2012 UD Goodwin Champions Review

The latest edition of Upper Deck's Goodwin Champions set released yesterday. I got released from work a 9am this morning because a traffic accident took out a telephone poll and knocked out our electricity, phones and internet. So... I went to the card shop. I really got to stop being allowed off work early, it always ends up with a trip to the LCS. The wife went along in a feeble attempt to control my spending...

So, since my birthday is upcoming... and I look for any excuse I can, I grabbed three hobby boxes. Overall, not a bad value at $75 each with a chance to pull some epically great cards. Let's see the highlights. First, we'll start with all the mini's!!!!

Bo Jackson doing archery? Awesome. Hulk Hogan being Hulk Hogan? Awesome. Troy Aikman? Not awesome. Warren Moon with the 1970's era afro? Count me as a huge fan of this card! 

The final two base mini's, then the two foil board and the 6 green parallel. The two foil boards are both in the first 150 of the set so they have a print run of just /99 even though they aren't stamped.

Am I going to post any base cards? No, not so much, you can find pictures of those easily enough everywhere else, and let's face it you really just come here to see what sick hits I pull. We'll see how sick this gets, good or bad... (Note: these boxes I am posting are in the exact order I opened them)...

1st Box

Ok, so you get two Military Machines cards in each box... AWESOME... love this insert set and I want to build the set! USS Arizona and a F9 Panther, sweeeeet!
As for the hits...

1. Who the hell is Rickey Carmichael and why should I want his autograph? Meh. 
2. Dale Hawerchuk... took my three attempts to type his last name. I don't watch NHL, so I have no clue who this guys is. 
3. Doug Flutie on drums.... hmmm... 

UD, maybe it's time we cut back on the check list of relics a bit. Just sayin', I'd rather get one quality relic in a box than two of this junk... bitter after the first box... yea, pretty much... onward!

2nd Box

USS Indianapolis... my hatred for the Colts implores me to dislike this card, but I can't. Battleships Cruisers are awesome. And I've always wanted a tank...
As for the hits:

1. At least I've got a baseball player's auto here. Hold please, googling... drafted in 2009, still in A ball. Why is he in this set? Phillies collectors, you want to trade for this card, right?
2. Tim Howard... awesome relic, can actually find pictures of him online with this color/style jersey on.... can't complain too much about this one.
3. Wendel Clark - see note on Dale Hawerchuk, don't know this guy... is he good? Great? HOF material? Or scrub? The world will never know.

So a step up in that box... let's see what we have next...

3rd Box

F4U Corsair, sweet lookin' plane and we have an aircraft carrier, the USS Yorktown which sank in the Battle of Midway. I need all 20 of these cards... only 14 left for the complete set... this is going to be tough to put together, I have a feeling at only 2 per box.
As for the hits:

1. Jackie Stiles.... 3rd rate basketball player... and in the women's game at that. Thanks UD. Thanks. BUT IT'S ON CARD!!! :|
2. John Elway? Yes, more please. This is caliber of star that I expect out of "champions" sets. I'm sure Stiles and Carmichael were "champions" of something at some point in their lives, but Elway was AWESOME. 
3. Jim Kelly makes an appearance! Honestly, I'd rather have a relic of that shirt Jim's wearing in the picture on the card. That thing is EPIC! How awesome is that??? 

But wait, there's more. Somehow I stumbled upon a miracle in the 3rd box... it was loaded with a couple extra goodies... first, a mini printing plate:

WHAT?!?!?!?!? How awesome is that? The one billiards player that probably 90% of guys have actually heard of, and a printing plate to boot!!!! Awesome!!!

Next up, this one threw me for a loop, I was caught totally off guard, keep in mind, this came out of a 2012 box of Goodwin:

Um guys... that card says 2011 Goodwin Champions... I have multiple visual verifications that I pulled this out of a pack directly from a box of 2012... I was confused. I quickly went to Sports Card Radio's product review of the set, because if there was any explanation available, I figured it'd be there. That's when I found this:

I don't know what this means. Were these cards just late getting autographed last year and no redemptions made, so they threw them in this year's set? I don't know, but I do know at 1:5,036 packs, I'm pretty damned lucky to have pulled one. First one sold "Buy It Now" for $110, there is one at auction now. I may see how that one goes and then post this one on eBay. I don't know hockey, so I have no clue how good this guy is and I'm too lazy today to try and figure it out right now.

So yea, I got extremely lucky with that last box, two HOF football players' relics, plus two bonus "hits".

I'm a fan of Goodwin Champions. It's unique and fun, despite the relic checklist being about twice as long as it needs to be. The base cards look great and every once in a while lightning strikes. I really want one of the Civil War flag cards as well. How sweeeeet is that card?