2008 Upper Deck Series Two Blaster Break

Ok, I finally picked up a blaster of this stuff. UD's pretty much sewn up base brand product of the year. Not that special an award when there's only two base products, but UD's base set is just too good for Topps this year. I didn't see this coming when I looked at both sell sheets back in January, but I have no problem admitting I was wrong. Topps has the better insert sets though so they got that going for them. In UD's favor is a clean design, excellent full bleed photos, simple backs with another photo and an 800 card set without short prints that isn't impossible to complete. There's lots of different ways to collect it too as there are 5 different kinds of packs each with their own advantages. 20 card Hobby packs for 5 bucks for those who want to chase autographs and relics. 18 card retail packs for 3 dollars that include a StarQuest insert. 36 card Fat packs with exclusive inserts for five dollars and 75 card mini boxes with a three pack of bonus cards for 10 bucks are good for those who want a lot of base cards fast. Finally the blasters include 10 8 card packs that are loaded with inserts and a guaranteed jersey card. Here are the pulls from my first blaster of Series two.

Base cards - 62/400 15.5%
Gold Parallel - 1 Matt Holliday

StarQuest common - 8/30 27% BJ Upton, CC Sabathia, Dice-K, Eric Byrnes, Joe Mauer, Derrek Lee, Lance Berkman, Miguel Cabrera
StarQuest common - 1/30 3% Eric Byrnes
StarQuest common - 1/30 3% Ken Griffey Jr

USA Baseball - 0
USA Junior Baseball - 1 Tyler Wilson

Superstar Scrapbooks - 2/15 13% Randy Johnson, Prince Fielder

Star attractions - 0

Yankee Stadium History - 2/6500 .000003% Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio

Presidential Predictor - 1 Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton

Jersey - 1 Dontrelle Willis UD Jersey

I'm pretty pleased with the first blaster. I got a good chunk of the set and some nice inserts. I like Dontrelle even though he's having problems this year. My first relic from a Series 1 blaster was Jacque Jones so D-Train is doing a little better thn him at least. I'm a fan of the StarQuest cards and a Griffey rare is pretty dang good. It's virtually impossible to beat Ruth and DiMaggio for the Yankee set, although I'll take a Yogi over either of them. I finally have card number seven for my Presidential Predictors. Too bad I'm still looking for McCain and Gore. Superstar Scrapbooks might be a blaster only type of insert according to the box have the checklist printed on the box and might be a retail only insert. No Braves in the set so I can take it or leave it. I'm sort of ambivalent about the Team USA cards, but I might like them better when the Olympics roll around. I also pulled a Matt Holliday Gold card, which ain't shabby for a blaster. Here are five cards from the box I really liked.

Scott Hairston laying out for the catch.

Um... Michael? What happened to your legs?

Alex Gordon appears to have connected on that big swing.


Josh Barfield ( I almost called him Jesse) leaps to try and turn the double play.
This card is just fantastic. You don't often see a shot in mid pitch on a trading card.

Good stuff, I'm going to have to snag a second blaster soon.