Once Again Upper Deck Comes Through With SP Legendary Cuts

Washington Presidential Emblem

Even though Upper Deck has lost their MLB licensing that has not stopped them from continuing the SP Legendary Cuts line, a solid release that brings joy to collectors (well, those that can afford a box). Here is the kicker, THERE ARE NO REDEMPTIONS!

This year’s 2011 SP Legendary Cuts will be hitting shelves next month at a wallet-damaging price of $220/box. Each box contains only one cut signature card and all cuts are limited to #/40 or less. If you can afford the price tag for a 1 card pack then you are sure to pull something well worth the cost.

Some of the highlights in this set, along with the significant list of baseball players, are also an interesting collection of historical cut signatures including Presidential Emblem Cuts, First Couples, Presidential Winning Tickets, Royal Couples and a Camelot Quad Cut.

 Presidential Emblem Cuts: A booklet card that contains the signature of one of the 43 Presidents along with a Presidential Seal, all cuts are limited to #/5 or less.

Lincoln Presidential Emblem

First Couple Dual Cuts: Booklet cards featuring Presidents and their First Lady, all cuts are limited to #/2 or less.

Kennedy First Couple Dual Cut

Presidential Winning Ticket Dual Cuts: Booklet cards pairing the cuts of Presidents and their Vice Presidents, all are limited to #/2 or less.

Royal Couple Dual Cuts: A 1/1 booklet card featuring royal couples.

Charles & Diana Royal Couples Dual Cut

Camelot Quad Cut: A 1/1 quad booklet card featuring cut signatures from the Kennedy clan including JFK, RFK, Ted Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy.

Kennedy Camelot Quad Cut

Legendary Cuts: A 200 card base set that features 91 Hall of Famers among other notable players. All cards are limited to #/35 or less.

Legendary Black Cuts: A 400 card base set that features the greatest franchises including 75 Yankees; all cards are limited to #/40 or less.

Exquisite Cuts: A 100 card base set that features the greatest lineup ever including Cobb, Gehrig, Ruth and Robinson; all cards are limited to #/5 or less.

Black Sox Quad Cut

MULTI-PLAYER THEMED CUT HIGHLIGHTS:
- 1909 Detroit vs. Pittsburgh Dual Cut (Cobb, Wagner)
- 1919 Black Sox Quad Cut (Cicotte, Comiskey, Gandil, Landis)
- 1927 Murderer's Row Eight Cut (Combs, Koenig, Ruth, Gehrig, Meusel, Lazzeri, Dugan, Collins)
- 1934 St. Louis "Gashouse Gang" Eight Cuts (Carleton, Davis, Dean, Dean, Durocher, Frisch, Martin, Medwick)
- 1937 New York Quad Cut (Dickey, DiMaggio, Gehrig, Gomez)
- 1955 Brooklyn Past & Present Eight Cut (Campanella, Gilliam, Hodges, Koufax, Newcombe, Reese, Robinson, Snider)
- 1969 New York Past & Present Eight Cut (Agee, Clendenon, Hodges, Jones, Koosman, McGraw, Ryan, Seaver)
- Breaking Baseball's Color Barrier Dual Cut (Rickey, Robinson)
- 1931 Philadelphia All-Time Greats Quad Cut (Cochrane, Foxx, Grove, Simmons)
- 1941 Season for the Ages Dual Cut (DiMaggio, Williams)
- .400 Hitters Quad Cut (Hornsby, Sisler, Terry, Williams
- All-Time Greats Negro League Six Cut (Bell, Dandridge, Day, Johnson, Leonard, Paige)
- All-Time Greats Outfielders Past & Present Quad Cut (Aaron, DiMaggio, Mays, Williams)
- All-Time Greats Strikeout Kings Past & Present Triple Cut (Johnson, Koufax, Ryan)
- All-Time Hit Kings Past & Present (Cobb, Rose)
- All-Time Greats Home Run Kings Past & Present Triple Cut (Aaron, Bonds, Ruth)

Murders Row Eight Cut

Upper Deck knows they have something special here and they continue to put together a beautiful set but I think that unfortunately in their attempt to put out a superior product they are forcing themselves to step above and beyond what Topps and Panini are producing and this has led to some less than spectacular cuts. The Quad cuts like the Camelot and Black Sox Quad cuts look beautiful. UD got some nice cut signatures to work with and the design is appealing (I would have liked player images on the Black Sox cut but still an amazing piece) but then the jump to the 8-cut Murder’s Row card and it is just a hot mess. The design is fine but the trouble comes from the signatures used. There are six different colored paper, different inks, different angles and obscure cuts (Gehrig and Collins) really cause a flaw in the visual aesthetics of the booklet. This is a case where creating multiple booklet cards, possibly even individual cards, would have been a better choice.

 Oh and did I mention that THERE ARE NO REDEMPTIONS? Now Upper Deck has laid down the gauntlet will Topps and Panini follow suit?

I seriously want that Black Sox Quad cut, I wrote up a bit about the quad cut back in March when UD first posted up some images of the upcoming set. The final card does look different then the mock up image released in March. In the final card the Gandil signature looks like it is cut off along the left side. The Cicotte cut is a nicer signature then the mock up version. The Comisky signature is more stylized on the final version but I like the mock up version for some reason, maybe because it is more personalized. The final Landis signature is nicer because it includes his entire signature instead of just his last name but sadly because it is a long signature it looks to be cut off along the right side. No matter what I would love to own this card.

Actual Black Sox Quad Cut

Mock Up Black Sox Quad Cut