Goodwin Champions blaster packs 10-12 Grand Finale!

Alright we're in the home stretch of this blaster of Goodwin Champions. I don't think the last three packs can sustain the greatness of the first 9, but we'll see. Hopefully I'll pull a cool mini or a Monet.


Tenth Pack:


Soriano.



Papelbon




Ludwick.



Liddell. Oh cool, my neighbor is included in this years set. This must be him when he was a little younger when he was in better shape. As I write this it's almost 10 PM on a Friday night. The cops should be here soon. I wonder why they didn't mention his loud irritating wife on the card back? I guess they didn't have enough room.


Eleventh Pack:


Bruce.


Tiger Woods. Kind of cool. My first Tiger card. No auto, but you can't expect much from a blaster. I already pulled an auto so that's about all I'm getting.



Youkilis mini. I like this guy. I saw him on an episode of "Man VS. Food" a while back. He was taunting the Yankee fan from Brooklyn.



Dick Allen. "Allen won the National League Rookie of the Year Award in 1964. Hit a career high in homers in 1966 and was the AL MVP in 1972. This is a beautiful card. I love the expression on his face, the pose and the golden light and sunset behind him. Looks really nice.



Twelfth Pack:


Skowron. I AM SKOWRON!! I WILL SCOWL AT YOU AT THE PLATE! SUBMIT TO ME!!!



Perez.



A-Rod black bordered mini.Great. a box full of different A-Rod Cards. Awesome.


Gypsy Queen back. These look nicer to me than the Bazooka Backs in A&G. I like the profile of the Gypsy Queen and the border.



Price. His glove and hat seem overexposed. I'm not sure if it's a good choice to highlight only one part of a player's face like this. Oh well, at least the background sort of matches the light source. The slightly cloudless sky and bright overhead light looks like a mid-day sun. I think this is the only rookie card I pulled. The logo fits the Goodwin design better than A&G. It looks too modern for A&G.

Taking a look at the checklist from the Upper Deck website they list:

Base Cards – 150 cards
Short Prints – 40 cards
Super Short Prints – 20 Cards
Mini Exclusive High Series – 42 Cards

It doesn't seem too hard to finish the set. I've never tried to find "Super Short Prints". Right now it's hard enough for me to finish regular base cards in the sets I'm chasing.

I'm starting to talk myself into trying and finish the base set, but when I see the Citizen's of the day cards like Sitting Bull and it looks like a drawing from a child so I can't really see myself chasing those cards. It still would be nice to pull a Will Rogers and a Claude Monet though.


In retrospect it's kind of funny that they use Monet as an advertisement on the side of their box. Is a 19th century Impressionist that much of a draw to card collectors? One side of the box has a Yankee Auto and the other side has Monet. The front depicts a martial artist and a baseball player with only a little drawing of a butterfly in the corner. You would think the Entomology cards would be the bigger focus on the box.


I like these cards. I don't think it really compares much to Allen and Ginter except they're both retro sets. The Entomology cards are a good idea. These cards seem more like Topps Magic Football than Allen and Ginter. Both Magic and Goodwin have serene backgrounds with trees and clouds and don't seem to be from a game, but in some sort of practice field somewhere. They both have rough backs.

The way the auto appears on the card is similar too. The only difference is that the autos on Goodwin are on card instead of a sticker auto like on Topps Magic. Also I noticed that the football players that I've seen scans of like Adrian Peterson, Matt Ryan and Eli Manning are all shown in their college uniforms instead of their respective NFL teams. That is the whole draw of Topps Magic Football.

The hobby boxes contain 20 packs of 5 cards with an advertised one mini per pack (on average). They also mention on the website that their are 10 Upper Deck Anniversary cards in each hobby box. That equates to like 70 base cards on the low end which means if you're extremely lucky you might still have to get like 3 boxes to finish the base set and any extra minis you might want. I can't imagine anyone being able to finish up every mini variation in the set, but I'm new to collecting, so what do I know? Maybe their are people that can do this.

As far as my breakdown from the blaster:

I pulled 40 base cards with one of those being the auto of Gavin Floyd. I pulled one Upper Deck 20th Anniversary card and 7 minis with one of those being the black bordered version with a Gypsy Queen back. So I pulled the advertised 48 cards.

I'm not sure if I'm going to try and finish this one. If anybody sees anything that they like feel free to contact me and we can set up some sort of trade. Their are a few cards I'd like to keep, but most of them could be traded away.

Thanks for reading!

Goodwin Champions blaster packs 4-9

Here is my pulls from the middle of the blaster.

Fourth Pack:


Matt Cain. Loves to hit my favorite player in the head. Pretty much the same background and same structure behind him as in the Kershaw card.




LBJ. Nice portrait in the mold of a painting you might see of a bank president.




A-Rod. Weird red,white and blue banners behind him. For once he looks like an adult in an Upper Deck card.




Smarty Jones. Great. A horse. And it's not even Mr. Ed. I could go for some '50's TV stars. Maybe in the next pack.


Fifth Pack:




Cal Yastremski.




I hate pulling poker players. I don't like to watch poker at all. It's sort of fun to actually play, but I think it's about as exciting as watching golf. Or bowling. What makes it worse is that he's slathered in ultimatebet.net logos. I count 4 of 'em.



Mini Gwynn. Sounds like jingle from a cookie company. "Mini Gwynns!" Say it fast with a high pitched voice and it works.

I just realized the backs of the cards have a specific season of stats with a blurb relating to those stats. In Gwynn's card it says, "Ted Williams was the last player to hit .400 in 1941, but the highest finish to a season since then was Gwynn's .394 average in 1994." Nice. I always think of him as a Padre wearing the old uniforms. This looks like a newer uni.



Whitey Ford. Cool. He claimed the CY Young in 1961.


Sixth Pack:



Hunter Pence. "Hey look at me, I'm a ball player. I even have a bat!"




Ryan Braun. I like that it's dark. The dark green background is nice with the Brewer's blue. It looks like they had a little trouble with his nose and mouth.




I really hate these too. At least it's a good ballplayer and not some random crap like speedometer or something.




Lance Berkman. Look like he wants to knock our heads off with the bat. Look at that expression.



Seventh Pack:



John Lackey. "duh. I like clouds."




McClouth. Cool Pirates logo.




Mini Bedard. I should mention something about the minis. They are a little bit slimmer and shorter than the A&G minis.




Here is a side by side comparison with '08 Mayo, '09 A&G and '09 Goodwin.




Zack Greinke. Looks sort of like an interstate behind him. Maybe it's a farmhouse.



Eighth Pack:



Webb. He's not catching a ball here, he's catching your eternal soul! Your eternal soul thrown in a fiery pit of cardboard hell! How's that for a double play? Card collecting isn't so fun now is it? Reminds me of the movie U-Turn for some reason. I haven't seen that movie in a while. I like the addition of the Cacti in the bottom left of the card. Arizona=cacti. It's a funny pose anyway, because he's got his glove up like he's looking to catch a ball from the catcher, but he's already got a ball in his right hand.




Kuroda. "Kuroda impressed in his Major League debut in San Diego on 4/4/08. Allowing one run and three hits in seven innings to pick up the win."




Whoo hoo!! Another good one from Goodwin.




One of the Manning boys. Shown here in his Tennessee Vols uniform. My dad still complains about him not winning the Heisman.



Ninth Pack:



Ng. Poker? Heck yeah I do. That joke never gets old.

Remember when I said I hated poker players? Well, not this one. She's kind of hot. I still won't watch that crap. I like the card logo on the bottom right. It's kind of amazing how much detail their are in these cards. You can easily see that she's wearing a chronograph watch.




Mini Manny. Bizarre expression. The gloves look a little too cartoonish. I think it's because they are too bright and white. Dirty them up a little or add some shadows and it would blend in with the card more. The rest of the card is dark, so that makes the gloves stand out too much.




Rodriguez. "Pudge". Their is an orange sunset behind him, but the light is hitting his face from the left front of the card. I don't know how this is possible. Maybe from a stadium light. In the middle of an empty field with no line markings, spectators or players nearby. That's logical.



I'm gonna stop with this next one for now. I saw the name when I opened the pack.



This is the one card I really was hoping to pull!! The only way this card could be better is if it depicted Adrian giving me a piggy back ride while scoring a touchdown. I think this calls for some theme music.

"Oklahoma!"
by computergirl07

Having a show tune close out this post will cleanse our pallets for the next round of Goodwin. The next post will wrap up the last three packs.



I'm not even sure I need to open these now. I feel like I pulled everything I wanted so far. I'm really glad I didn't succumb to pressure and try to buy this stuff off of E-Bay.

2009 Goodwin Champions-Blaster

I have seen a lot of this on the blogs the past week so I really wanted to try and get a blaster or a few packs to see for myself what it looks like. I found a blaster at Target which is kind of surprising in that it seems like everybody else gets new releases earlier than we do here in Oklahoma.

I saw the Claude Monet on the side of the box and I didn't even hesitate. I'm a big fan of painters and painting, so I had to see if I could pull a painter or some literary hero of mine. I haven't looked at the checklist yet, but I've seen a lot of different stuff online so far. The only card I really absolutely have to have is the Adrian Peterson card. The Jose Reyes card looks pretty awesome to though. The mix of sports and non-sports stars really intrigues me.


Needless to say that in my excitement that I didn't notice the actual breakdown of the box until I got home. For what it's worth, the blaster includes 12 packs with 4 cards per pack. It's one of those "TWO BONUS PACKS in Every Box" type of thing. I hadn't seen that before. Only the "One Bonus Pack in every box".


Anyway on with the Goodwin!!!

I'm going to list and scan every card that I get from the blaster. I don't know why I'm doing this. Mainly because I've never done it before. Maybe it will help draw out the experience a little more.


It didn't dawn on me until I actually opened the first pack that 4 cards isn't really much.


Here is the pack in case any one is interested.


First card:

Nick Markakis. Beard looks a little fake to me.I like the background, but the card does feel a little flimsy.


Carlton Fisk. Nice. I like the old school red sox in the corner. Nice pose. Looks more life like than the Markakis card.

Alright!! On card auto of Gavin Floyd. Pretty neat, the autos' on Ginter are underneath that plastic stuff, so this is more impressive to me. I can see the heavy and lighter spots in the ink where he pressed harder or lighter when he was signing. Kind of cool.The face doesn't look very life like. This card looks half painted/half photo, which it is, but not in a good way.

Pujols! I like it. Nice candid card. This card reminds me of the Topps Magic Football cards. They seem to look better in scans than in real life and I'm not sure why.


Okay, On with pack two.

First card:

Curtis Granderson. Fake baseball playing pose. Clouds. Looking straight at the camera. Hmmm. Seems like a Goodwin theme is to have clouds and weird poses. In this card the painterly effect looks really good, especially on his face.

Bill Rodgers. Looks a little like Dana Carvey. Interesting expression. Still a bucolic background. I don't think the New York or Boston Marathons took place in West Virginia or upstate New York. Maybe they swung by the inner part of Central Park in this card.


O.J. Mayo mini. Under a Blood Red Sky. Looking up into the off camera soft box. Seems a little like a revelation-esque card. As a rookie averaged 18.5 points a game.

Yogi Berra. He looks a little like a monkey here. I think it's because he has no neck. I like the pose, but again they depict him in a field. He was selected to the all star game for 15 straight seasons: 1948-1962. Nice facts on the back of all these cards. I was surprised that he wasn't smiling in this card.

Third Pack


WHOOO HOOO!!! This is another card I saw that I wanted. Nice. Johnny Bench is from Oklahoma and I think this is the only card of him I still own. The others were thrown out in the late '80's or are still hidden somewhere in my parent's attic.

I also like the logo in this one. Actually any card with a retro logo in it is the best. My friend Huddleston looks just like him. Odd. I couldn't tell from other blogger's scans, but he's looking forlornly off into the distance. Kind of an odd pose too.

Kershaw in a cool pitching pose. This card shows some sort of edifice behind him in the field. A little different


Lincecum mini. One of my favorite players. The absence of a right arm bothers me a little. I love the clouds and trees in this card. Nice use of the rule of thirds.


Pedroia posed studio shot. Looks okay though. Nice smile and the details look really realistic.

Nice start so far. Pulled a few good ones. I think the weirdness of the backgrounds is a plus to me. Its different, which isn't always bad. The use of the "real" backgrounds in the game action Ginter cards are are almost like parallels of base Topps cards with the realistic backgrounds. Having all the players in an outdoor setting sort of makes sense; most sports are played
outdoors.

It seems to me like a good companion to Allen and Ginter. I don't know if it would replace it or even outdo it simply because it doesn't look as professionally done as Ginter.

Next few packs coming up soon.