Score Football- 2009 52 pack

The other night I picked up a pack of Score Football. Not just any pack though, it was a 52 card jumbo pack. I was hoping to pull a Peterson or at least a few Packers or former OU players.

I wasn't able to do that, but at least I pulled a few players that I have heard of before.


The last time I saw these two guys they were running all over us in the Fiesta Bowl. Funny how all of last season flew by. When I saw these cards I was really surprised that they had played last year in the NFL.



Here's another guy that I thought was still at Rutgers.


According to the back of the package, the odds were Scorecard (400 cards), Glossy (400 cards), Gold Zone (400 cards), Red Zone (400 cards), End Zone (400 cards), Artist's Proof (400 cards), Inscriptions (400 cards), Hot Rookies (30 cards), Hot Rookies Glossy (30 cards), Hot rookies Scorecard (30 cards), Franchise (20 cards), Future Franchise (20 cards), Young Starts (20 Cards), and Score 1989 Reprints (10).


Whew that was a lot of typing. I looked up these stats only after ripping the pack open. Seems like a lot of different parallels to the base set which might be a little confusing to some people like myself. Also a few different inserts.





It sort of explains why some of the cards were shinier than others. I guess that's the difference in glossy and regular cards. I just thought that some of the cards were "newer" looking than others. This is a Glossy Rookie card I guess.



The inclusion of college stats on the back is nice. I like the layout of the card, even though all the diagonal lines took some getting used to.



I pulled a Hot Rookie cards of Beanie Wells who played for Ohio State and who is now a Arizona Cardinal.


The design of the back mirrors the front with a black and white version of the player with a little bio. I like the inclusion of the team logo on the upper left.


This A.J. Hawk card is one of the non-glossy ones and the only Packer I pulled, which sucks.



This is one of the "Young Stars" inserts. It looks a little like they went overboard with the HDR, but I like the way the player jumps out of the background.

I only pulled one of these, but I'm guessing that they are mostly of players entering their second year. From his bio it doesn't seem like he's much of a star, but I've never actually heard of him. Who knows, maybe he's a stud. The bio mentions him being hurt, but I would think that this guy:


... should be included as a "Young Star". I don't know much about these inserts, so maybe he's got his "Young Star" card and I just don't know it. According to the bio he was third in the NFL in rushing with 1,715 yards. I'm not sure, but I think A.D. and maybe L.T. would be the other two? I really like that it's a game shot too. It breaks up the monotony of the craziness of the borders and the insert cards.





Here is a comparison of the backs of the two cards. The Forte card is more straightforward with his rookie year stats on the back whereas the Torain card has a little bio. I'm guessing that's pretty much standard for all the inserts. I really like the look of the team logo in the lower third of the card back.

THe Franchise and Future Franchise cards really stood out to me mainly because of the player cut-outs against a crazy blue background.


I'm not familiar with Lee Evans. I thought Lee Evans was a 1950's starlet.


The Matt Cassel card was a really nice pull though. Hopefully he'll play as good in St. Louis and he did with the Patriots.

The crazy color splashes and diagonal lines took some getting used to, but I like the artwork and layout of the fronts and backs of the cards. I think it's cool that they mention the college team of the player on every card, even the veteran cards.

I could never get over the fact that the cards seem a little like they were meant for kids though. Their a little too crazy for me, but since they're so cheap I might have to pick up a few more jumbo packs or a box sometime. If I remember right the blaster was not a good deal in that it only included like 7 packs of 11 cards or something like that for $20.00. That seems a little steep for this product, especially when the jumbo's go for $4.97 for 52 cards. It'd be nice to pull a few of the players I like so I'm going to have to grab a few more of these.

Flea Markets and Hobby Shops part one:

My card collecting has been pretty conservative to say the least. sure their were a few dalliances with Mork and Mindy cards in the early '80's, a few Battlestar Galactica cards and of course an all out obsession with Garbage Pail Kids in the mid '80's. Since I've gotten back into card collecting I've been pretty much focusing on Topps '08 and '09 but since checking out the baseball card blogs I've noticed that there is a whole 'nother world of cards out there.


I headed out to Vintage Stock tonight to see what a hobby/re-packed toy store would have for card selection. I really wanted to branch out and see if I could find something interesting to buy. I wasn't disappointed. I kind of wished I would have picked up a few things they had, but I'm really glad I got the stuff that I did. The Yankee Stadium card with the Ali fight ticket insert thingy was pretty nice looking. They had a cool Brooklyn Dodger card, but I wanted to buy some new packs. I didn't want to just buy a couple of cards, when I could possibly get a decent amount of good stuff. Also, I had gotten burned by buying older stuff earlier in the day and I didn't want to repeat taking a chance on overpaying for just one card.

I decided to pick up a pack of Upper Deck's 2008 Masterpieces Football, 2006 Topps Updates and Highlights pack and a pack of 2008 Allen and Ginter.

The first pack I opened was the Topps Updates and Highlights pack. I'm guessing that these update cards are filled with post-season highlights and All-Stars and Dynamic Duos and all that kind of stuff more than just base cards.



I was happy to find a few Mets cards. This is cool. This is a gold parallel card, my first.




Anyway the cartoons on the back of the card are nice. It reminds me of some of the old cards I used to collect.



I really like the color scheme on the border that relate to the team's color. I think the cards look really slick.



The second pack was really nice too. My first Upper Deck since I started collecting again. 2008 Masterpiece football. BINGO!!! This is great.


I now know what I'm going to ask A.D. to sign if/when I see him. I was going to have him sign my press pass from the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, but I think this would be easier to carry around and display. The pose might seem a little awkward to most, but for someone like me who has been following (obsessing?)over Adrian's career it's actually when he starts to switch gears after receiving a handoff. Sometimes he "bunches up" before he changes direction after crossing the line of scrimmage. I noticed that this card was the only one in the pack that had the artist's signature on the bottom. I don't know if that is just a coincidence and the other cards had the signature cropped out or if I just got an even cooler card. As always, if anyone knows for sure feel free to educate me about these cards.


I pulled a Ben Roethlisberger card too. His sister plays basketball at OU. This is a nice card.


This Scott Norwood card is interesting, but a little depressing. I know what it's like to lose a game by one point (the aforementioned 2007 Fiesta Bowl.) So I'm not sure why U.D. decided to give this scenario the “Masterpiece” treatment. I guess if you're a Giants fan it makes sense.


I got a few more that are cool, and I like the printing on the canvas material. I think that might be a good series to collect, even though I've never finished a set.

Speaking of sets I bought a 2008 of Allen and Ginter. Awesome. Wonderful. Exciting. Austere*.




I got this cool Ichiro mini card with the fabric and stuff. This is also a first for me, a card encased in some sort of plastic with fabric embedded in it. Nice. Everytime I see Ichiro I always think back to this Taiwanese girl I used to know that loved Ichiro. She was sort of a sports fan, but it was mostly because she had a crush on him.


The cool thing about these cards are that you can immediately tell who they are. The Ichiro is a mini-card, but it's obvious that it's him even with the batting helmet.

I don't think the scans that I've seen of these cards really do it justice. All of them are exceptional cards and judging by the previews of the 2009 set I'm definitely going to try and complete that set.


I really hate to keep harping on this, but that 2007 Fiesta Bowl was a real kick in the balls. I mean this was A.D.'s last game as a Sooner and my first and only (so far) bowl game. I was really hoping it would turn out better. When Adrian took the hand off on first down to score in the first overtime I was sure it would be the game.
Here is a shot from that game.


That is during the second quarter I believe.
I didn't notice until recently that the horizon line wasn't straight and it took looking and dissecting baseball cards to make me realize that I needed to fix the shot.


Still a little bitter about that loss, but that's why I'd like to have him sign my press pass for the game rather than a card, but that Masterpiece card is a really nice card.