Preview – 2009 Upper Deck SP Threads Football

Introduction

Since first appearing in 2007, SP (Rookie) Threads has been a product that offered sharp looking cards with little actual value.  This product helped pave the way for the overproduction of letterman and unnumbered memorabilia cards.  The cards have always looked great, but I’m just not sure they were worth the $300 MSRP.

With the release of the 2009 edition Upper Deck has changed the configuration in a favorable way.  With a much lower box price and an increase in pack count it seems that Upper Deck may have actually manage to increase the overall value of a brand instead of decreasing it for a change of pace.

Overview

Release Date:  10/20/2009
Pack Price:  $6
Box Price:  $80 – $85
Configuration:  5 Cards, 16 Packs, 14 Boxes

In an effort to bring high end hits to the average collector Upper Deck has moved the box price from $300 in 2008 to $120 or so now (boxes can be found much cheaper than that at the various online stores).  The hit count per box had dropped from a total of eight to just five and the number of packs has gone from 6 to 16.

More than just the price and hit count has changed this year.  The base set has doubled in size from just 100 to 200 cards.  Upper Deck has also added a die-cut insert (and auto parallel) to the product.  Overall the hits haven’t changed that much from previous years:

Autographs

• Rookie Auto Lettermen – This comes in a few varieties:  Last Name, College Parallel, College NIckname Parallel, and Last Name Parallel.  All have varied numbering.  There should be one of these in each box.
• SP Rookie Threads Auto Patch – Numbered to 50.
• Multi Marks Duals – Varied Numbering
• Multi Marks Tripled – Varied Numbering
• Multi Marks Quads – Yep… Varied Numbering
• SP Superstar Die-Cuts Auto – This insert is new to the product this year and also has varied numbering.
• Stitch in Time – See picture below.

Memorabilia

• SP Rookie Threads – Numbered to 299.
• SP Rookie Threads Dual Swatch Parallel – Numbered to 199.
• SP Rookie Threads Triple Swatch Parallel – Numbered to 99.
• SP Rookie Threads Patch Parallel – Numbered to 50.
• SP Threads – Numbered to 99.
• SP Threads Parallel – Numbered to 50.
• SP Threads Patch Parallel – Numbered to 25.
• SP Dual Threads – Varied Numbering.
• SP Tri Threads – Varied Numbering
• SP Foursome Fabrics – Varied Numbering

Inserts

• SP Superstar Die-Cuts – New to the product this year.  I’m not much of a fan of die-cuts but it’s nice to see variety and inserts other than autographs and memorabilia cards.

Each box will have:

• 2 Autographs in Total (Includes one Rookie Auto Letterman Card)
• 3 Memorabilia Cards (All are now foil numbered)

Each case will have:

• 1 Multi-signed Card
• 1 Auto-Memorabilia Card Per Case

Some Pictures:

My Thoughts

I’ve always been a fan of the look of these cards.  I just didn’t like the high price tag on each box and I didn’t like that the memorabilia cards weren’t numbered.  While having a little foil number on a card may not actually make a card more valuable it does have a way of making it seem more valuable.

Upper Deck advertises having up to 100 different rookies in the product as a good thing.  I tend to view this as nothing more than marketing spin on the fact that this product has a whole lot of autographs we don’t want.  If you figure that only a handful of those 100 rookies are players that are actually going to make an impact in the NFL and that those players are most likely short printed, it doesn’t take much to see that you’re most likely not going to pull a letterman you actually want.

Conclusion

It looks like Upper Deck has made a strong move here to compete with Panini.  With boxes of 2009 SP Threads currently running between $75 and $85 dollars, this seems like a pretty solid buy.  While I’m pretty sure you’re still only going to have a long shot at a top tier autograph at best, this should be a fun product to rip.  You’ve got a shot at pulling a great auto of some of NFLs greatest legends and top rookies.  Worst case, you end up with at least one letterman card.