My bowling league recently wrapped up for the year and I got a nice stack of prize money at the banquet. I took that and some money that I had in my PayPal account and placed an order with Dave and Adam’s Card World. I busted it all open tonight, but I’ll post the contents over the next few days.
The first box that I decided to open was 2007-08 Fleer Ultra Basketball. The price on this has dropped greatly since it was released and now it’s an interesting break for hits. You get 5 packs per box with a hit in each usually breaking down to 1 autograph and 4 memorabilia cards. This was a Fleer set released by Upper Deck so you’ve got a chance at all of their spokesmen who are some of the biggest names in the sport. I’m not a huge fan of Jordan, Kobe or LeBron, but those are the best of the best when it comes to cards that you want to pull out of a box and you can’t get them in boxes of Topps.
I’ve always been a fan of Ultra’s design and this set is no exception. You’ve got nice looking, full bleed pictures with the trademark cursive on the front of the card.
Here’s a card of Rockets point guard Aaron Brooks. He, along with Derrick Rose, Rajon Rondo and Glen Davis, really showed a National audience what they could do this postseason. I also pulled a Gabe Pruitt (Celtics) rookie, but the card is mangled and I think I’m out of luck because I doubt that Upper Deck is replacing these anymore. One of the better cards in the box, a Tim Duncan Platinum Medallion numbered to 25, was also mangled. I may as well send it in because no one is going to want it in the condition it is currently in.
Wow, those Oregon uniforms are really ugly.
This set is all about the hits and here they are. I’ll post them in the order that they came out of the box because the two best cards were the last two that I pulled.
The box started off with a Jermaine O’Neal Scoring Kings memorabilia card. It’s not numbered, but it is a cool purple swatch. O’Neal has been a solid player, but he never quite lived up to the level that people thought he could play at.
Next up is an Andrei Kirilenko Ultra Stars card with a piece of memorabilia used in a T-Mobile Rookie Challenge.
Next!
My autograph for the box was Morris Peterson. At this point, I was thinking that even at the reduced price I may have thrown my money away in purchasing this box. These first three inserts are the type of cards that you find in dollar boxes at card shows.
Surely it must get better.
It does, and don’t call me Shirley.
Next up was a Dwight Howard Heir to the Throne memorabilia card numbered to 199. This might be a gold version of the card, not sure.
Howard and the Magic just upset the Cleveland LeBrons in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Howard is still pretty raw and doesn’t have a full NBA center’s skill set yet, but he’s a freak of nature. In a couple of years, players like Kendrick Perkins and Glen Davis won’t be able to shut him down. He’ll be able to score and rebound at will. On defense, he needs to stop hanging back waiting for a block because it leads to him getting burned at times. When he does line up the block, he needs to stop trying to kill it. Swatting the ball ten rows back might look cool, but it doesn’t help your team unless the shot clock is low. Block it and keep it in play instead.
Last and certainly not least is this nice looking Jordan memorabilia card. It’s not numbered which is a shame, but I won’t complain. Not a bad pull at all.
The Jordan and Howard will most likely find their ways to eBay. I was hoping to pull some sort of Celtics inserts, nice rookie or something of other players that I like such as Al Jefferson, but it looks like I’ll have to sell these cards and then purchase the singles that I want. That won’t be a problem since there are plenty of Big Baby cards to be had on eBay at the moment and most of them are affordable.
All said and done, I think I would have to give this box a B+. I like the design a lot and the set is possible to put together if you buy retail boxes instead of these hobby boxes. The condition of the cards wasn’t all that great which is typical for an Upper Deck product. I pulled some great cards and some absolute clunkers. Also disappointing was that the only two Celtics base cards that I pulled were player who are no longer with the team (Sebastian Telfair and Delonte West). I’d buy another box in a year or so once I work through the list of older wax that I want to buy.
Stay tuned for two strange Upper Deck box breaks and a really nice Topps box break. If anyone out there collects basketball and wants to trade, drop me a line. If anyone wants to trade in general, drop me a line. I’m looking to get some trades going to fill some sets and add to my collection.
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