PRICE:
Hobby
$1.75 at Champion Sports Cards
Retail
$1.57 at Wal-Mart
Strange how the cents got transposed like that... I've vowed to only buy Hobby O-Pee-Chee from now on to support the local card shop. Of course that means I won't buy any at all, because I'm saving my money for a box of '09 A&G. Isn't it a shame I'm so undisciplined that I have to trick myself like that?
NEVER TELL ME THE ODDS:
Hobby
Game Used Memorabilia card - 1:108, Autographed card - 1:216
Retail
No odds for retail buying plebeians!
THE WRAPPER:
Hobby
Blue and red wrapper design with yellow lettering and a stylized drawing of what appears to me to be Ken Griffey Jr. in a Mariners uniform. Very reminiscent of a typical Topps wrapper from the 70's. Actually, very similar to a '77 O-Pee-Chee wrapper.Retail
Huge photo of Ryan Braun with a bright yellow border and a red banner beseeching you to collect all 600 cards. The O-Pee-Chee logo is also much more prominent.UDU CODES:
Hobby
Retail
Be nice and only use one and let us know in the comments which one has been used up mmmkay!
THE CARDS:
Hobby
137 Rick Ankiel
Solid portrait, although I wish these whippersnapper douchebags would freaking SMILE. You made more money in one at bat where you struck out with the winning run on third with one out than I'll make working 80-hour weeks until 2038. SMILE ALREADY.WK4 JD Drew Walk-Off Winners
My first insert and it's this guy. MEh.439 Johnny Damon Black border
The black border just makes him look smarmier doesn't it?544 Ichiro Moments DP
ICHIRO. Alll Riiiiiight. You'll notice I've put a DP up by the card name. This is shorthand for "Double Printed" which was a common tag for Topps cards made before they upped the set size to 792. Basically, the way they printed up the cards had several cards on more than one sheet so they are more readily available. Since the cards from 501-600 are more readily available they are now DPs as far as I am concerned. So don't be fooled when Beckett lists them as SPs at a premium in their next price guide, because they are not short printed and should not have any premium attached to them.158 Steve Pearce
Why is Steve standing in front of a shower curtain??Why does this make me like the set even more than I already did???
438 Eddie Guardado
Eddie are you ok, are you ok Eddie...Other than the Ichiro, this was not a great pack by any means... Yet I still am strangely drawn to the set. Could cheesy posed shots in front of shower curtains really have that much of an effect on me??
Retail
72 Jhonny Peralta
Cool pattern in the background with the mesh. There is also the slightest, barest hint of a smile on Jhonny's face. Not a manic grin, but just a subtle look of contentment. Much better than that crosseyed mushmug Ankiel. SMILE DAMMIT!332 Kyle Kendrick Black border
An actual diamond cut card in 2009. How retro can you get?For those who don't know what the heck a diamond cut card is, imagine it this way. There's a sheet of cards going through the cutter to be separated. The horizontal cut goes fine, but in trasferring the card to the vertical cutter the strips get a tiny bit askew. As a result the vertical cut is no longer perpendicular to the horizontal cut so the card is now shaped slightly like a diamond. This was common in the '80s and earlier, but not so much recently.
1495 Minnesota Wild 20th anniversary
This one is already in the mail to VOTC so no pic. It's a hockey dude, much to Chris Harris' chagrin.
550 Jonathan Papelbon Moments DP
He sure ain't no Ichiro...342 Brian Moehler
Well, if you're going to have 500 players in a set there's going to be a few Brian Moehlers running around.41 Xavier Nady
This is a very nice action shot amidst the cheese. Fulls swing by Nady, the catcher looking to see how far that hit will go, Yankees milling about the dugout, a healthy crowd in the Bronx. Very nice indeed.This was the first OPC pack I opened and had I not bought three more it would have been the last pack I would have opened. Lord, this pack was teh s uck. Yet, from this bad start I ended up really liking the set. Imagine that.
NUMBER OF CARDS WITH A ROLLER MARK RUNNING RIGHT DOWN THE MIDDLE:
Hobby
1 - JD Drew so who gives a flip
Retail
3 - Papelbon, Moehler, Nady
I'm beginning to view roller marks on Upper Deck cards not as a flaw but a feature, much like foil stamping or a hologram. Maybe one of these days I'll build an entire set of roller marked cards and play it off like they are a rare parallel set.
VERDICT:
The two packs are virtually the same thing for the same price. You've got a slightly better shot of getting something nice if you buy a hobby box but buying by the pack it doesn't really matter. Like I said, I'm limiting myself to Hobby packs partly to support the local shop and partly to make sure I don't waste any more money I could be spending on A&G. I have to say this though: this set has grown on me like a fungus. I'll be squirting the hell out of it with Tinactin right now, but a couple months from now I'll get slack and end up with a box or three and a horrible, burning itch.
