Baseball Cards, Upper Deck

Upper Deck Spectrum: How To Play With Fire, and Hopefully Not Get Burnt

This is the most expensive product I’ve reviewed so far, and boy is it shiny.  I wouldn’t open a box of these around the Organ Grinder and his monkey.

As the Organ Grinder would play his little barrel organ around the turn of the century, his little monkey would scour the crowd and surrounding sidewalk for cash-money.

Occasionally, the monkey would get distracted by other shiny things and perform the first victim-less crime — theft of shiny things by a trained monkey.

This is why instead of paying the $115 CDN for a box of spectrum which contains 14 packs of 5 cards, you should spend about $50 on an illegally imported monkey, $20 on a hat, and the remaining 45-dollars using negative reinforcement to train the monkey.  In addition to your 70 cards, you’ll have enough empirical data to get published in the Journal of  Anthropological Research.  Seems like a win-win to me, a noted monkey expert.

So you’ve stolen your box of 2009 Edition Upper Deck Spectrum, what should you expect? Upper Deck says:

Content Highlights

• Two Autograph cards per box, one of which will be a Spectrum of Stars celebrity autograph card, on average!
• 20th Anniversary Memorabilia cards one (1) per hobby case, on average!
• One memorabilia card per box, on average!
• Two autographed cards per box, on average!
• Press Plates, one per case on average!
• 20th Anniversary cards randomly inserted!
• Look for three (3) random Hot Boxes in each hobby case containing three (3) memorabilia cards and three (3) autographed cards!
• Look for celebrity cut-signature cards!
• One (1) autographed buyback card per case, on average!

20th Anniversary Memorabilia:

• 2009 Spectrum will be the first project in baseball to include 20th Anniversary Memorabilia cards!  Look for memorabilia cards of the most elite athletes across all four sports such as Michael Jordan, Sidney Crosby, Wayne Gretzky, Peyton Manning, and the greatest golfer in the world, Tiger Woods!

Product Breakdown

Regular Cards and Rookies

• 100 Regular Cards
• 30 Spectrum Rookie Signatures

Inserts and Parallel Cards

• Red Base set Parallel (#’ed to 399)
• Orange Base set Parallel (#’ed to 299)
• Green Base set Parallel (#’ed to 99)
• Black Base set Parallel (#’ed to 50)
• Gold Base set Parallel (#’ed to 25)

Autograph Cards (2 per box, on average)

• Spectrum Rookie Signatures
• Spectrum of  Stars Autographs
• Spectrum of Star Die-Cut Autographs (#’ed up to 50)
• Spectrum of Swatches Dark Gray Autographs (#’ed up to 99)

The Base Card is pretty much what you’d expect out of a premium brand card.  It’s sleek and modern, and it appears as though Upper Deck has trained monkeys of it’s own clipping away the background from their photos.

Nothing is more upsetting than purchasing a premium baseball card and realizing that there are artifacts from the background stuck to the side of the player, or an overly feathered edge (Dear Donruss, take note).  If you’re paying what amounts to about a dollar per card, the player should have crisp and clean edges.

Speaking of which, if you’re paying one-hundred and fifteen dollars for a box of Upper Deck spectrum; You better pray to the Sweet Baby Jesus that you don’t pull “Rocket Man” from High School Musical 3. Matt Proko currently cannot be given away on eBay, as people are shying away from the minimum 99 cent bid.  Aren’t you glad you dropped 115 bucks on this sucker?

At this point, I’d normally go into the photography and general composition of the card.  Unfortunately, these cards are just players on different color backgrounds.  Obviously, you’re going to want to pull a Gold Spectrum numbered to 25, even if it’s ugly as hell.

The base-card is probably the most appealing to the eye, at least in my not-so-humble opinion, although I’m quite a fan of the black parallel.

I’m not bothered by both Erik Bedard nor Xadier Nady wearing the uniforms of their previous teams, not at all.  While I understand sarcasm doesn’t really come across on the internet, this my friend is ridiculous.

Bedard was signed, not last year but the year before! I know he was a whole-lotta hurt last year for the Mariners, but this is getting ridiculous.  Nady was a trade-deadline guy, and played more than a handful of games in the Media capital of the world.

If you don’t have a half decent shot of the guys, please for the love of god don’t put it in. The kicker is, Upper Deck was able to get a Game Worn Jersey from Erik Bedard as a Mariner but was unable to find a photo of him.

Okay, It’s Time For The Hits

This is where I think Upper Deck is seriously playing with fire.  I have a firm view on Die-Cut autographs, and that view is simple: they’re awesome.

However, Upper Deck apparently realized that people will pay an inordinate amount of money for Cut autographs and started putting out cut-autos of every imaginable person.

Here is the reasoning behind a cut auto: The autograph comes from a person who has died, or has at least lost both of their arms in a terrible wood-chipping accident.  Either way, the point is the person can no longer sign an autograph. So you root around his or her personal shit until you find a bounced check, or something.  Bam! Cut it out, throw it in a card.

This is what gives them value, not that they’re cut out, but that the person is no longer around to sign any more autographs.

If the person is living, then you’re just saturating the market.

While I love how Jennifer Connelly manages to show off her god-given talent for getting naked in every movie she’s ever been in; Do we really need a cut-auto?

Angie Dickinson is 77 years old, but she isn’t quite to the point where she needs a cut-auto.

Yup, you’re correct in guessing this is indeed a Paris Hilton die-cut Spectrum Celebrity Signature from their 2008-series run.

It’s numbered 7 of 8, and is currently listed for an outrageous 500 dollars on eBay.

These cut-autos hold their value, and if you’re lucky enough to pull one, you’ve just paid for 4 or 5 boxes.

I still don’t get it though, considering most of these celebrities will sign an 8×10 if you stick it in front of them. I’m sure you can snag a PSA/DNA certified autograph of any one of these living celebrity stars for far cheaper than their cut-cards.

Hrm…

Game Used and Auto

Here we have your basic swatch, plate and celebrity auto.  Lots of Letter-Swatches, and everyone likes letter swatches.  If you’re a collector of GU, you’re probably a bit more excited about the 3-color thing, than I am.

Printing plates are my thing however, and these look like some of the better ones I’ve seen.  While the cards aren’t mind blowing, the printing plates are.  They almost have a little modern-day Allen and Ginter to ‘em.  Very simple, and a tiny little logo.

The Celebrity Autos vary quite a bit.  You could end up with any number of 80’s hair metal bands, or someone like Al Bundy ( Ed O’Neil).  I’m not sure how Cheech Marin resonates with the younger collector, but Up In Smoke which debuted in ‘78, is probably the driving force behind sales of his auto.

It’s pretty clear to see who Upper Deck’s target audience is with it’s premium Spectrum product. With 80’s icons like Cheech and Chong, Al Bundy, Bert Reynolds, Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake and Sarah Conor we’re thinking that their ideal collector is in his late-20’s / early-30’s.

Throw in some autographs of 22-year old talking breasts (Kim Kardashian/ Susie Feldmen / Kendra Wilkinson) and I’m starting to think that Upper Deck understands how important large breasts are to the average collector.

Upper Deck Rookie Spectrum Signatures

2009	101	David Price	Rays	Spectrum Rookie Signatures
2009	102	Conor Gillaspie	Giants	Spectrum Rookie Signatures
2009	103	Jeff Baisley	Athletics	Spectrum Rookie Signatures
2009	104	Angel Salome	Brewers	Spectrum Rookie Signatures
2009	105	Aaron Cunningham	Athletics	Spectrum Rookie Signatures
2009	106	Lou Marson	Phillies	Spectrum Rookie Signatures
2009	107	Matt Antonelli	Padres	Spectrum Rookie Signatures
2009	108	Michael Bowden	Red Sox	Spectrum Rookie Signatures
2009	109	Francisco Cervelli	Yankees	Spectrum Rookie Signatures
2009	110	Phil Coke	Yankees	Spectrum Rookie Signatures
2009	111	Josh Outman	Athletics	Spectrum Rookie Signatures
2009	112	Shairon Martis	Nationals	Spectrum Rookie Signatures
2009	113	Mat Gamel	Brewers	Spectrum Rookie Signatures
2009	114	Josh Geer	Padres	Spectrum Rookie Signatures
2009	115	Greg Golson	Phillies	Spectrum Rookie Signatures
2009	116	Kila Ka’aihue	Royals	Spectrum Rookie Signatures
2009	117	Wade LeBlanc	Padres	Spectrum Rookie Signatures
2009	118	Chris Lambert	Tigers	Spectrum Rookie Signatures
2009	119	James Parr	Braves	Spectrum Rookie Signatures
2009	120	Matt Tuiasosopo	Mariners	Spectrum Rookie Signatures

The Rookie class this year seems pretty solid, and everyone will be lusting for that David Price auto.  I’m also a fan of the Gamel, Salome, Cillaspie, Ka’aihue, and Cunningham this year. Actually, I’m happy with all of the autographs this year.  The cards themselves look solid, but there’s nothing particularly ground-breaking-new-omfg about them.

Buybacks: I’m not the biggest fan of buybacks unless they’re incredibly expensive on the eBay.  Are you excited when you pull a Rick Ankiel autographed SPx? They’re on eBay from 15 to 40 bucks.  If I get a buyback, I want the potential for a card that I can’t purchase on eBay on a modern budget.

The Full Upper Deck Spectrum Checklist is available here.

Conclusion

This is a premium product, and while it’s not quite a “Sterling” product, it’s still a neat set.  It falls nicely somewhere between Upper Deck Series 1, and the big-boys of Premium trading cards.

The celebrity autographs and cut autos are neat, but  you are paying for them.  They’re probably constituting a third of the purchase price, so as long as you understand that you’re paying about 70 bucks for a baseball set, and 45 bucks on a celebrity set — this is a nice set.

With the Spectrum product, it’s pretty much a requirement to buy a box rather than loose packs.  Spending 12 dollars on a loose pack that’s undoubtedly been searched, is risky business.

I won’t go into how i’d like to see Upper Deck’s 20th anniversary cards removed from their entire line-up, but they’ll make appearances and you’ll grow to hate them.

This is a great set for those who plan on selling a chunk of their hits while keeping the base cards.  The foiled appearance is nice, and there’s plenty of numbered sub-sets.  The hits are plentiful, and the 100 card set is small enough to not blow your entire budget on one product.

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