2009 Upper Deck First Edition

Ten cards for a buck. That's a price I can afford right now. Topps' dollar product is the new Attax game, while Upper Deck goes back to their First Edition standby. Unlike last year, the cards have a matte finish much like the 2007 set. No foil, no holograms, no frill, just cards. I like.

10 Max Scherzer
147 Manny Ramirez
234 Nate McLouth
24 James Parr
249 Matt Cain
118 Josh Johnson
SQ-11 Hanley Ramirez StarQuest
299 Ryan Zimmerman
207 Jorge Posada
194 John Maine

Scans of Hanley and Manny can be seen here, I'm too lazy to copy the pics right now. Manny, Hanley and Invader Zim make for a pretty good first pack. I haven't seen a checklist, but I think the set is 300 cards. At 99 base cards in a blaster (plus 10 SQ's) it is theoretically possible to get almost a complete set in three blasters. The odds of that happening is equivalent to that Tupperware container of old tuna fish salad in your refrigerator spontaneously evolving into a beluga whale, but it could happen. I would not recommend trying this though as you will most likely end up with 125 cards you need and enough doubles to choke that whale in your fridge. If you have a buck or ten burning a hole in your pocket, it could be a fun, cheap rip. Just don't expect any hits or inserts or gimmicks or anything, this is about as old school a set as you're likely to encounter this year.