Upper Deck posted a first look at 2010 Ultimate football on their facebook page, the first higher end set they will release without the aid of an NFL license. Like Ultimate last year, the product looks to feature quite a few hard signed cards, as well as a few surprises. Over the last few years, UD has built Ultimate into an autograph hunter’s dream set with more inscriptions than you can shake a stick at, and from the looks of it, that will continue this year too. The question is, will collectors embrace a set like this when their favorite rookies and veteran players are pictured in their college uniforms instead of their NFL ones?

My stance on Upper Deck has always been that they deliver the most visually appealing cards in the game. Its the sole reason I never hesitate to buy into their product lines. No matter what set they put out, the cards always look great, and for 2010 Ultimate, that has not changed. The cards look amazing, especially the rookie signature cards and the shout out signature cards. Although not all of the cards were in the right format, once I inverted the color schemes on the messed up photos, even they looked great. Its actually scary to me how far ahead of Panini and Topps they are in terms of design appeal, and it continues to prove that a company can have a seat at the table, even without an NFL license.

Like many collectors, I will probably sit this one out because of a lack of NFL jerseys, but for those people who dont care, this product will not fall short in delivering some of the best looking cards of the year.