2009 Upper Deck Artifacts

A friend of mine had sent me the link on facebook for the new "music video" from The Lonely Island (oddball brainchild musical group of Saturday Night Live favorite Andy Samberg) entitled "I'm On A Boat" featuring hip-hop artist T-Pain. If you've not seen their work, I encourage you to watch this and this. I'll wait, trust me it's worth it. WARNING: ADULT CONTENT - EXPLICIT LYRICS AND SUGGESTIVE CONTENT.

Also, if you haven't seen the movie "Hot Rod", I recommend that as well. It's from the same guys, except on the big screen and plus Danny McBride - who is badassly funny.

So - what does all of this have to do with BASEBALL??? Well, after watching the music video for "I'm on a Boat", i had to go to the store to pick up their debut CD, which has all of these songs, plus a lot of Adam Sandler-esque comedy skits on it. While I was there, I thought I'd take the opportunity to check out their baseball cards, as I haven't purchased any new cards in quite a while, probably a couple months.

I picked up a few packs of 2009 Upper Deck First Edition, which still confuses me as the most poorly named annual baseball card series, because it comes out AFTER Series 1 does. I don't get it. I'll post those in a couple days. I also picked up a pack of 2009 Upper Deck Artifacts, at $2.99 it was just a retail pack. I wanted to get the blaster, but figured if I just got a taste of it, and a few packs of the First Edition, I could also treat the wife to lunch at our favorite Mexican place for the same price as 1 blaster of the stuff. Turns out, I was right and the Tacos Tijuana I ordered were just amazing. Carne Asada, good stuff.

Here are the modest 5 cards in the $2.99 retail pack of '09 UD Artifacts I bought.

#4 Adam Dunn

Adam Dunn now plays for the Washington Nationals, not the D-backs. WTF, Upper Deck? These cards say "copyright (symbol) 2009" on them. Confusion, perhaps? Maybe they were printed before February 11th, when the Dunn/Nationals deal was announced to the press. My guess is Upper Deck just doesn't take the necessary effort, per the usual.

#37 Dan Uggla (red variation)

I like Dan Uggla - he helped my fantasy team to the playoffs last season, where I lost in the World Series to my sister-in-law. Yes, that's right, the woman that married my brother. I can hear your boos and hisses now. She had the best pitching staff possible, so I was sure to invite her last this year to the fantasy league to insure she'd be in the opposite division as me. I'm a schemer. Anyhow, back to the Uggla card. Like the "red" (pink) variation, I'm sure there's a better shad of "red" that UD could have found. This guy is all business, and he shows it here.

#193 "Voyager 2 Records Neptune" Historical Moments

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I think Heritage does enough for the card collecting public in the areas of History and Nostalgia. Dumb card, and apparently worth $0.60 according to the price of the pack. I could have a soda at work tomorrow for that price. Instead I'm stuck with a "baseball" card of a satellite.

#904 UD 20th Anniversary Retrospective "Dallas Cowboys"

This is a card of a football team. In a pack of baseball cards. I don't collect football cards, I collect baseball cards. Therefore, I only purchase baseball cards and not football cards. I want my money back, Upper Deck.

The fifth card was #20 Rich Harden, but he plays for the team that shall not be named nor pictured in this blog.

All in all, I'd say this 5-card offering from Upper Deck Artifacts was quite weak, but it's just a small cross section of the set that I'm not afforded enough of an experience to come up with an offical decision. I like the cards, The look is very regal and official, and forced me to order the Ryan Braun card on eBay already. I like this set a lot, just bummed about the pack I came away with. That $2.99 could have paid for the 3 beers I had today while watching the Brewers lose to the Astros - the 3 beers that helped me come even closer to trading Rickie Weeks myself, saving the Brewers organization the embarassment of having wasted so many years on a horrible second baseman.