Another Cavalcade Of Griffey Cards V

This card is my second Griffey card of 2017, and it is from the 2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions set and was a background variation of the base card. Griffey’s base card in the set has the same pose but the background is a sunrise (or sunset not sure) while this is the Moonlight Variation with a cloudy evening with a full moon behind him.

There were 15 cards with the Moonlight background and in addition to Griffey there was Ryne Sandberg, Grady Sizemore, Barrak Obama, Ozzie Smith, Tiger Woods, Ichiro, Gerry Lopez, Andy Pettitte, Cal Ripken Jr, Ryan Howard, Smarty Jones, Troy Tulowitzki, Chien-Ming Wang and Gordy Howe.

Had this card not been on my want list since 2009 I would not have bought it but it is one of those “I don’t know when I will see one again” type of cards.

Preview: 2012 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions

Schedule Release Date: May 20, 2012

Box Configuration:  5 cards per pack, 20 packs per box

SRP: $70-75/box

Box Break:

Three of any of these:

Autograph cards

Memorabilia cards

Animal Kingdom Patch card

Printing Plate

Plus a World Traveler Box Topper

My Thoughts:

Because Upper Deck is limited on their sports licensing they need to be creative with what they can produce and that includes using the licenses that they do have (NHL, MLS, CLC and MLL) along with the athletes they have signed to contract. Pepper in oddities like Entomology cards, Museum relics and some hand painted cards and we have the 2012 Goodwin Champions release.

Collectors who do not like non-sports inclusions in their sports sets will want to pass here because this set is as much non-sports as it is sports.

This year will include some original ideas include:

Hand painted 1888 Originals, a collection of 50 hand painted cards depicting original 1888 N162 Goodwin Champions cards.

It Came From Space! relics, a relic set made up of actual meteorites and other space items.

Museum Collection, a relic set containing Civil War and Presidential memorabilia.

Animal Kingdom patch cards, Manu-patches depicting popular or endangered animals. This set is a continuation of last year’s popular Animal Kingdom patch set and will begin with card AK-101.

The other inserts and parallels are made up of SPs, SSPs, Minis (plus mini parallels), Military Machines (2 per box) and the World Traveler box toppers.

Pros:

On-card autographs

Space relics

Museum relics

Animal Kingdom patch cards

Cons:

No major sports licenses

Inclusion of random athletes and other notables

Strange poses including a scary Larry Bird in short shorts and a Bo Jackson card where he is shooting and arrow

Painted-style cards which leaves some athletes looking odd

Rating:

I give this set 2 out of 5 because there are some positives such as a decent autograph checklist (on-card helps) along with a nice selection of relics but loses out with the lack of licenses leaving the athletes being placed in odd situations.

I won't be picking up a box but I will probably be looking to pick up some of the Space and Museum relics.

Random Blaster Box- 2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions

Next blaster box is the 2009 Goodwin Champions. I love this set and was one of my favorite sets of 2009, not just from baseball but from all releases that year so when I saw a couple of blasters sitting in a cart waiting to be put out I grabbed a box.

Unfortunately there was nothing special that I was looking for, mainly I was hoping to pull the Ken Griffey Jr night version card. I wish I could say I came across some highlights but my biggest interest was in the cards of Hall of Famers. I pulled a handful with Nolan Ryan and Ozzie Smith being the biggest names.

I also pulled A Buffalo Bill Cody card, I know a lot of people are not big on non-sports people appearing in baseball sets but I love the historical connection.

The “Hit” came in the form of a Todd Helton white jersey swatch with a purple pinstripe.

Buffalo Bill Cody Redemption Card

Upper Deck announced that the Wild Bill Cody Memorabilia redemption cards are now ready to begin shipping out. There are only 5 copies of the Bill Cody card available.

There are not a lot of Old West memorabilia cards out there so the opportunity to pull a card like this seemed to be a once in a lifetime chance. Who wouldn’t get excited over receiving a piece of Buffalo Bill’s hat or jacket or even better a piece from a gun holster. But instead of using a relic connected to his amazing storied life as a soldier, frontiersmen or even connected to his Wild West Show Upper Deck uses material from a chair in the Cody home.

Finally

Have you ever had a card that you were determined to pull? No matter how many times you saw one up for auction you were dead set against bidding because you just knew you would eventually pull one on your own.

That is how I have felt about the 2009 Goodwin Champions Ken Griffey Jr card. I wanted to pull one so bad but I was having no luck and actually considered just bidding so I could end my quest. Well, my journey finally ended tonight when my wife told me to grab a couple of packs while we were out. I know it is not a $500 card, it does not have an autograph or relic but being a Griffey fan, this is easily my favorite card of 2009.

Now I just need to pull the Griffey mini and a relic and then I can begin hunting down his Moonlight parallel.

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.