Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Two 2013 Upper Deck football rack packs

While I was in Milwaukee over the weekend for Sunday's Brewers game, I hit up the Wal-Mart near Miller Park along with my bro and sis-in-law.  That's an extremely rare event for me, but this was literally the only Wal-Mart I'd ever possibly set foot in again:  it was reasonably clean, and the usual "people of Wal-Mart" didn't appear to be around.

Anyway, I had been dying to try some 2013 Upper Deck football packs since they feature players with their college teams.  I had some house money to play with thanks to participating in an experiment at work (it was a distracted-driving-type simulation, so no, I didn't end up hallucinating about Adam Sandler dressed as Satan) and was fortunate enough to find a few racks up-front.  I grabbed two, and my brother and I each opened one.  Here's what I got, by category:

The hero:
A gorgeous shot of 'Tree on a beautifully done horizontal card.  As usual, UD > Topps.

The enemy: 
A couple of Sparties and a Domer.  Apparently, in Bell's case, being run into the ground ineffectively a thousand times a season makes you a "work horse" and "bell cow" RB.  Also, Riddick was drafted by the Lions, so his future is about as bright as his namesake series' first movie, Pitch Black.

The "they beat us down but at least Thomas Gordon ended up on this card":
I guess we'll find out if other teams letting Lacy fall to the Pack at #61 overall was shrewd or stupid!

The "your name is WHAT?!":
Let's just call him "Lutz."  Lutz holds Auburn's single-season and career record for TDs by a TE, and he signed with the Rams after the draft.  His transition to the NFL from Auburn and the SEC means a sharp decline in pay, but it's still probably a good move for him.

The "UD photography and design plus college football are the greatest combo ever":
Here's just three great examples.  #1 is A&M WR and somehow NCAA 2013 cover runner-up-to-Denard Ryan Swope in a shot I like to call "Swoperman."  #2 is Auburn WR Emory Blake in "LOL invisible bunk bed."  Finally, #3 is Wisconsin tackle Ricky Wagner in "Badger, badger, badger, BADGER, badger."

The "You 'bout ta get PAID, son!":
Here's the five 2013 first-rounders I pulled:  Jordan (3, Dolphins); Milliner (9, Jets); Fluker (11, Chargers); Werner (24, Colts); Jones (26, Packers).

The inserts:
Each rack pack comes with a pair of Robert Griffin UD Heroes inserts (which apparently differ from the hobby versions slightly).  I pulled #s 3, 4, 6, and 8.  I also ended up with one short print insert:  a '95 SP version of WSU WR Marquess Wilson.

My overall haul, then, was 59 different base cards (of the 100 non-SPed Star Rookies) and five inserts.  Cards #1-50 are veterans (including Anthony Carter!), and while they're not short-printed I don't know if they're just not included in retail or what.  #s 151-300 include multiple SPs of other players, including a pair of Denard Robinsons I'd love to grab.

None of the base cards here are for trade as I'll be going for the set, but I'll probably grab a couple more racks if I see them so I can complete the 100-card prospects subset, and at that point I'll surely have lots of doubles to trade.  The inserts can be had right now, though, if anyone's interested.

2 comments:

  1. Interesting commentary on the Wal-Mart. That thing's only a few months old. It sprang up out of nowhere, and I still haven't been in it yet. How was the card selection other than what you picked up?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was one of the better ones I've seen, actually--pretty large and surprisingly diverse. I didn't really look through everything because I zeroed in on the Upper Deck packs, but it looked great. It's just that it's right next to the first checkout lane so there isn't a ton of room to look. But it's definitely not the typical retail store mess.

      Delete