2009 UD Icons: The Review!

Raise Your Hand If You Bought This
(…before you bought Allen & Ginter)

I can’t have been the only person that forgot all about this product until they were searching for blasters of Allen & Ginter at the nearest Wal*Mart, right? To be completely honest, I have yet to hear of anyone but Mario talk about this set. Just from the previews of this set, and with the poor timing of its release, these cards seemed doomed from the get-go.

PURCHASE TYPE: 1 Hobby Pack ($10.69), 1 Wal*Mart Blaster ($19.97)

BASE

Big crisp photographs masked over beautiful bold colors with a textured background. Flipping the card over and… that’s it? The same thing as the front side with just a couple lines of stats? No interesting factoid on why that particular player is an icon? Well, I suppose it is only the back of the card–the least looked-at portion of any card. But, still. Speaking of which, the backsides of these cards look suspiciously familiar. Hmmm…

PARALLELS

These must be incredibly hard to chase because this is the ONLY parallel card I pulled. Granted, I didn’t throw down $80+ for a hobby box. These silver board parallels could be nicer if Upper Deck didn’t blow their foil board load on their Starquest inserts.

ROOKIES

The design for the "high numbered" rookie set is just a T-O-U-C-H different than the base set, and you’ll notice that they are also numbered to 999. I pulled two of these short printed bastages, and ended up with two fairly recognizable rookies. Phil Coke and David Price. Coke & Price. Sounds like a really bad cop drama rip-off from the 80s, doesn’t it? Nothing could jump the shark more than a really bad 80s cop drama rip-off named Coke & Price. Thankfully in reality they’re numbered rookie cards in the 2009 Upper Deck Icons set. One can dream, though, can’t one? Oh, look! More than just stats! Yippee!!

HIGHLIGHT

The box clearly stated that I was due one jersey card in my box. Normally I end up with some thumbnail sized piece of armpit worn by some perennial AAA guy who made one major league appearance and ended up on a baseball card. Complete with pit stain and all! *heebie-jeebies* This time I got a swatch twice the size that Allen & Ginter is offering up this year, complete with stripe no less, of the guy on the box–Phillies star pitcher Cole Hamels! NOT A YANKEE!!

INTERESTING TID-BITS:
Total Cards Pulled: 52 + 1 Decoy
New York Yankees: 6
Minnesota Twins: 0
Dupes: 2 (1 Parallel dupe)
RC: 2 (2 Black)

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Now, what you don’t see here in this review are cards that I didn’t pull. Those would be the infamous Manufactured Letter Patches–this perhaps being the worst offender. I mean, how can you call that an autograph? And where is the "L" in his name? And… yeah I could go on all the live long day, but the negativity in here is killing my M&Ms and Diet Dr. Pepper buzz. It might not be crazy delicious, but it’s pretty friggin’ close. What you do see here in this review is a nice crisp design with sharp photography that somehow still seems a bit "meh." The cards look nice and everything, but they just don’t hold enough interest for me to want to collect them. Of course, I’ll still be chasing the Twins cards, obviously.

GOT TWINS?
I got no Twins. NONE! Not surprising considering that there are only two in the base set. There are a handful of Twins subjects in the gamer and the manupatch subsets, but I can take or leave them. The Mauer auto card looks enticing, though. Below is a list of the Icons cards that I have for trade as well as the teeny tiny little list of Icons Twins cards that I just have to have. Contact me in a comment here or at topher [at] designyouridentity [dot] com if you can help me out. Thanks!

NEED: 57, 66, FF-JM (auto)

FOR TRADE: 1, 6, 9, 10, 12, 15, 15 (silver board parallel), 18, 20, 22, 24, 25, 27, 33, 36, 37, 38, 42, 45, 46, 47, 51, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60, 62, 63, 64, 69, 70, 71, 73, 74, 78, 79, 81, 83, 85, 87, 89, 90 (2), 96, 98, 99, 123 (192/999), 124 (677/999)