It is the set that never ends.... 2008 UD Timelines

Four of five months ago at trade night for one of my local shops, they had some "Trade Night Specials."

I purchased a couple of boxes... one of which is this one. 2008 Upper Deck Timelines. They call it Timelines because it will take a person eons to complete it.

 

Let's see what $25 gets me. I've already busted a box of this...okay, maybe two, in a futile effort at completing the set.

 2 autos per box..... but only 18 packs per box. And according to the wrapper, 8 cards per pack, 6 of which are short prints.

 What??? 144 cards in a box and 108 of them are short prints??? My head hurts. Let's just look at the pictures from Pack One...

Ichiro Suzuki

 Tim Lincecum pre-hair

 Greg Smith (I have no idea who plays for the A's anymore.... not since Lansford, Weiss, Henderson, Henderson, etc...

 David Murphy... I pulled the auto version of this in one of my other boxes

 Joey Votto reminding me to clean my scanner AGAIN....

 Matt Holliday

 Jay Bruce - Reds Hot Pack!

 and finally Troy Tulowitzki

No idea which 6 of those are SP's... but even though I still need a 160 cards of a 385 card set, I only got two new cards. Something tells me no one will ever finish this set... least of all me.

Friends dusting the cobwebs off of some old wantlists....

This is the continuing story of the infamous dayf and Troll trade/gift packages....

You ever think you'd see the day when a Juan Uribe card led off a show off post??? Me either. But here we are.

 Back in 2007 when I got back into cards, one of the first sets that caught my eye was this set that emulated the 1954 Topps set. Turns out it was called Topps Heritage and was from 2003. I decided to collect it. Not only collect it, but to do what I used to do, which was get the master set. All of the variations and short prints. Four years later I'm still trying to finish that set. Dayf managed to find five cards off of my wantlist, including two SP's. One of which is old Juan Uribe up there.

 As you can see... these aren't high profile players.... but damn hard to find regardless.

 I've never found anyone else who is collecting this set, so if you know someone, let them know about me. I've got lotsa doubles to swap.

 I also did my first trade on The Bench with this set. And my last trade. The trade I did involved $13.10 worth of cards. It took me forever to find a card he wanted to make up that last .10 cents I owed him. This was my re-introduction to beckett.

 Dayf also found a card I needed for the 1976 Topps set that I am very close to finishing. Only 24 more cards to go.

 Next up is a set that no human has managed to complete. The 2008 UD Timelines set. This is the set that never ends. Please sing the song softly to yourself.
A loooong time ago I gave up on the set and sent dayf as many cards as I could off of his wantlist, even from my set regardless if I had duplicates or not. I could be wrong, but I think dayf just sent back the same cards I sent him. Maybe he gave up too. It never ends.

 LOOK! A Yankee!! Without a moustache or tutu drawn on him.

 Here's Mr I run to first base when and if I feel like it.

 and a bum who held on waaaay too long...

 Some die-cut rookies

 Mr Cub. Not.

 Holy Crap! Another Yankee!

 I really, really like this set. But it can never be completed.

 Why yes Mr Towles, it is time to clean my scanner bed, thank you for noticing.

 And why not some 2009 OPC, another of my favourite sets.
Who could resist that face??????

 OPC is another set I'm doing the master set of. And I'm damn close to finishing.

 Awhile back I needed 2 cards to finish the base set. Griffey and Victorino. Four bloggers later, I now have two of each.

 Troll not only sent the Flyin' Hawaiian up there, but also two Braves for my binder.

 well, a Brave and a former Brave. He was a Brave when it was sent.

Thanks a lot guys.... a lot more to come. Next up will be either 2011 stuff or Vintage. Any preferences???

I got bored...

so I decided to bust open the box of 2008 Timelines I had sitting on my shelf. I knew nothing of this set before opening it. The box promised two autos. Cool. Most of you are familiar with the product I'm sure, so let's go through the subsets and maybe you can help out with questions I have...

303 Evan Longoria. Kinda cool looking subset. I thought they had one for each team, but it looks like more of a highlight set.
339 Joey Votto

It's looking like a retrospective of Upper Deck sets from the past. Alright. But I'm not to fond of this set though.

333 Clayton Kershaw

I've never liked this set. Never. Nothing good to say about it.

192 Jay Bruce Silver Prospects. Die cut... but why?

379 Clayton Kershaw Gold Prospects and shiny. Again, die cut. Meh.

103 Chad Billingsly

Now this is more like it. I like the dimensional effect of the picture over the white background.

133 Greg Maddux

I'm not thrilled with the balck and white, but it's Mad Dog... what ya gonna do?

176 Clay Buchholz

another black and white, but with a gold emblem stuck on it. Another parallel?

These are the best cards in the set IMO.

7 Smoltzie (the only Brave in the damn box)

20 Pujolies

34 Nick Markakialphabetgreekuzofettakis

I love the colours on these cards. Team oriented, cool design, and the backs have a different picture on them. If you're going to put a picture on the back, it better be different than the one on the front. Am I right?

I got a few of these too... a gold parallel again???

I also pulled my very first YSLBSwasteofspace cards. My first ones. Ever. Hopefully my last ones. Ever.

Now, onto the two autos.

Cha Seung Baek Gold auto

and David Murphy

a lot of wasted space on that card.

Overall I give the box an A. I love the cards, and the checklist looks good. The only player out of all the prospects and rookies I pulled that I did not know right away, was my auto of Cha Seung Baek. Figures.

I thought about trading with others to try and complete this sucker, but I did not receive any duplicates out of the box. I think that's the firstUpper Deck product I've ever seen that had no duplicates.

My big pet peeve? Other than the obvious SP's.... people like me bust boxes for the fun of it. I could buy this set on the bay for probably $8.... but I bust wax because of the fun, the chase. Putting together the set. So when you advertise two autos per box, don't give them to me in the very two first packs of the box. Mix things up a little...