2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions

The other day I pulled a 2009 Goodwin Champions Preview Card of Tony Gwynn, one of the best pure hitters of our generation, and decided to take a closer look at the upcoming set scheduled for release in September.

The set is based on the 1888 N162 Goodwin Champions set. Goodwin actually produced 4 sets between 1887-1890 (Old Judge, Old Judge Cabinets and Gypsy Queen being the other 3 sets). As was common in that time period, the cards were illustrations of the player and Upper Deck’s 2009 Goodwin Champions set follows suit.

Product Breakdown

Box:
20 packs per box
5 cards per pack
100 cards total

Base Set
252 cards including;
150 Base cards
40 SPs
20 Super SPs
42 Mini Exclusive High Series

Inserts
Printing Plates
Minis (with various backs and borders)
1888 Goodwin Champions Buybacks
Autographs are 1 per box
Memorabilia cards are 2 per box
Special Edition Memorabilia Cards are 1 per case


Base Set:
From what I have seen the set checklist seems to be greatly varied with players from many different sports including baseball, basketball, hockey and even UFC and politicians. You will find superstars like Ken Griffey Jr and Tiger Woods. Players that are coming up like Evan Longoria and Alex Ovechkin and even some of the greats from the past like Joe DiMaggio, Michael Jordan and Patrick Roy.

The minis are similar to the minis you find in almost every other retro set. You will pull 1 mini card in each pack and there will be different backs and borders, otherwise the minis are the exact same cards as the base set.


Inserts:
The inserts in this set are pretty standard with printing plates, minis and a couple of subsets such as “Citizens of the Day/Century” and a continuation of the UD 20th Anniversary cards.

Autographs: 1 per box
The autographs are on-card signatures, definitely a pleasant change from all the sticker autograph sets currently being released. I came across a preliminary autograph checklist and I have to say it looks pretty solid.

Here is a preliminary partial autograph checklist:

Adrian Gonzalez
Al Kaline
Bucky Dent
Bobby Orr
Chipper Jones
Dennis Eckersley
Derek Jeter
Dustin Pedroia
Evan Longoria
Felix Hernandez
Kevin Garnett
Joe Carter
Ken Griffey Jr.
Kent Hrbek
LeBron James
Michael Jordan
Nolan Ryan
Ozzie Smith
David Price
Prince Fielder
Paul Molitor
Brooks Robinson
Rollie Fingers
Tony Gwynn
Whitey Ford
Kristi Yamaguchi
Yogi Berra

Memorabilia: 2 per box
I have not seen what the cards look like yet and I do not have a checklist besides Cal Ripken Jr, Joe DiMaggio and His Airness himself, Michael Jordan.

Special Edition Memorabilia: 1 per case
These cards are very interesting but I believe that they will only be collectible to a very specific type of collector; I don’t see the average sports card collector hunting these down. There are 3 different kinds of these special memorabilia cards Entomology, Landmarks and Thoroughbreds.

Entomology cards contain collections of insects and butterflies. I am talking an actual butterfly on the card.

Landmark cards contain items from famous landmarks around the world including coal from the Titanic and salt from the Dead Sea.

Thoroughbreds contain hair from famous horses.

The champion of the Goodwin Champions set has to be the Buybacks of the original 1888 Goodwin Champions set. As a vintage collector I love the pre-war sets, the older the set the better so the buybacks are just another incentive for me to pick up a couple of boxes to bust, not that I need any more incentives because I plan on working on a set.

Overall I think that the 2009 Goodwin Champions set is going to do very well, especially in the current market where many of the retro sets are doing well. Personally I like that Upper Deck stayed rather true to the original set, the checklist looks solid from what I have seen and the autographs are actually touched by the player. I think that the autographs are going to be the driving force of this set because they look good and they are on-card signatures. I would love to get my hands on an original N162 too, which is one set that I do not have in my collection.