2011 Bowman jumbo pack recap #1 of 5

I was trolling for any 2011 Bowman at Target / Walmart / Toys R' Us during the past week and found bupkis so far - I just hope retail isn't going to dry up before the stuff even hits the shelves like 2010 bowman seemingly did.

I don't know if I'd consider myself fortunate after my breaks, but I was able to secure my cardboard crack fix at an unspecified retail shop - I was like a zombie, with everything happening so fast, I paid my money and was in and out in a span of five minutes.

I had about five jumbo packs [32 cards per pack] of 2011 Bowman in-hand and ripped as fast as I could before heading to work on Wednesday afternoon - unfortunately, it is feast or famine if you are only looking for that one guy everyone is going apesheet about.

Yes, I'm looking for the same dude but unfortunately - I will say I didn't pull a single base, a Bowman Chrome or any insert of Bryce Harper.

Pack one - I ripped from the back and Bowman's Best insert was staring towards me in each of the five packs.

#BP 28 Eduardo Escobar
#BP 101 Rymer Liriano
#BP 28 Oswaldo Arcia
#BP 91 Blake Smith
#BP 22 Joel Carreno
#BP 85 Mason Williams
#BP 77 Matt Klinker
#BP 14 Anthony Vasquez
#168 Cliff Lee
#130 Clay Buchholz
#202 Ben Revere
#161 Alfonso Soriano
#174 Kurt Suzuki
#181 Corey Hart
#160 Wandy Rodriguez
#117 Josh Johnson
#46 Jon Lester
#110 Ryan Ludwick
#35 Joe Mauer
#100 Stephen Drew
#27 Chris Johnson
#11 Josh Hamilton

#7 Carlos Santana - orange parallel serial #216/250
#BCP 87 Jarred Cosart
#BCP 16 Kody Hinze
#BCP 24 Tom Koehler
#BCP 96 Adonis Cardona
#BCP 33 Joseph Wieland
#BCP 98 Tony Wolters - refractor serial #'d 211/799
#104 Rickie Weeks - gold parallel
#TP 22 Michael Pineda - Topps 100 insert

#BBP 7 Mike Moustakas - Bowman's Best insert; I couldn't say what the difference is between these inserts and the original 1994 Bowman's Best cards and it honestly shouldn't matter. These cards are pretty nice.

2010 Upper Deck retail pack break #1

2010 Upper Deck retail [$1.50 each / $4 for three packs from a booth at a card show] - I wasn't looking for any particular hits [like I've read and heard, flagship products are all about 'set building' and this product is UD's flagship baseball brand, not Ultimate Collection].

I was hoping to get a smattering of base cards - particularly some of the 40 Star Rookies featured, even though they are part of the set and I assume are not anymore special, other than they feature rookies who made their debut in 2009 and feature UD's own version of the Rookie Card logo.

The fact these cards are not licensed by Major League Baseball is something to think about - but I'm not a baseball card traditionalist/snob and was more intrigued, than put off by the idea these cards are only licensed by MLBPA.

Like previous UD flagship releases, the images on the cards are generally sharp - the images are not as distorted as other collectors would like to assume.

Perhaps choosing suitable images [i.e. team names/logos on jerseys either obscured or not visible at all] to use on cards made the people at Upper Deck take a closer look - rather than just plopping any old photo on a card.

Pack one  
93 J.D. Drew - Dustin Pedroia cameo

407 Chase Headley
5 Brian Matusz Star Rookie - pronounced 'Mattis,' probably the best lefty pitching prospect in all of baseball.

269 Ervin Santana
315 Glen Perkins
363 Daric Barton
501 C.J. Wilson

242 Willie Bloomquist

SB-191 Sonia Sotomayor / Sept. 26
400 Zach Duke
131 Josh Fields
443 Ian Snell
449 Taylor Teagarden
96 Clay Buchholz
415 Luis Perdomo
577 Reds team checklist - featuring Brandon Phillips and Joey Votto
478 Evan Longoria
555 Ballparks - not identified by name, it is the one in Los Angeles, where Kirk Gibson hit his iconic home run in the 1988 World Series.