08 UD Masterpieces review

Have I mentioned lately how much I like Masterpieces? It is a beautiful product, my favorite of 2008. It is well-designed, with great pictures that seem as if they are hand-painted on canvas, simple accents such as the subtle gold double border (which separates it from the single border of the 2007 version), and generally interesting and relative facts on the obverse, aside from the few factual mistakes that have been noted. The parallels are not-too-difficult to pull, despite the colors that sometimes are hard to discern, and great inserts, such as Strokes of Genius and Captured on Canvas. The short prints are not exceedingly difficult to find, and the base cards are a tidy 90 cards. My kind of set.

I've already detailed how I pulled some beautiful inserts in the two boxes and variety of packs that I've bought, both from retail and hobby. I was in my favorite card shop in Rochester, and spied a lonely box sitting up on the shelf with only six packs left in it. They were calling to me: Hey, Mister, take us home with you.

Seeing as I have only two or three base cards and a dozen or so SP's to go, I bought them and broke them right there. I've never had great luck with any of the other packs or boxes I buy at the store, even with the "lucky" daughter of the shop owner picking the packs or boxes for me. (For example, the box of Heritage that didn't have an auto in it, or anything else really all that worthwhile. Maybe that is why I'm not actively trying to collect the High-Numbers set to go along with the base set of Heritage.)

Here is what I got out of those six:

• base cards: 24
• short prints: 4 - Seaver, Stargell, Clemente, Gibson

 

 

• black border parallel: 2 - Mauer, Magglio Ordonez
• red border parallel: 1 - Chin-Lung Hu
• green border parallel (#/75): 1 - Hanley Ramirez
• Strokes of Genius auto: 1 - Geoff Jenkins
• Captured on Canvas relic: 1 - Verlander

 

  

Not bad for only six packs. The only complaint that I have is that I got another Verlander relic, my second, and another Sheffield base, my fourth or fifth. These two guys are haunting me! Has there been as big a disappointment last year as Verlander? I can throw Ordonez into that crowd, too. I get WAY too many of these Tigers.

Maybe that is what it is: I'm being stalked by Tigers!