Saturday, September 25, 2010

Random Blaster Box- Upper Deck Basketball

Today is a double dose of Upper Deck Basketball. I picked up a couple of blasters, the first is from the 2008-09 Upper Deck basketball release and the second blaster is from the 2009-10 Upper Deck Basketball release, and I am going to break down my pulls.

I have always been a fan of the Upper Deck base basketball sets for one reason, the images. Upper Deck has a way of selecting some great images to use on the cards and this really brings the collector in to the game. You never really pulled anything "super" from these products but they normally sold more to set collectors.

Blaster #1- 2008-09 Upper Deck Basketball

I pulled a couple of UD Legends (Dr J & Karl Malone) and 1 rookie, Deron Washington, a Ray Allen All-Star Class card along with a Rodman Bulls Dynasty card and 2 Celtics Dynasty cards.


Agent Zero hyping up the crowd and a close up of Vince Carter flying in for a reverse layup. These are just a couple of cards that caught my eye but really you would be hard pressed to find a bad image used.


I realized something was odd when I kept pulling Starquest cards considering that they are 1 per box in the Hobby Boxes. Turned out I grabbed a "Hot Box" and I actually pulled some cool cards. The "big" Starquest hits are the 4 I posted here: Blue Super Rare Kobe Bryant, Purple Rare Kevin Durant, Blue Super Rare Dr J. and a Gold Un-Common LeBron. I pulled 6 other Starquests, 5 Silver Commons and 1 Gold Un-Common. They were Commons- Baron Davis, Tim Duncan, Rudy Gay, Magic Johnson and Tracy McGrady. The Gold Un-Common was another Baron Davis.



The 1 per box relic was a Caron Butler Washington Wizards jersey swatch, I didn't notice at first until I looked at the scan but there is white stitching in the upper left corner of the swatch.




Blaster #2- 2009-10 upper Deck Basketball

On to one Upper Decks final basketball products and once again UD used some excellent images for the cards. Just look at the Bryant and Paul cards, you can see the detail and the emotion on the players face. This is what collectors want to see when they rip a pack.







In the 2009-10 UD NBA release you got 1 rookie per pack so the chance to pull some decent players is pretty good. I would have to say the Brandon Jennings and James Harden cards are probably the best rookies that I pulled and I say that having grown up a University of Arizona fan who despises any player who comes out of Tempe wearing the Maroon and Gold colors but I guess I can give Harden a pass for now considering he plays with Kevin Durant, one of my favorite players.




I have had some good luck recently with blaster boxes (hopefully I don't jinx myself). I am not a collector that is all about pulling the money card, I would much rather pull a cool looking card, favorite players, etc over pulling that one card that will pay for the box.

This card fits in to my terms of cards worth pulling. I had no idea that there was a 3D Stars insert, I honestly have never seen one and at 1:160 the odds are pretty tough of actually pulling one. These cards do not sell for much with most selling for only a few dollars each and the 3 big hits are Michael Jordan/Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan/LeBron James or the Kobe Bryant/LeBron James cards. I was fortunate enough to pull the Kevin Durant/Russell Westbrook card.

The cards are not actually 3D, they are lenticular and when you angle the card one way you see Durant and angle the other way and you see Westbrook. They remind me of those cards we used to pull of off Slurpee cups in the 80s.




Not long ago I pulled a Carmelo Anthony/Shawn Marion Dual Game Materials and this box surprises me with 2 of the best (recent) NBA Centers to ever play the game. Being a Phoenix Suns fan I am not big on Robinson or Olajuwon, but this is definitely not a card I will be tossing away.




6 comments:

  1. Sick blasters. Need to get me some 3D Stars. I'm a sucker for gimmicks from my youth that don't get used much anymore. And that Admiral and Dream dual is ridiculously cool. And unlike most legends, there's something so very right about Dr. J on shiny foil. Did you get any Now Appearing inserts in the latter blaster?

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  2. I pulled two Now Appearing cards, Tim Duncan and Rasheed Wallace. I like the idea behind that insert, it makes each card original.

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  3. I had a sick blaster pull today from target and the blasters are on sale for 9.99. From 2 boxes I pulled 5 majestics including a magic johnson. I pulled two michael jordan ultra rares and a kobe ultra rare. I got a dual patch amare and kevin garnett and a shaq patch. I also got 3 chris paul rares and ultra rares and a coulple allen iverson rare and ulta and some julius erving rares. These have gotta be the best blaster pulls I have ever gotton besides my brock auto from a target UFC blaster box, but considering he just got whipped last night I expect the value of that to plumet. I'm going to target tommorrow and buying the rest of those 2008-2009 upperdeck blaster for $9.99

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  4. Did you get any Masterpieces cards? and which rookies do you have? When i come back from trading and selling, (taking a little break to study for midterms and try to keep my straight a's up. I will be back on January 25) i would be interested in the Tim Duncan Now Appearing, any rookies i dont have from the set, and any Masterpieces i dont have. I dont have rookies #204, 205, 219, 221 and the SP's 228, 230, 231, 233-236, 238, and 240. Also I have these masterpieces already: Chris Paul, Kareem, Erving, Courtney Lee, Hibbert, LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, Kevin Love, OJ Mayo, Steve Nash, and Tony Parker. LMK. Thanks

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  5. I will take a look to see what else I have and let you know.

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  6. @Mainsoccerboi
    From the 2009-10 Upper Deck set I pulled 4 masterpieces:Courtney Lee x2, JJ Hickson and Donte Greene.


    I have 5 rookies from your list:
    204- Darren Collison
    205- Patrick Mills
    219- James Johnson
    221- Nick Calathes
    233- Brandon Jennings

    Send me an email when you return to collecting if you are still interested in a trade.

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