Packout Pictures From 2009 Exquisite Football Rd. 2

Posted on 03/17/2010 by gellman

These cards are looking terrific, and I am anxiously awaiting the grand finale if and when we get it later this afternoon. I think the cards look vastly superior to last year’s stellar design, and they have shown why Upper Deck is the on top of the mountain when it comes to high end. As the general consensus has been on the boards, blogs, and twitter, Panini and Topps need to take note.

I will say that I really dislike booklet cards, as I have said a hundred times, and I dont believe they belong in a set like this. However, if its between a booklet and a crap auto of a rookie in the bonus pack, ill take the booklet. I think that considering how many people are wondering how long Upper Deck has left, this is truly a show that collectors should not be missing.

This Will Make You VERY Happy or VERY Sad

Posted on 01/15/2010 by gellman

I was just going over the checklist for 2009 Exquisite, and I came across a few tidbits that people should think about going into this product. First, there are no Brett Favre autographs in this product from what I can tell. I searched every one of the auto subsets and Favre did not make an appearance. However, he does have a number of other cards, including a Rare Materials card.

Secondly, the tier 1 checklist for the RPAs is either going to make people very happy or very sad. For the singles buyers, it just got that much easier to buy Percy Harvin, Jeremy Maclin and Hakeem Nicks’ RPAs, they are all tier 2 and should be numbered to 225. However, Darrius Heyward-Bey is a tier 1, which means you might just kill your case chances right there. That also means there are much less of them, so that may also be a good thing.

Speaking of the popular rare materials cards, this year’s checklist looks much stronger than last year’s, so that is good, but it looks like there still is no auto on these cards a la 2007’s awesome 1-of-1’s. There still may be 1/1 logo cards as we had last year, but I wasnt able to tell from the preliminary checklists.

Interesting stuff so far, ill let you know if I find out anything else.

2009 Exquisite Is Hitting The Net, I Am Both Impressed and Not

Posted on 01/15/2010 by gellman

Card Informant has a nice little slideshow of the Exquisite Previews, and after going through the pictures, I am both happy and not. I really like the move towards signed swatches, but I cant stand that the booklets are making their way into a product like Exquisite. Triple Threads sucks because of the horrible concepts used in their products, and though these cards look better than that junk, UD is still using the bad ideas. Exquisite was fine without foldouts.

I am still not sold on the Rookie Patches either, as I get a very Las Vegas feel off of them. The borders look weird, and the gold design throws me, but the cards still look good enough that I would chase a few. Not as good as last year, but definitely better than some of the other high end cards this year.

Although the inscriptions are very cool, Im beginning to see a move towards overuse. Instead of getting one subset or two subsets a year, now we are getting three or four per product, and that could get problematic if it continues to spread. Sometimes you just need the old way mixed with new freshness.

Lastly, the biography cards are awful. Just plain awful. Not only are they booklet cards, but they look like the horrid ones I covered back in the worst of the worst from Chirography. They look boring, they have no originality, and are booklets for the sake of booklets. Bad news.