Pack Rip - 2009 O-Pee-Chee Rack Pack

Here's a quick pack rip of a 2009 O-Pee-Chee baseball rack pack. This is a prime example of why my collection always seems to be in disarray and I never seem to complete many sets despite being a "set collector". I have no intention at all of completing this set, and I've seen plenty of scans on other blogs, so there was no mystery as to what the cards looked like, however I inexplicably found myself unable to walk away from the card aisle in Target without one of these in my basket. I figured at $4.99 for 24 cards it was a good way to at least accumulate a few for trading purposes and maybe even get a Red Sox card or two to keep. Besides, with the impending lawsuit from Topps maybe these won't be readily available in a few months time...

There are no odds on the wrapper but thankfully it ended up being 24 legit O-Pee-Chee cards with no "Target Exclusive" space fillers or anything like that. Looks like you get 23 base cards and 1 black parallel card per rack pack. If you were going for a base set and didn't care for the black parallels, these rack packs would be the way to go. You'd have to buy 5 retail or hobby packs to end up with 23 base cards, which would cost you $2 - $3 more than this rack pack. Let's see what I got...

#105 - Francisco Liriano - Minnesota Twins - Again, I am not covering new ground here by any means, but I am not a fan of these studio shots at all. Almost half of the cards in this pack are boring studio shots. I think I stood in front of this same backdrop for my 8th grade class photo. This is probably the single biggest reason I've decided not to pursue this set...

#123 - Brian Wilson - San Francisco Giants - I will admit that I have no idea who this guy is, but I've included this card to illustrate how a posed shot can be done correctly. Even though it's not an action shot, this is still a cool looking card. Brian's showing off his split finger fastball (I think). Behind him we have actual grass and dirt and sky, much better than the Liriano card.

#357 - Russ Springer - Oakland Athletics - I don't like the close up head shots in this set either, in fact this Russ Springer card might very well be the single ugliest card I've pulled out of a pack so far this year. This card alone was enough to discourage me from chasing this set.

#387 - Freddy Sanchez - Pittsburgh Pirates - I know dayf at Cardboard Junkie and possibly a couple of others have shown this card or one similar depicting a player in front of what appears to be the entrance to a meat locker or something of the sort. I don't get it...

#475 - Hanley Ramirez - Florida Marlins - This was one of only two or three cards that I actually liked, and brings to light another complaint I have...a lack of horizontal cards. In fact, in my 24 card pack this was the one and only horizontal card I pulled. The photography here is pretty bland as well.

#569 - Ricky Romero - Toronto Blue Jays - This was the lone "short print" that I received, and once again it's a boring studio shot. Ricky actually had an excellent game in his last start Friday night, taking a no-hitter into the 7th inning.

#550 - Jonathan Papelbon - Boston Red Sox (Black Parallel) - This is the one card that saved this pack from absolute disaster, and the only one I plan on keeping. I like the look of the black parallels a bit better, and the photograph on this card is actually half-way decent for a change. Jonathan's celebrating his 7th straight save with his signature fist pump as the Red Sox look on from the dugout in the background.
All in all this was a very dull pack. I'm not that impressed with the set, but it was worth the $4.99 to satisfy my curiosity and prevent me from blowing $45 on a hobby box of the stuff. I like the card stock but the studio shots are hideous and the "retro" parallels just being a black variation versus a true tribute to the 1971 Topps/O-Pee-Chee set is a total let down. Had Upper Deck gone with a true retro parallel set like they did for their hockey release, I would be buying this up as quickly as I could find it. For now I'll stay away...