2009 O-Pee-Chee Baseball - Target Blaster Break!!!

Today I stumbled into the local target looking to pick up some materials I would need later in the day and decided to take a look at the retail card section. Personally, I'm not a huge fan or purchaser of retail packs/blaster boxes since I enjoy that chance of pulling a good card. When making my decision I knew nothing great could possibly be pulled and decided to go with a product that would give me the most cards for my buck and decided on 2009 Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee instead of football or the other baseball blasters that guarantee a jersey piece ( ex: 2008 Upper Deck, Icons, etc. ). I just wanted to get a product that is fairly new and unknown to me and UD O-Pee-Chee Baseball stood out so I grabbed my blaster and headed for the checkout. Before breaking open the product I had no expectations simply because I know how difficult it is to get a 'hit' out of this stuff even when dealing with hobby. This product is aimed more towards set building and the appreciation of the simple base cards of players you've either grown to love or hate. Now on to the break! the cards I received in my blaster box are listed below.

Blaster Box Configuration: 6 cards per pack / 15 packs per box. ( total of 90 cards approx. $0.22/card )


Now on to the cards I received from my blaster box.


Black Border Cards ( inserted 1 per pack ):
#34 - Takashi Saito
#39 - Zack Greinke
#81 - Joel Peralta
#150 - Dustin Pedroia
#161 - Eric Stults
#163 - Alex Gonzalez
#210 - Alfonso Soriano
#274 - Scott Feldman
#294 - Tom Gorzelanny
#297 - Luis Castillo
#312 - David Purcey
#414 - Dontrelle Willis
#428 - Daniel Murphy
#522 - Cincinnati Reds 2009 Team Checklist ( picture of stadium )
#542 - 2008 National League Strikeout Leaders ( 1. Lincecum 2. Haren 3. Santana )

** Great looking cards, the black borders look sharp and not as much noticeable chipping on the edges as I experienced with '07 Topp's which is usually the downside to having black bordered cards. It would be pretty neat to put together a set of the black bordered parallels but I highly doubt I'll be doing so.


Rookie Cards:
#561 - Travis Snider
#568 - Jason Motte
#575 - Trevor Cahill
#583 - Elvis Andrus
#593 - Koji Uehara
#600 - Joe Martinez

** Elvis Andrus is a highly athletic and talented rookie short-stop. Good enough to move gold glover Michael Young over to third? I guess so, let's see how he performs in this second half.

Moments Cards:
#545 - Hanley Ramirez ( March 8, 2008 )
#552 - Derek Jeter ( July 15, 2008 )
#559 - Evan Longoria ( June 26, 2008 )


Insert Cards:
#HM12 - Kelly Shoppach (2008 Highlights & Milestones )
#FF24 - Jay Bruce ( Face of the Franchise )
#AR8 - Kosuke Fukudome ( All-Rookie Team )
#RM-2 - Alexander Ovechkin ( Hockey )

** Not quite sure what Alex O. is doing in this baseball product but I guess hockey is less random than the microwave card I found in my '09 Piece of History box. Jay Bruce is also a very talented young player along with Votto, Volquez, and Cueto that I enjoy to watch on the Cincinnati Reds.


Base Cards: #14 Jason Giambi, #45 Joey Votto, #48 Jason Bartlett, #56 Huston Street, #58 Jose Valverde, #60 Adam Dunn, #62 Jeff Francoeur, #85 Joba Chamberlain, #95 Denard Span, #100 Albert Pujols, #111 Shin-Soo Choo, #114 Gerald Laird, #120 Mariano Rivera, #131 Adam Wainwright, #134 Dustin McGowan, #168 Todd Wellemeyer, #174 Omar Vizquel, #176 Jarrod Saltalamacchia, #177 Yuniesky Betancourt, #193 Ryan Church, #196 Jeremy Hermida, #198 David Weathers, #211 Jeff Clement, #229 Jon Rauch, #235 Jed Lowrie, #238 Mike Hampton, #247 Johnny Cueto, #256 Brad Lidge, #257 Pedro Feliz, #260 Ian Kinsler, #280 Aramis Ramirez, #281 Jeff Keppinger, #287 Gregg Zaun, #296 Scott Hairston, #298 Gabe Kapler, #306 John Baker, #310 Billy Wagner, #318 Hideki Matsui, #320 Miguel Cabrera, #332 Kyle Kendrick, #360 Francisco Rodriguez, #369 Brendan Harris, #372 Jonathan Broxton, #393 Mike Cameron, #430 Nick Markakis, #433 Adam Lind, #434 Jody Gerut, #436 Duaner Sanchez, #438 Eddie Guardado, #444 Elijah Dukes, #447 Kelly Shoppach, #461 Matt Diaz, #486 Randy Winn, #492 Ian Snell, #503 Chicago White Sox - Team Checklist ( Stadium ), #504 Houston Astros - Team Checklist ( Stadium ), #510 Chicago Cubs - Team Checklist ( Stadium ), #517 New York Mets - Team Checklist ( Player Faces ), #524 Kansas City Royals - Team Checklist ( Stadium ), #538 - 2008 NL ERA Leaders - Johan Santana/Tim Lincecum/Jake Peavy

** I decided to list the base since this is a product that is focused on set building therefore the base cards are more significant within this product compared to others.

Personal Review & Feelings:
Overall, I'm not totally disgusted with the cards but it didn't really provide me with any sort of excitement either. I guess for a product that is targeted for set building you can't expect to much although I enjoyed looking at the different cards and think the design is simple and fitting for this type of product. This will most likely be the last blaster/hobby box of this product for me unless the future prices drop significantly. One thing that amazed me was my inability to pull a single Angel's player, what are the odd's ( I don't know for sure ) but hey come on I was hoping for atleast one! Oh well, these are all available so just let me know if you are interested in anything to complete your set or just want that player specific card to add to your collection. You can send all such e-mails to me at cardboardsingles@hotmail.com. Feel free to let me know what you think about this blaster box ( how do you think I did? good/bad/average? ). Or even your thoughts on this product in general, if your working on completing this set or perhaps your knowledge about the lawsuit from Topps ( or something along those lines... ).