When I first saw UD Ballpark Collection on eBay, it was Curtis Granderson's base card, #38. I didn't put in a bid--buying base cards on eBay is extremely foolhardy when you take shipping costs into consideration--but I actually liked the way the card looked. Little did I know that I would almost never run across card #38 again. Strange, isn't it? That the regular card in a set is the hardest to find? In the meantime, I did manage to nab three of the four other cards in the set, all of them Game Used.
I find it very strange that these relic cards are essentially numbered alongside non-game used cards. As another blogger (and I'm sorry, I can't remember who-if it was you let me know) said, constantly pulling quad and 6x game used cards out of packs of Ballpark Collection really eliminates the excitement that should accompany a card that, for all intents and purposes, should be a special pull.
I neither love nor hate the design of this set, but I want to point out one thing that Upper Deck did very, very right. The double, quad and 6x swatch cards all have a fundamentally different design--not just more swatches. More importantly, they use a DIFFERENT PICTURE of Granderson for each card. That is huge--it really helps keep these cards from looking like cheap knock-offs of one another. My personal favorite is the six swatch card--with the in-game shot. Why only three swatches you might ask? The other three are on the back, including a very nice bright blue swatch of Mark Teahen. I will say, I'm glad that Granderson was given the upper-echelon treatment on that card. It is much nicer to see him along Vlad and Manny than it would be with the rest of the gang.
The only other card that I don't have is an autographed variation of #166--the Upton/Granderson card. I have never seen the variation and have no information at all about its print run, although I'm under the impression that it is not serial numbered. So, that is it for UD Ballpark Collection, 5 Granderson cards, including 1 base, 3 Game Used and 1 Game Used/Autographed. While certainly not the highlight of the year, I tend to think that it is just fine.
