Goodwin Scramble!

Well, this evening (late this evening) I finally had a chance to bust a couple of packs of Goodwin Champions. I have been pretty excited to get going on these cards, and to enjoy some of the beautiful artwork that went into the set. I am a little late getting started, so I have had the chance to hear many a scathing review of the set. I have heard that it is just a cheap knockoff of Allen and Ginter, but (GASP) I didn't really care for Allen and Ginter that much anyways other than the base set. All my other Ginter cards have moved on to other homes.

So that brings us to Goodwin Champions. Because there is so much time before any new product hits the shelves again, I am going to take my time with these couple of boxes and do some nice scans for you. Right off the bat I came up with a wacky idea of dumping out the two boxes into a pile, scrambling them up, and then re-inserting them into their boxes? Why? I just felt like adding an extra element of surprises into the pack rips. I know that I am due two autos and four relics, but instead of knowing when they are coming each box, I am going to install a bit of extra randomness into my day. I know they are coming, but who knows when? Bwa a a a aahhhhhh! Here is the mad scramble. JD was pretty amused at the display.

AND resorted and ready to rip! Lets open up a couple and see how we did.

Right away I can see how transparent the packs are. I mention this because of the dude that is selling a guaranteed Red Refractor hot pack on ebay. I can clearly see the first card is a Brave. Who could it be?

"Wow" were my exact words as I pull out my first card, A Larry Chipper Jones. The artwork is truly something in this set, and my "wow" just goes to show that Upper Deck has already found a way to surprise.

Pronk is next up. He batted a Mendoza-like .198 in 2008 after a massive couple of years for the Indians.

I can only chuckle as I pull a Johnny Damon mini card. Of course, it just had to be. Damon will continue to haunt me forever.

My first pretty cloud card is an Eli Manning card from his days at Ol Miss.

And the final card of Pack #1 is a stupid memorabilia card that have no business in this set, BUT it is a Wade Boggs so I am a bit more lenient. Still hate these things though, but I already have a nice home picked out for them (except this one, of course).

Pack #2


ICHIRO! Cool man, I have seen some images of this card online and it is pretty sweet. I have seen the night variation which is even cooler. I gotta believe that somewhere in this box is a night variation of SOMEBODY, so I look forward to that.
I am ashamed that I really didn't know who this guy was until I looked him up and figured out why I don't know him. It appears that he is a middle reliever. Middle relievers always seem to get lost in the shuffle due to lack of visible stat lines. I like the fade design on this card quite a bit.

Johan Santana cloudy mini! I have had some crazy Santana-pulling mojo lately for sure.

And of course the useless retrospective card of the Prince and Camilla.

One more card in this pack though....

HIT! Sweet, a Jed Lowrie Auto! Is it going to fetch me millions of eBay? No, but that is just fine because he is staying right in my collection. He is from Oregon, he is an up and comer in the league and he has a very nice autograph to boot. Did you know that this is my first Red Sox auto pull?

I did notice one thing about these cards tonight. When I slipped Lowrie into his toploader, I notice that it drop right and and can slide right out. So this card stock IS a bit skinnier than other sets. No biggie though. Won't ruin my experience.

More rips tomorrow!