Wal-Mart Discount Blaster

I'm trying to cut back on buying blasters, but unfortunately Wal-Mart just put out a ton of 2009 Blasters for 40% off. I picked up one of the 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History blasters, since I plan to someday complete that set (I'm at like 80%ish complete). I'm not sure why I like this set so much, but it does offer some things I like to see in a set. First, most of the parallels are serial numbered and the numbers are on the front of the card. In addition, the parallels are nicely colored - blue, green, purple, etc. - unlike UD Heroes tht includes Beige and Brown variations. Also, the inserts are pretty well thought out with color variations and most are serial numbered.













The box contains 7 packs, 5 cards per pack, and promises one memoribila card (on average, of course).  It also says to look for "A Piece of Hollywood" memoribilia cards that feature costume pieces from Hollywood.  I got one of those in the 2008 version in a pack from K-Mart, but haven't gotten one from 2009 yet.  Anyway, on to the cards...

Pack 1
24 Jay Bruce
56 Justin Morneau
167 Boy Scouts of America Begins
105 Alfredo Aceves RC
179 Eiffel Tower Erected

Pack 2
23 Ken Griffey Jr.
72 Ryan Howard
984 Tim Duncan Upper Deck 20th Anniversary (kinda sick of these 20th anniversary cards.  I like the people that I tend to get, but the whole set to me is kind of strange.)
151 Star-Spangled Banner
119 Greg Golson RC



















Pack 3
71 Chase Utley
55 Joe Mauer
7 Tom Glavine
190 Baseball Hall of Fame Opens
131 James Parr RC

Pack 4
2 Randy Johnson
39 Carlos Lee
160 USA Enters World War II Blue #268/299 (the blue cards are awesome looking)
166 NAFTA
107 Michael Bowden RC














Pack 5
28 Grady Sizemore
87 Chris Carpenter
93 Josh Hamilton Red (unnumbered parallel, but the red still looks pretty good)
170 Hollywood Sign Debuts
135 Matt Tuiasosopo



















Pack 6
92 Carl Crawford
44 Mark Teixeira
182 First Anesthetic Used
123 Scott Lewis RC
154 Alaska Becomes 49th State (my grandfather-in-law was one of the main namers of places in Alaska, naming some locations after my mother-in-law and her sister.  He also wrote the Dictionary of Alaska Place Names...so that makes this card extra cool.)

Pack 7
76 Adrian Gonzalez
BSM-VM Victor Martinez Box Score Memories #976/999
BSM-CD Carlos Delgado Box Score Memories Jersey
111 Phil Coke RC

 

The Box Score Memories cards a kind of cool, showing the box score on the back of the game mentioned on the front.  The jersey variation doesn't work for me though, since the box score - the whole reason for the card in the first place - isn't even on the back.  Throw in the fact that the jersey card is unnumbered and has a gray swatch with a black jersey pictured, and the only redeeming quality about this card is that it is of Carlos Delgado as a Met.

All in all, this box wasn't bad.  It got me closer to completing the set and I got a couple decent cards.  The guaranteed mem card wasn't great, but I wasn't expecting much either.