Sunday's Afternoon Blaster - 2008 SP Authentic

Well I went through the local Wally World this morning planning to buy my first 2011 Topps cards.  Surprise, they STILL don't have them out.  I am not really surprised seeing as I am about the only person in my entire city that collects baseball cards, but damn it's been a while now. 

Since I am a lemonade out of lemons type of person, I decided to make a new feature, Sunday's Afternoon Blaster.  I did this a couple of weeks ago with no real intention of making it a regular thing, but I figured why not.  No mail on Sundays and I always have the day off, I will treat myself (and hopefully you) to some cards that may or may not be memorable.

Today's blaster will be 2008 SP Authentic.  7 five card packs and 1 five card rookie exclusives pack.

On with the show.

Pack one

49 Cole Hamels - Phillies

Yankee Stadium Legacy 6418 - Hideki Matsui

64 Mariano Rivera - Yankees

15 Greg Maddux - Padres

27 Chase Utley - Phillies

Pack two
65 Josh Beckett - Red Sox
56 Roy Halladay - Blue Jays

4 Ichiro - Mariners

35 Victor Martinez - Indians
AA12 - Daisuke Matsuzaka - Red Sox Authentic Achievements

Pack three
94 Jason Bay - Pirates
66 Erik Bedard - Mariners
19 Aramis Ramirez - Cubs
24 Prince Fielder - Brewers
91 Jonathan Papelbon - Red Sox

Pack four
58 Ben Sheets - Brewers
36 Grady Sizemore - Indians
81 Nick Markakis - Orioles
50 Carlos Zambrano - Cubs

MM15 - Marquee Matchups Felix Hernandez / Justin Morneau

Pack five
89 Dan Haren - Diamondbacks

Yankee Stadium Legacy 6393 - Alex Rodriguez

63 Johnny Damon - Yankees
31 Brian McCann - Braves
60 Pedro Martinez - Mets

Pack six
78 Dan Uggla - Marlins
46 Carl Crawford - Rays
90 Chien-Ming Wang - Yankees
6 Vladimir Guerrero - Angels
13 B.J. Upton - Rays

Pack seven
61 Nick Swisher - White Sox
95 Matt Holliday - Rockies
30 Mark Teixeira - Braves
18 Derrek Lee - Cubs
MM24 - Marquee Matchups Randy Johnson / Ken Griffey Jr.

Bonus Rookie Exclusive Pack (meh)
RE-BI Brian Bixler - Pirates
RE-BA Brian Barton - Cardinals
RE-BH Brad Harman - Phillies

RE-CW Cory Wade - Dodgers

RE-EB Emmanuel Burriss - Giants

IMPRESSIONS
Design:  C-
Simple design.  The uniform numbers in the lower right were either barely readable (like the Holliday above) or obscured the player photo (like the one footed Hamels above).  Backs were nothing special, they basically looked like most recent Upper Deck backs.

Inserts / Hits: C
I pulled 3 inserts (well 5 counting the useless collectible for BABenny YSL cards).  The marquee matchups are good in theory, but they seem to be so random it doesn't make sense.  They are the best looking of the cards though.  The Authentic Achievements is exactly like base card with gold instead of silver foil.  Nothing too special.

Value: C+
This blaster was 40% off regular price at $11.98.  Not a horrible value, but nothing to great here.  Grade would be higher if I got at least decent Rookie Exclusive or one of the three Rockie rookies.  Nothing was guaranteed so I wasn't surprised to not see a jersey or auto here.

Rox in the Box: 1
Well the one totally redeeming quality of this blaster is the Matt Holliday I got.  It completed my team set.  There are only 2 Rockies in the base set and I had the Troy Tulowitzki from a prior trade.


Will I Collect This Set: D+
Since I have a decent start on the base set from this blaster, I will probably very passively collect them.  That being said if you are interested in any of these cards other than the Holliday, they are available.

Overall: C
Nothing horrible, but really just an overall meh product.  At regular price this blaster would get an F-, but at 40% off I am not upset.  I will probably not buy this set again.