Pull Yourself Together, UD!

My initial intention was to let the first UD Series 2 box break set in for you while I worked on the UD Team USA box break analysis. Upper Deck decided to foil my plans with the most outrageous box break I've ever had... and not for the better.

I picked up my second box of Series 2 wax today and after opening the first pack, I knew I was doomed. The majority of the cards in said first pack were damaged and I only pulled FOUR cards that weren't duplicated in the pack.

WTF?!?!?

When all was said and done, I had the usual three hits (Team USA Patch, Team USA Auto, Team USA Autogamer) along with the gold parallel, four Yankee Stadium Legacy cards, two presidential predictors and [eight] Team USA inserts.

But these are the startling statistics from box number two:

62 Damaged (and boy, do I mean damaged) cards



(Hard to tell on the scan, but look at the top corners)

Along with that I had pulled 114 duplicates. No, not 57 cards that had duplicates... 114 cards that had duplicates of their own. Yeah... that's right.

Again, WTF?!?!?

Upon further review, I found that the majority of the damaged cards were in the 400's with some in the 600's. All cards numbered in the 500's and 700's (along with their duplicates) were in pristine condition. Duplicates were found throughout the box with no prejudice to their number.

I cannot express my frustration in words, but I'm sure all of you know how I feel. The letter to Upper Deck is being drafted as we speak.

Moving on to the brighter, undamaged, un-duplicated side of the box I pulled the following hits:



PP-10A 'The War in Iraq' (Clinton vs. McCain)
PP-14 'Healthcare' (Obama vs. McCain)



435 Jacoby Ellsbury Gold Parallel



USAJR-5 Jeff Malm
USAJR-10 Matthew Purke



USA-5 Danny Espinosa
USA-12 Justin Smoak
USA-17 Pedro Alvarez
USA-20 Ryan Flaherty



USAH-1 USA Rallies for Win
USAH-2 Danks Saves the Day



YSL-2255 Johnny Mize
YSL-2280 Phil Rizzuto
YSL-2953 Yogi Berra
YSL-2978 Tony Kubek



USAJR-JS Jordan Swagerty Auto (Black Ink)
USA-TR Tyson Ross Autogamer (Black Ink)
USA-JS Justin Smoak Game Used

Unfortunately the solid hits were overshadowed by the inexcusable and unacceptable quality of the cards and horrid collation. Obviously there was an issue with the collating process... some damaged equipment or something... I don't even know. I'm just disappointed that this has to happen.

Any advice from those who have been burned like this before? Letters will be written and I will expect compensation, however my plan of action could use some suggestions from the pros.

Be sure to check out my personal site, Tulo Trader, and keep an eye on its future sister-blog Ironman Cards as plenty of content is heading that way. Thanks for checking in and good luck to the rest of you.

That's all I got...

- J.C.F.