When I first saw the pack, I thought, here we go again another Upper Deck product. What I dislike about this set or any set that promotes the chase cards through the set name is that it’s unfair to the consumer. When you see the name SP Authentic, images of jersey and bat cards dance through your head. Truth is very few of the packs actually contain the cards, and every time I open a pack I get kind of depressed when I don’t see a materials card. I can’t be alone on this one. Here is what the pack looks like:
In side we get 5 cards, which is right about what I have come to expect from Upper Deck. With a base set of 90 cards then another 90 short print cards, 5 cards per back puts you at a minimum of 18 packs for a set. With set’s going for $4.00 on ebay, it’s kind of a rip-off, I’m glad I snagged this one in the dollar bin. Here are the 5 cards:
1. Curt Shilling – P -Diamondblacks – 61 – I have nothing but venom for Curt Schilling. He is pompous, conceited, played for teams I hate, and although has denied using steroid, he is high on my list of possible users. He is a great pitcher, but as long as he pitches for the Sox, I don’t care for him.
2. Roger Clemens – P – Yankees – 43 – Here is another pitcher that has scorned me. I liked Roger a lot back in the late 80s and early 90s, I mean who didn’t? I even didn’t mind when he come to the Big Apple, probably because he fell in bad grace with Red Sox fans. Don’t let anything fool you about the Rocket, he doesn’t care what team he pitches for, he is a hired gun and has no allegiance to any team.
3. Eric Munson – 3B – Tigers – 31 – What happened to this guy? He was a super prospect, last year I saw him in AAA. He just never really panned out and is an excellent reason why this hobby has gotten out of hand with rookie cards. I remember some of his cards going to 10 – 15 bucks in 1999 / 2000. Now they aren’t worth the cards they are printed on. SP Authentic has him in their base set (90 best players), that’s insane, he was hyped up and spit out, just like Alex Gordon is going to be.
4. Bernie Williams – OF – Yankees – 40 – My favorite Yankee, even more than Jeter. Bernie just wanted to play ball, and he loved being a Yankee. Probably one of the most down to earth guys you’ll ever meet, got him to sign a ball for me his 3rd year in the bigs. He was one of those Yankees I wished would never retire. He put up the same numbers year in and year out and was always counted on and came up big in the playoffs.
5. Matt Lawton – OF – Indians – 13 – He was your 15 HRs / 15 SBs guy, that is always available in your fantasy league, because he is just a 4th outfielder in a 3rd outfielder’s body. He lucked out and played on some bad teams, where he was able to slide into that 3rd outfielder role, even if he didn’t deserve it. Not sure what he’s doing in this base set, but I guess SP had it’s reasons.
So overall I think the set is very blah. You would figure, this year being it’s 10th anniversary, they would jazz up the set. But in the end, it’s just another UD product that the put lots of silver and gold writing on and hope you don’t realize they are duping you. So with my already sullied self about to rate these, look out!
Price per pack – $5.00 – 0.0 stars – UD should be ashamed of themselves a dollar a card, seriously? Come on, let’s not take ourselves too seriously.
Cards in pack – 5 – 2.0 stars – Higher than I initially thought I would rate it, but 5 out of 90 isn’t a bad pack to set ratio. What is bad is the value of the set being $4.00.
Stars in Pack – 3 – 3.0 stars – I may not like them but they are stars of the baseball card industry, 3 in the pack gets you 3 stars.
Value of pack – $0.20 – 1.0 star – They should be worth a dollar a card, but it’s more like 4 cents a card. Hard to believe. The industry needs to take a good look at their products again and figure out, whether we really need more sets like SP Authentic.
Design of card – 1.5 stars - I have to really knock UD here, the design is so tired. Doesn’t it look like they use the same template on every set. Other than the Goudey set I can’t figure out why they keep the sameoverall design for most of their sets. Here is a typical card in the set.
Like I said, very little imagination done as far as the design and this is a short print card. Overall we get a 1.5 star rating on this pack. To be honest I’m glad I’m done with it as, I really detest this set. OK now that the bitter is done, maybe we can find a set I will like.
