Monday, July 29, 2013

2008 Upper Deck Fan Pack - A Mystery

Has anyone ever seen one of these before?
I recently bought a ML Holdings repack box that was literally stuffed with recent packs of Topps and Upper Deck cards. This 2008 Upper Deck Fan Pack was among them. I also got a Yankees pack.  The pack has cards from five 2007 Upper Deck sets and the 2008 Upper Deck base set. Not a big deal but the cards are, I believe, reprints, not original cards. Again no big deal, but why did Upper Deck release something like this?

I might have not noticed they were reprints except for the 6 cards from 2007 UD Masterpieces.  Here's an original card from the set:
Here's the reprint from the Fan Pack:
This would be a lot easier to see if you were holding the cards. The 2007 set was printed on non-glossy card stock that had a 'canvas' like finish. The reprint is glossy and smooth.

Also included were some cards the 2007 Upper Deck Future Stars set. Here's an original followed by the reprint.
You'll notice that the original has gold foil and that the reprint has silver foil. I compared a few of these cards. The reprints have a muddier green than the originals, especially on the back.

There were samples from 2007 SP Legendary Cuts.  I don't have a good scan of a 2007 card for comparison.
You'll just have to take my word for it that the 2007 originals have gold foil.

How about these 2007 Artifacts?
You'd never be able to tell the difference from a scan alone. The reprints are noticeably thinner, otherwise identical.

None of these cards have any particular monetary value so if you know what they are, no problem. But nowhere on the wrapper or on the cards is there any indication these are reprints. The have 2007 copyright dates on the back.  I'm sure we've all lost track of how many times Topps has produced reprint cards but the fine print on the back reveals they are reprints.

If you're a David Ortiz collector, do you have to have this card plus the original in your set/ If you're a 2007 Artifacts collector, would you consider this card as part of that set? If you're a Red Sox collector, is this a 2007 or a 2008 card?  Weighty questions all.

Just to fill out what else was in the pack:
The only real difference with 2007 Upper Deck is again the thickness of the card stock.

This is from the 2008 Upper Deck set. I would call this a reprint as well, even though it was printed in 2008, because it's thinner than the regular set.

The Yankees set had the same selection of cards but in different ratios.

3 comments:

night owl said...

Reprints of 5-year-old cards? The team collector in me says I have to collect them, but I'll stop caring about this in 10 minutes.

BASEBALL DAD said...

The wrapper collector in me says I need to find some!

Hackenbush said...

Verrrrry interesting.