With the 2008 presidential election just around the corner, political cards are a huge theme in the early 2008 releases by Upper Deck and Topps. Topps has included presidential candidate cards in their 2008 Base Set, along with that Rudy Giuliani silliness. Upper Deck followed suit with their Presidential Predictors set in their 2008 Upper Deck Series I. These cards feature caricatures of the candidates done in the style of the Michael Buysner card.

However the Hillary Clinton Presidential Predictor card was kept out of packs because it was deemed to be offensive. Of course, a few of these cards have made it into packs, whether intentionally or accidentally, and they have set off bidding MADNESS on eBay. Click the pic to see the auction for the first of these Clinton cards to hit eBay and prepare to be floored.

Why would anyone pay so much for such an UGLY card??!?! And what genius at Upper Deck thought that this card design would fly in the first place…. Unfortunately for the poor guy with the highest bid on the first Clinton, a few more have popped up on eBay, so who knows how scarce these really are.

If you are dying to get your Hillary fix, I recommend saving your dinero and bidding on this Clinton card by Topps instead:

In 2007, Upper Deck introduced a set of manufactured patch cards in UD Premier Baseball. The Premier Stitchings set was also included in UD Premier Football and will return in 2008 UD Premier Baseball and 07-08 Premier Basketball.

Von Glitschka, a graphic designer and illustrator, designed the Premier Stitchings patches for Upper Deck. Check out his homepage and his art blog. He does some really neat stuff, including the logos for Orbit Gum (which I chew constantly).

Here’s how Von went about designing a Kevin Durant patch for 07-08 Premier Basketball.

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Here’s my entry in the “Most Painful UD Black Box Break” contest:

Ouch!

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Here’s my 2007 UD Black Baseball Analysis. It’s similar to the 2007 Topps Sterling Analysis that I did before. Information is based on the full UD Black Checklist found at Upper Deck.com. Numbers are based on the entire baseball card print run and do not reflect any cards held back from distribution by Upper Deck for NPN programs or other reasons. All percentages shown are chances of getting a card out of a 2 pack box.

First, some comments:
Obviously, UD Black Baseball is a high-end product so I was really surprised when I saw the shear size of the checklist. 149 different players appear on at least one baseball card each. The “base set” is 42 veterans and 30 rookies. That leaves 77 players that only appear in insert sets.

Some players only appear in the Pure White Packs, including big names like Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez, and Albert Pujols. Bottom line, there is no player that appears in every set, so if you are a player collector consult the checklist before you go chasing after cards that don’t exist!

For the most part, every card has a gold and pearl parallel. However, there are some cards that don’t… and there are some parallels of cards that aren’t in the regular set. Weird. Also, the gold versions of the Prominent Numbers set are #’d to 10, but the regular cards in that set are #’d to the player’s jersey number, so some of the gold parallels are actually more common than the regular cards.

There are 10 mystery dual cut redemptions included in UD Black. That gives you a 0.057% chance of getting one if you buy a box.

There are 1,432 one of one’s, giving you about a 8.2% shot at pulling one.

Now, let’s get to the complete analysis…
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If you’ve been busting the new UD Exquisite Rookie Signature Baseball, dig out those old wrappers! Upper Deck has a new wrapper redemption program. Send in your opened foil wrappers for a chance to build your own dual 1/1 or quad 1/1!! Upper Deck will choose seven random winners a week for six weeks and the winners will get to choose almost any player from checklist and build their own dual or quad auto.
Sounds pretty sweet!

Here’s the address to send the wrappers:

The Upper Deck Company
Attn: Exquisite MLB Wrapper Redemption
5909 Sea Otter Place
Carlsbad, CA 92010

Here’s more info about the program from Upper Deck, including information about the product.

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Here are some pictures of the UD Dual Mystery Cuts from Beckett:

Lucille Balle/Desi Arnaz

Robert Kennedy/Jimmy Hoffa

Babe Ruth/Roger Maris

Sweet Cards! And Upper Deck’s new logo in action. The Lucille Ball/Desi Arnaz actually looks best in terms of eye appeal, although I probably wouldn’t choose that card if I had the chance.

So far three cards have been redeemed: Babe Ruth/Roger Maris, John F. Kennedy/Jacqueline Onassis, and John F. Kennedy/Marilyn Monroe. I would have taken the Kennedy/Monroe if I had first choice.