Upper Deck Football reviews

Yeah I know, the season's over halfway done... It's almost Thanksgiving for Pete's sake! I said I was cleaning out my drafts and I meant it. I started working on these reviews back before the season started and I sort of lost interest in football cards after a certain incident occurred in Virginia. I had the scans and pack breaks all done though so I may as well use them.

For anyone interested here's my Topps reviews for this year:

2007 Topps: Rehash design plus ugly green backs makes for a below average set. It's Topps, so if I don't buy it, I'll have a hole in my Topps football monster box 20 years from now I'll be upset about.

2007 Topps Draft Picks and Prospects: I've never liked this set, I'm not going to start now.

2007 Topps Total: Ugliest design ever. Quit making this stuff and bring it back to baseball where it belongs already.

2007: Bowman: Not even going to bother.

Ok, now onto Upper Deck.

2007 Upper Deck First Edition
10 cards for $.99
Spokesman - Emmitt Smith

69 Deuce McAllister
6 Alge Crumpler
28 Jay Cutler
16 Steve Smith
77 Willie Parker
24 Braylon Edwards
86 Marc Bulger
48 Tony Gonzalez
145 Chris Houston
103 Calvin Johnson
I love this set. If I hadn't sworn off Football cards after the Vick Chrome debacle I'd be working on this one. Actually, working on this set means simply buying a blaster box which would easily get you the veteran set from 1-100 and would give you just under half the rookies. As I said about the Baseball first edition set, I wish this was what regular Upper Deck looked like. The design is already pretty good, and it looks so much better with out the glossy foil crap. Look at the scan, you can actually READ willie and Calvin's names on their card! The backs are pretty tight as well, it's readable, well laid out and has no wasted space. Career stats too, which is always nice. Since there's no relics or autos or other worthless crap you can never pull to chase, it's very affordable too. I might break down and pick up that blaster box after all, Vick be damned.

Grade: Touchdown!

2007 Upper Deck Artifacts
5 cards for $2.99
Spokesman - LT

80 Willie Parker
94 Joey Galloway
Upperdeckkids.com ad
85 Antonio Gates
36 Roy Williams
90 Steven Jackson


I bought this pack specifically because I picked up a pack of baseball Artifacts and really liked it. I thought it was a nice design and maybe the football set would copy it. They copied a design all right, the 2005 Artifacts design. That curvy marble looking crap is doesn't really impress me at all. Plus rookies are not only hard to pull, but the good ones are all shortprinted! Screw that.

Grade: Fumble

2007 Fleer Ultra Fat Pack
32 cards for $4.99
Spokesmen - a half dozen rookies

47 Demarcus Ware
10 He Who Must Not Be Named
88 Rashean Mathis
8 Keith Brooking
22 JP Losman
75 Jeb Putzier
26 DeAngelo Williams
108 Tony Richardson
172 DJ Hackett
124 Deuce McAllister
182 Torry Holt
146 Corell Buckhalter
107 Troy Williamson
159 Eric Parker
251 Michael Bush RC
FF-CH Chris Houston Fresh Faces

20 Aaron Schobel
78 Andre Johnson
40 Rudi Johnson
93 Reggie Williams
84 Peyton Manning
91 Byron Leftwich
39 Carson Palmer
54 Terry Glenn
170 Maurice Morris
134 Jerricho Cotchery
198 Jason Campbell
153 Aaron Smith
185 Michael Clayton
136 Chad Pennington
194 Vince Young
FF-AC Adam Carricker Fresh Faces

Upper Deck has done a really good job mimicking Fleer's traditional designs. The Upper Deck version of Ultra looks just the same as all the other Ultra sets from the past 10 years or so, which is good if you like it. I got a Fat Pack, which netted me 29 base cards, 1 rookie and two rookie inserts for 5 bucks. These are the way to go if you just want the base set and nothing else. if you want rookies and inserts you can get the regular retail pack of 5 cards for 2 bucks. You'll get 4 cards and an insert or rookie there. Either way it's not too bad a pack to buy if you're looking for an attractive set.

Grade: Pass over the middle complete for a first down

2007 Upper Deck Rookie Edition Fat Pack
32 cards for $4.99
Spokesman - Emmitt Smith

211 LeRon McClain
276 JaMarcus Russell
213 Dwayne Wright
216 Dan Bazuin
279 Adrian Peterson
267 Arron Sears
269 Quincy Black
272 Paul Williams
212 Trent Edwards
234 Reggie Nelson
240 Marcus McCauley
241 Brandon Meriweather
262 Jason Hill
277 Calvin Johnson
Marshawn Lynch Play With the Rookies promo card
RPS-30 Vince Young Flashbacks

202 Alan Branch
282 LaRon Landry
207 Laurent Robinson
204 Steve Breaston
258 Eric Weddle
263 Josh Wilson
260 Anthony Waters
206 Chris Houston
210 Yamon Figurs
215 Ryan Kalil
297 Kenny Irons
228 Justin Harrell
235 Justin Durant
237 Tank Tyler
283 Jamaal Anderson
RPS-29 Torry Holt Flashbacks

I haven't bought pack one of regular Upper Deck this year, I just don't see the value in it. This pack is something slightly different. The Rookie Edition packs are entirely Star Rookie cards that are differentiated from the main set's rookies by a "rookie exclusives" foil stamping on the front. You're getting 30% of the Star Rookies subset for five bucks, there's bound to be a good rookie or two in the pack, right? This pack had more than one, led by Adrian Peterson. I like this idea from Upper Deck, it allows people to pick up some cheap rookie cards while keeping their base rookes short printed enough to be valuable. Completists who can't chase 100 short printed rookies can also use these as fillers for their set. The pack also comes with a card promoting their online code program and two inserts featuring stars from their own rookie photo shoot. This is a heck of a lot better value for your five bucks than a hobby pack of Upper Deck. Other than some Topps packs I bought out of obligation, this is the only football pack I've bought since the indictment, so that should tell you what I think about it.

Grade: Touchdown!