the other 12 I need otherwise, hopefully along with the 1-45 set.

I picked nine of the biggest names to scan, and most of these guys figure to go very early.  As you can see I pulled both Winston and Mariota, and the best player I didn't get was USC's Leonard Williams.  Some of the other top names are unfortunately SPed (along with my Wolverines!) but I'm happy with the 100-card group available to me here.

I couldn't show off cards from this set without devoting some space to the cooler photography I enjoyed!

This is my group of Heroes inserts, coming in at 2:1 as mentioned.  In each case I got one of both players per pack so I'm guessing that's the standard, which is fine.  Because of the pack of dupes I got extras of Winston #5 and Mariota #7.  These are all available for trade though I'm setting aside the Mariotas for Kerry unless told otherwise.

My other two inserts were these purdy A Cut Above die-cuts (1:5 for rookies), both of outstanding players:  WVU WR Kevin White and Indiana RB Tevin Coleman, both of whom should be gone fairly early.  Naturally the White is heading to Morgantown to be reunited with Matt but the Coleman can be had by anyone who asks nicely.

I'm not posting a wantlist just let in case I decide to buy another pack or two, but if I do end up with one you'll see it here.  I'll also make my base doubles available soon to anyone who'd like to trade for them, though as usual I'll set aside cards for some of you based on school affiliation.

And of course this product gets my annual hearty endorsement.  Congrats to UD on another great college-themed set!