One of these things is not like the others….
Tag: 2009 Upper Deck Spectrum
Bait & Switch?
Last year, the tentative checklist for Upper Deck’s Spectrum of Stars insert set included a lot of sci-fi actors… names like Leonard Nimoy, Patrick Stewart, Scott Bakula, Ron Perlman, Summer Glau, Edward James Olmos, Elijah Wood, Jeri Ryan and Linda Hamilton.
Well, Cardboard Connection posted an actual checklist for Upper Deck Spectrum today. The final checklist for the Spectrum of Stars set looks a lot different… of the names I mentioned, Hamilton’s the only one who made it into the set. And her card has one of the worst-looking photos I’ve ever seen on a trading card.
I think from now on, I’ll wait to see an actual checklist before I get excited about something.
UD Spectrum & Topps Attax Mets preview
Topps Heritage is the big set due out this week, but a couple of other products are also scheduled to make their debut in this last week of February.
Upper Deck Spectrum is a 100-card base set with 30 rookie signature cards extending the checklist to 130. The checklist offers about what you’d expect for the Mets: four base cards and one rookie signature.
59 Jose Reyes
60 David Wright
61 Johan Santana
62 Carlos Beltran
118 Jonathon Niese
(Jonathan Niese was apparently dropped from the set and replaced by Chris Lambert, according to Beckett.com)
The base set cards have parallels in seemingly every color of the rainbow, and there’s even a version with jersey bits. Then there are some “Spectrum Swatches” and “Spectrum Patches” memorabilia cards… the whole thing is giving me a headache. Since I don’t particularly care for the base card design, I’m tempted to forget about Spectrum entirely.
But then there’s the set’s selling point: the Spectrum of Stars autographs. I’m not sure what Linda Hamilton, Leonard Nimoy and Wes Craven have to do with baseball, but they’re listed on the preliminary Spectrum checklist. At one per box, on average, I’m not about to go pack hunting. I may, however, keep my eye on eBay to see if I can bargain hunt for ones I like.
Looking ahead to 2009 Upper Deck Spectrum
Mario posted a preview of next year’s Upper Deck Spectrum set at Wax Heaven today, and it seems to be getting universally panned.
The base set is just 100 cards, with another 30 rookies added into the mix. At 5 cards per pack / 14 packs per box and three promised “hits” per box (including two autographs), it’s not going to be cheap to put together a set… but why would you bother?
The cards are inoffensive. They remind me of a mix between this year’s Starquest and Upper Deck X sets. They’re not great and they’re not terrible. They’re just there.
The player checklist is uninspired. My Mets are represented by Jose Reyes, David Wright, Johan Santana, Carlos Beltran and Jon Niese. Now on the plus side, the card companies may finally be getting the message that Pedro’s days as a star are over. On the minus side, if I’m going to get one rookie to represent the Mets in an early 2009 card set, I want it to be Daniel Murphy — the guy that actually contributed in 2008.
There’s just short of a zillion parallels. (Think Upper Deck Heroes.) And they’ve got celebrity autograph cards.
Now the celebrity autographs are the only part of Upper Deck Spectrum that actually looks interesting. I don’t really see any A-listers on the checklist, but there are a few B-list guys like Ricardo Montalban, Leonard Nimoy and Wes Craven and maybe 15-20 spots that are still listed as TBD.
But there are a ton of folks that worked on some of my favorite shows… and if these cards wind up (a) looking better than the Cheech Marin one that Mario posted and (b) being more affordable than the Inkworks ones that are out on the market, I’ll have fun shopping on eBay next year.
PaulHadsall.com 