2009 Upper Deck baseball preview

Here’s a break from the constant hockey posts – no pictures, just info for now.

Regular Cards and Rookies
o Base Set – 500 cards – Perfect for Set-Collectors!

Uh, not sure why 500 is “perfect” for set collectors, but okay.  It’s a 16 pack box with 20 cards a pack, meaning at least two boxes for the set with a whole bunch of duplicates to boot. 

Inserts and Parallel Cards
o Base Set Gold Parallel (# to 99)
o 1975 O Pee Chee Insert
o 1975 O Pee Chee Mini Insert
o Yankee Stadium Legacy Update
o UD Documentary Update

1975 is quite the colorful set, and while Topps issued a mini set that year, I don’t believe OPC did.  No matter.  It will be interesting to see what Upper Deck does with it.  The Yankee Stadium Update will feature games from 2008.  I have no idea why Documentary needs an update (perhaps the postseason?), but I’m certain I’ll be trading all my YSL and Documentary update cards away (if I can find someone who wants them), and quite possibly for those 75 OPC’s.

Autograph Cards (1 per box, on average)
o Inkredible
o UD Game Jersey Autographs #’ed up to 99

Memorabilia Cards (2 per box, on average)
o UD Game Jersey
o UD Game Jersey Double swatch #’ed up to 149
o UD Game Jersey Triple swatch #’ed up to 99
o UD Game Jersey Quad swatch #’ed up to 15
o UD Game Jersey Autographs #’ed up to 99
o Piece of History 500 Home Run Club Bat
o USAB 18U National Team Jerseys
o USAB 18U National Team Jersey Patch #’ed up to 25
o USAB 18U National Team Jersey Autographs #’ed up to 25

Standard insert rates apply.  I actually preferred getting the USA baseball jersey and patch cards rather than the MLB players.  There’s excitement wondering about how these players will turn out and how it will affect these cards.  I already know my Morgan Ensberg jersey card won’t be worth much.  But will my Brain Matusz jersey card mature?  I won’t know for years, but I have a reason to cheer for him now no matter where he ends up. 

2009 Upper Deck is scheduled for a February 3rd release.

(I tried to clean this up a bit, and I’m still not sure it makes sense.  I’m 17 hours without sleep, but I wanted to get the info out there for you all to enjoy.)

*UPDATED*  Just woke up to see that Mario scooped the images. I won’t steal his thunder by posting them here. Thanks for the nice comment shout out, though.

The ’75 OPC cards look nice, although I don’t recall those pastels in the original. I’d have to get my box down to check for sure. I’m a little disappointed they aren’t so beholden to the original, but at the same time the colors on that Ichiro are much easier on the eyes.

And as a commenter pointed out there, the set itself looks a lot like these.

Nice looking, though not as nice as 2008.