A Whole Lot of 2017 Goodwin Champions!

Good evening folks... every year my wife and I tend to go nuts over one or two products. This year we bypassed Allen & Ginter and focused in on it's bastard cardboard cousin: Upper Deck Goodwin Champions. We had a blast opening a bunch of this product! I have tons of base cards and minis if anyone needs cards to complete their set!

We'll start with one of my least favorite "hits" in this product. Manufactured "MAP" relics. At least the National Parks (bottom left) are hand numbered and limited. There really is no correlation between the map piece selected and the picture, they may be near-ish to the subject, but it's not like it was a real vintage map either. They just printed off maps and cut them up. Lazy lazy lazy work by Upper Deck. You can't claim "vintage map relic" then state "manufactured map relic" at the top of the card. It's duplicitous and just wrong. Sorry Upper Deck, you get an F- on this crap.

Next up, DOGS!

 

My wife and I have two dogs and two cats, they are the only "children" we'll ever have, so getting dog patches is fun. Even if they do fall under the "manufactured" hit - at least they have a theme and are collectible. I doubt I ever find anyone for those damned maps, at least there are other dog lovers out there! Of course, these are scarce based on their card number with 100 being the most scarce. The rarest from the above is #60, no fabulous, but not horrible either.

Next up, we'll enter the grand world of redundancy:

Notice a bit of a theme in the above autographs and relics? Yea, lots of hits from the same subjects in different formats! At least there aren't any true duplicates. But seriously Upper Deck, let's work on paring down the auto/relic list by reducing using the same fabric in slightly different cards. Dan Severn didn't sacrifice a onsie for this.  Luckily, the Dan's will be headed to a friend in Hazel Green - the rest are all trade bait. I don't know who any of those people are!

And now for my most despised "hit" from a product that costs at LEAST $85 a box w/ 3 guaranteed "hits":

UPPER DECK: These are cool inserts. These are NOT HITS! Even the last one "Alien Black Hole" which is the "Artist Signed" Variation /25. Between the maps and these "lenticular" cards, it's a waste of 2/3 of the box if you end up with two of these. And if you happen to get a lenticular, map and dog patch, you get three "hits" that aren't worth $10 in value. Seriously, bad job Upper Deck, bad job. F- on these bastards as well.

I gotta show off these two mini's! Very cool!

 

The on the left is obviously of the "Cheetah" but it's also the "wood" variation /8! On the right is the 1/1 "Presidential" gold foil variation of Rudi Ying. Again, I have no idea who Rudi is, but I did read on his base card that he is a Chinese hockey player, and I'm guessing that is pretty rare. I also have a /25 John Adams Green mini variation that I forgot to scan. So, I like the way they do their mini variations - a bit different from Topp's A&G brand. Both look great and are very low numbered!

Finally, we kept busting boxes hoping to get one of the many "WWII Relics". The first one we pulled is in Colorado and I don't have a picture, but it's Lloyd Parthemer relic. The other one we pulled carries much more gravitas... 

So this is one of the rarer Museum Relics that could be pulled - and it's a little disconcerting that on the back it says "Congratulations". This card represents a very dark piece of history. So, while I embrace it as part of our collection, forgive me Upper Deck if I don't feel Congratulations are in order two sentences after you describe how the SS were in charge of the concentration and extermination camps.

Overall, we enjoy the product. There are aspects that definitely need some find tuning in the way boxes are put together, etc. Of all the cards in this post, only the WWII Relic is not for trade. If you have interest in any of these or are working on any of the sets, inserts, minis or whatnot, shoot me an e-mail.