2011 Upper Deck

Finally caught up with all of the 2011 released products. So far, a little underwhelming. There are only 2-3 products I would buy again in 2011 with 11 of the low/mid-end products released. I wanted to open Upper Deck when it came out, but I knew I was getting a box as a gift - so let's see what they have to offer up this year!

Price Paid: $83.95
Sale Value (on ebay): $70.00

Design: Right off the bat I loved the photography used in this product. Upper Deck has the NCAA license and used it to it's full potential with awesome action shots and logos. The basic autographed cards are basically the same as the base with a sticker included. The letterman autos are significantly better than most as well due to the clean design and clear picture of the player. The Ultimate Collection autos look just like the Ultimate rookie base autos from last year and leave a good amount of space for the auto with a simple design that focuses on the college logo and uniform. The inserts are not highly collectible, but I loved the Saturday in Action, Historical Programs and Class Of cards. The Saturday in action have the best photography I have ever seen on a card and the other two just have original designs. The ones I did not like are Conference Clashes and Dream Tandems - it's just hard to pull off a nice card featuring two players. A big part of the marketing was about the UD Evolution cards. I did not pull one so it is hard to comment, but based on what I saw the design is very impressive as well if you like mid 90's inserts. 5/5

Checklist: The base checklist goes on and on and on with basically every rookie you will want for colleges or pros. They make the SP list very clear as almost any card #51-132 are SP rookies minus about 15. The old Wild Card stripe makes another appearance as well and makes for an interesting parallel. Also impressive was the fact that #51-200 all have auto variations as well. While some of them are less desirable, a specific team collector will be all over some of these guys because they will not appear in other products. The letterman cards are nice, but the numbering on them was a bit high and they are overproduced. Overall, one has to be happy looking at the checklist full of SPs, collectible parallels, and a plethora of rookies. 5/5

Fun: You will get 20 packs with 6 cards per pack and two base autographs and one letterman. Additionally, you should get a couple of SP cards, striped parallels, and rookie variations of the early 90's UD sets. That gives the customer a LOT to look forward to other than the hits. This is truly a set I would like to put together (and I generally just collect autographs). 5/5

What I got:

Lawrence Wilson Auto

Troy Aikman Printing Plate 1/1

Chykie Brown Auto

Austin Pettis Letterman Auto

7 1992 Variations

1 SP Rookie

Overall/Value: Even though I did not quite break even, anything that comes close is not a bad value because it can easily be a little bit less or a little bit more. That just means they got the pricing about right on the product. $80 seems steep for base Upper Deck, but they delivered this year and it is the most collectible set so far this year. 4.5/5

My Break/Tilt: I'm happy with my break. I could easily get my money back and try it again, but with the extra 1/1 I think I got a little bit lucky. There will be some breaks that get you about $50 worth and some that will get you $100. That just means the price tag is just about right. I highly recommend this product and if you want base cards to grade of the next great rookie - this is the set to get them from. 4.5/5

Overall: 24/25 A+