Cardola: 2008 UD Masterpieces

Well, here goes ten year's of credibility right down the drain!

One box supplied to me (for free) by Upper Deck of 2008 UD Masterpieces Baseball
Twelve packs per box, six cards per pack.

The Video



The Pulls

Base Set: 58 of 120 (48.33%)
2 doubles

Short Set: 52 of 90 (57.78%)
6 Short Prints (1:2): F. Robinson, N. Ryan, L. Brock, D. Jeter, R. Jackson, J. Carter

Parallels
4 Black: L. Berkman, W. Ford, Chutley, J. Bench
1 Red: M. Young
1 Blue (numbered to 125): H. Killebrew

Inserts: NONE

Mirrors
4 Yankee Tedium Lunacy (1:3): #320 (T. Lazzeri), 345 (B. Meusel), 370 (E. Combs) 5934 (T. Martinez)

Autogamers
1 Captured on Canvas (1:12): N. Markakis
1 Autographed Captured on Canvas: B. McCann

The Bottom Line

Yeah, yeah, I got my precious six SPs. I'm happy. I still don't think SPing the base set was a smart idea though. Like I said, I love the base set but UD should had left well enough alone.

If you recall, in the Hobby box I paid for, I pulled a blue framed parallel of Hideki Matsui. This card was serial-numbered to 50 copies. In this box I got a framed blue parallel of Harmon Killebrew, but this one was numbered to 125 copies. (The frame on the Matsui is a slightly lighter shade of blue.)

There are a grand total of ten parallel insert sets in 2008 UD Masterpieces; however, Upper Deck does not list anywhere on their website, or on the pack wrapper, what the specific production figures for each set are. So, even though I pulled a Harmon Killebrew parallel numbered to 125 copies, I have no idea whether it is a "Deep Blue Linen" or a "Perisan Blue Linen."

I also can not determine whether the Michael Young red parallel I pulled is a "Hades," "Red Linen," or a "Pinot Red."

And now the $64,000 question: If I had actually paid hard currency for this box, instead of getting it for free, would I have been happy with this box? Well, it was better than the one I actually did pay for. But if I had spent $70-$75 for this box, I don't believe I would have gotten my money's worth.

Box Rating: 2 Gumsticks
Product Rating: 2 1/2 Gumsticks

Video Box Break and Review: 2008 UD Masterpieces Hobby

By the time this gets published, I'll be in DC watching the US vs. Cuba World Cup Qualifier. America, Fuck Yeah!

One Hobby box of 2008 UD Masterpieces (paid $75)
12 packs per box, six cards per pack.

The Video



The Pulls

Base Set: 58 of 120 (48.33%)
3 doubles

Short Set: 53 of 90 (58.89%)
5 Short Prints (1:2): C. Fisk, J. Bench, D. Mattingly, R. Clemente, A. Pujols

Parallels
4 Black: R. Yount, J-Roll, C. Crawford, L. Brock
1 Blue (numbered to 50): H. Matusi

Inserts: NONE

Mirrors
5 Yankee Tedium Lunacy (1:3): #1625 (J. Gordon), 3742 (R. White), 6122 & 6147 (P. O'Neill), 6197 (R. Clemens)

Autogamers
1 Captured on Canvas (1:12): J. Willingham
1 Autographed Captured on Canvas: M. Cain

The Review

Let me get this out of the way. I love the 2008 UD Masterpieces base set. I loved it last year, and the base set was the sole reason why I spent $75 on this box. With that said, I despise what Upper Deck has done to this product. While I don't normally like short-prints in a base set, I actually thought that adding them wasn't such a bad idea in a product like this. As long as it was still feasible for the collector to build a full set, I had no problem with it. Boy was I wrong.

I guess I'm still bitter over getting only one SP in the Blaster box I ripped a few days ago. But I'm really bitter about getting gypped out of an SP in this Hobby box, and pulling an additional Yankee Tedium Lunacy.

(Are you like me and absolutely dread pulling YTLs from Upper Deck packs? Good.)

And then there's the reason why Hobby packs are $7/pack: the hits. Like I said, I bought this exclusively for the base cards and really could care less about jerseys and autographs. I'm not a (term to describe nitwit collectors that will no longer be used on this site), so allow me to play Devil's Advocate here. If I paid $75 for a waxbox and my two autogamers were Josh Willingham and Matt Cain, I'd be pissed. Seriously UD, Josh Willingham and Matt Cain? Is that the best you could come up with for a $7/pack product? WTF?

The Bottom Line

In addition to receiving one fewer SP and being saddled with one more YTL, I received three base set doubles. ANY doubles in a waxbox this small (72 cards) is inexcusable. Three doubles AND getting shafted out of a short-print should be a felony.

Box Rating: 1 1/2 Gumsticks, a total waste of $75.
Product Rating: 2 1/2 Gumsticks

... and another thing

The two gamers I pulled are so thick, neither one fits into a standard penny-sleeve.

Video Box Break and Review: 2008 UD Masterpieces Blaster

One Blaster Box of 2008 UD Masterpieces (paid $19.97)
Eight packs per box, five cards per pack

The Video



The Pulls

Base Set: 36 of 120 (30.00%)

short set: 35 of 90 (38.89%)
1 Short-Print: Y. Berra

Parallels: NONE

Inserts: NONE

Mirrors
2 Yankee Tedium Lunacy: #3395 (R. Maris) & 3420 (B. Richardson)

Autogamers: NONE

The Review

Last year's retail version of UD Masterpieces was one of the best value breaks 2007. While the Hobby edition yielded an on-card autograph, three gamers, and a multi-colored galaxy of parallels in each 18-count waxbox, the $7/pack MSRP priced out most collector's who only wanted the base set. But no fear, as UD released a stripped-down version of Masterpieces for retail at only $2.99/pack. And there was much rejoicing. (Yay!)

This year's UD Masterpieces appears to follow the same formula, with a $7/pack Hobby version for J C, and a $2.99/pack retail version for A C. But there's one huge difference between Hobby and retail this year, and this is 2008 UD Masterpieces' fatal flaw.

Upper Deck expanded the base set from 90 to 120 cards, which is good because last year's set was a bit on the small-side. But those extra thirty cards in this year's set are short-printed. While this may appear to be a bad thing, it appeared that '08UDM would still be somewhat collectible. The sell-sheets for this product stated that each 12-pack Hobby box would yield six of the 30 SPs, for an insertion ratio of 1:2/packs -- a ratio that is easily manageable a collector to build his/her base set. But in this eight-pack Blaster box I just ripped (which actually had nine packs in it), I got only one SP.

So Upper Deck changed the insertion ratios from Hobby to retail from 1:2 to 1:8. Big deal, right? The problem is, there is nothing on the Blaster box mentioning this change; which would lead a collector to assume that the SPs are inserted into retail packs at the same 1:2 ratio as Hobby. That ain't good.

The Bottom Line

I pulled just under 40% of the short-set, and got two more of those annoying Yankee Tedium Lunacies. The Yankee Tedium Lunacy cards are about as out of place in this product (and in Goudey, for that matter) as those A-Rod 500 Homerun Bullshit Waste-of-Space cards were in last year's Allen & Ginter and Heritage. On the bright side, each pack that contained a YTL had five cards in it, so I guess works out in the end. Also, as I mentioned above, this Blaster had nine packs. So if you bought the one that has only seven, my apologies.

Don't get me wrong, UD Masterpieces is still a great set to try and build -- and this collector will. But getting only one SP in a Blaster when you were led to believe that you were getting four is really, really, bothersome.

Product Rating: 2 Gumsticks (out of five)

This would easily be a 3 Gumstick product if the SPs were seeded 1:2. It would be a 4 Gumstick product if it didn't have SPs at all.

... and another thing.

In addition to the SPs, there are no mention of insertion ratios for any of the other inserts, parallels, autogamers, or Yankee Tedium Lunacies anywhere. At last year's Hawaii Trade Conference, Richard McWilliam himself said that such insertion ratios would be returning to pack wrappers. We're still waiting on that Dick.

Two Blaster Box Break and Review (sorta): UD Masterpieces

For those of you wondering where I've been, and why I haven't updated Stale Gum the last few weeks; well, I had other priorities.

It's kind of hard to update the world's greatest baseball card blog, when you're spending most of your time hacking out term papers and filling out graduate school applications. However, I did recently rip open two Blaster boxes of Upper Deck's excellent new product UD Masterpieces -- both of which I posted to APAD. Check 'em out.

Blaster #1

Blaster #2