Back when Miguel Cabrera was hitting .500 and Justin Verlander was stinking up the American League I got a nice little package of Upper Deck First Edition from Marie at A Cardboard Problem. Since then, Miguel Cabrera has cooled off to a a measly .393 average and Verlander has looking like Cy Young himself in his last few starts. Let's take a look, shall we?
I'm a fan of this year's starquest offering, much more so than last year's. The sunburst effect projects more of a star quality and is pretty neat. I'm sure that Upper Deck has paralleled this to death in their regular release, but as an isolated card this isn't bad at all. Word on the street is that Granderson is in line for Series 2 so we can get a direct 2008 vs. 2009 comparison going then.
Speaking of comparisons:
Am I crazy, or is First Edition better in many ways? Sure, that big 'ol FIRST EDITION banner down the side kills the card, but other than that, I think it's a winner. I'm not anti-foil, by any means, but there is something nice about being able to actually read the stuff printed on the cards. Take away a little gloss, let me read the players' names and keep that logo clear and crisp and I'm a happy camper. I feel like too often, regular Upper Deck leaves me twisting cards in the light to see things from the right angle.
Also of note with this side by side: The Old English D on the cards. Upper Deck First Edition uses the D that the Tigers have adopted as their primary logo in the last few years (replacing the Tiger jumping through the D). It can also be found on their jersey. Regular Upper Deck uses the D from the hat, which I would always doodle on notebook paper as a little kid, before I realized that there were actually two different D's. The jersey D is certainly more suitable for a primary logo, it seems. I'm sure that Upper Deck didn't even notice this as they opened up their logos/baseball/detroit.jpg file without so much as a second thought, but it actually helps distinguish the two similar card versions from one another a little bit more.
So, thanks to Marie! We tend to send small packages back and forth to one another and I am never disappointed. Once I find some more cards for her collection they will be on their way.
