2009 Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee Baseball

Video Box Break and Review

One retail blaster of 2009 Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee baseball
15 packs per box, six cards per pack (Paid $19.97 plus tax)



The Pulls

Base set: 55/500 (11%)

Last 100: 15/100 (15%)

Parallels
15 Black-bordered (one per pack)

Inserts
1 2008 OPC All-Rookie Team (10 cards): M. Aviles
1 The Award Show (20 cards): A. Pujols MVP
1 Face of the Franchise (30 cards): D. Wright
1 Walk-Off Winners (10 cards): C. Ruiz
1 UD 20th Anniversary: K. Dae-jung

The Review
When this product was first announced I was pretty excited because it was everything I was hoping Topps or Upper Deck would try. A real, honest to goodness, old style new set with a low price point. I like the retro design on real grey thin cardboard that is not directly ripping off any previous design (yes I know they look like '76 Topps but at least it's not an exact duplication). I also like that it is a large one series base product. Unfortunately, Upper Deck could not resist the temptation to be greedy. UD countered the low price by putting a mere six cards in a pack which means per card, these cost about the same as base Topps or UD. This is especially frustrating given that for a large retro set building product, you would be wanting more, not less, cards per pack. As a further ass-slap, UD insists on putting a multitude of large insert sets in the product that no one will have the money or patience to complete. And since this is a retro set builders product, why not waste everybody's time with one per pack black parallels!? To further put salt in the wound, those worthless 20th Anniversary inserts which are plaguing UD product this year are taking up spots in many of the packs. Thanks, Upper Deck. So let me get this straight, not only are we getting only six cards a pack for a 600 card set, but once you take out the black bordered parallel, "short print" (more on that mess later), and maybe an insert, you are really only getting 3-4 base cards a pack. Great. I should finish this set no later than 2056. Then there's the whole "short print" debacle which I am from now on referring to simply as the "last 100" cards because that's all they are. They are certainly not short printed. You can tell just by looking at my blaster. I have 11% of the short set completed but already 15% of the "short prints." That's because at one "short print" per pack and only 3-4 base cards per pack, I will complete the "short prints" long before I ever track down the 500-card short set. This is what happens when you make six card packs for a 600 card set. You magnificent bastards, Upper Deck. After reading this, you probably think I hate this product but I don't. Quite the contrary, despite the ridiculous six card packs, I love almost everything else about this set, and yes, I will probably drive myself mad and broke trying to complete it. It's as close to a retro, thin grey cardboard large set with a new design and players as you will find in 2009. And that includes Heritage. In other words, 2009 OPC is as close to 1991 Topps as we are going to get, for now.