New UD Fat Pack

There's a new kind of Fat Pack from Upper Deck out now, The "Rookie Edition". If you're not familiar with Fat Packs, it's basically a rack pack with two pockets cards for 5 bucks. It's a way to get more cards for less money then buying regular packs, but there are no inserts other than the bonus cards included in the pack. The back of the packs are see-through so you can pick and choose which inserts you want. Nice thing too, because with 50 cards in the insert set at 5 bucks a pop you're looking at at least $250 bucks to complete the set. This is assuming of course that you can even find all the cards on the back of the packs. I'm guessing these packs are more enticing to player collectors and people who want a lot of base cards cheap than anyone who wants to build an insert set. The Series 1 Fat Packs feature 2 Hot Commodities which have a typical clichéd flames motif that I think has to be used in at least one insert set per year according to MLB trading card license rules. Here's Smoltzie from the set:


There's also a Chipper Jones card I haven't been able to find yet and a Mark Teixiera that I don't really want. If Tex signs a long term deal with Atlanta I'll start buying everything with his face on it, but right now I'm convinced that his cards will be sharing a dusty box full of J.D. Drewand Gary Sheffield cards this time next year. At the local Mega Mart this week I found some new Fat Packs hanging up above the shelf, but these new ones are purple and have some Yankee pitcher plastered on them. They are "Rookie Edition Fat Packs" thanks to the two Rookie Debut inserts that are looking out from the back. There are only 30 rookies in this hard-to-build set thankfully. Everything else is the same though, along with the rookies you get 34 more Upper Deck Series 1 cards that you probably already had. Both Fat Packs I've gotten this year had a Yankee stadium card in it too, so that's one less double I suppose. Here's the Brandon Jones Debut card from the set:


Nifty looking design, too bad Brandon Jones is stuck in Richmond until a Brave outfielder or two break a leg and go on the DL. Last year's Rookie Edition packs were kind of a mea culpa from Upper Deck who snuck in rookie cards that were otherwise only available through a redemption. There are no redemptions in this year's Series 1 and I didn't see anything new in the cards I got. The Rookie Checklist contains most of the typical Rookie cards that have haunted Series one sets this year. Nothing special, but if you're specifically collecting one of these rookies (say, Joey Votto) it might be worth scrounging though a few fat packs to add to your collection.