X Marks the Spot

I won a Listia auction for this 2008 Upper Deck X card of Cole Hamels for only 12 credits.  Not bad for a three time All-Star.  Hamels is quite the rich man.  He is in the middle of a 6 year, $144 million contract.  I never thought of Hamels as an elite pitcher deserving of that kind of money, but I don’t sign the checks.  He certainly isn’t deserving this year with such a terrible record.  In fairness, the team is terrible and Hamels has otherwise maintained decent numbers.  The Upper Deck X set consists of the player photo in front of a wacky “X” background.  It’s OK, but nothing great.  I can tolerate a few of these cards, but I am glad I didn’t purchase tons of this stuff back in the day.

Christmas Swag!

Merry Christmas everyone!! I hope everyone found something nice under the tree. If you’re reading this blog, someone probably gave you baseball cards for Christmas. My Christmas Day haul included 5 packs of 2008 Upper Deck X. I always liked this set but never bought any packs or boxes. I probably should have. I think I did pretty well with my 5 packs. There were no hits but I'm happy with what I pulled. There are 2 inserts in every pack if you count the Die Cuts as an insert. That gives me the sense that I’m actually getting a value. I’m not a big fan of the Die Cut cards. They are awkward to handle. Also, you might notice that some of them weren’t fully cut on the top and bottom of the card so the part that should be cut off remains with the card. Anyway, here are the results.

Pack 1:
Chase Utley
Albert Pujols
Mark Teixiera – Die Cut
Brandon Webb – Xponential
Whitey Ford – YSL
Robinson Cano

Pack 2:
Brandon Phillips
Lastings Milledge
Nate McLouth – Die Cut
Jonathan Papelbon – Xponential
Garrett Atkins
Kosuke Fukudome

Pack 3:
Josh Hamilton
Daisuke Matsuzaka
Josh Beckett – Die Cut
Ryan Zimmerman – Xponential
Ryan Howard
David Wright

Pack 4 (For the BJ Upton and Vlad Guerrero fan):
Derek Jeter
BJ Upton (Die Cut)
Vladimir Guerrero – Xponential 2
Vladimir Guerrero – Die Cut Gold
BJ Upton
Mark Teixiera

Pack 5:
Conor Jackson
Matt Holliday
Howie Kendrick – Die Cut
Trevor Hoffman – Xponential
Bobby Murcer – YSL
Nate McLouth