Collect call: 2009-2010 SP Game Used Edition Basketball

Posted Sep 16, 2009 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Sep 16, 2009 at 06:57 PM

Upper Deck’s SP Game Used basketball set will take a bite out of your wallet, but there are plenty of nice sizzle cards to soften the blow.

There are 100 cards in the base set, but be honest — folks buying these packs (at approximately $50 a pop, or about $300 per box) are looking for the big hits. There are six packs to a box and five cards to a pack. A recent box I sampled had 18 relic or autograph cards, one numbered card and plus five Jordan Legacy cards. Oh yeah, and six base cards, too.

Some of the cards that can be pulled from this set are staggering, particularly the Four on Four Fabric cards. This is a card with four swatches of one team on one side of the card, and four of a different team on the back.

The box I sampled featured Cleveland and Detroit, a card numbered to 65: for the Cavs, there were swatches for the uniforms of Daniel Gibson, LeBron James, Wally Szczerbiak and Zydrunas Ilgauskas; the Pistons were represented by Rodney Stuckey, Richard Hamilton, Arron Afflalo and Kwame Brown.

The card is protected by a penny sleeve and has an accompanying card of authenticity.

On the average, each hobby box should contain one eight-swatch card and a six-card swatch (three on each side). However, this particular box yielded a bonus with two eight-swatch cards.

The second one featured the Nuggets (Chauncey Billups, Carmelo Anthony, Linas Kleiza and Renaldo Balkman) and the Timberwolves (Sebastian Telfair, Mike Miller, Craig Smith and Jason Collins) also numbered to 65.

In terms of star power, the nicest card I saw in the hobby box was a 3 Star Swatches card of James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett. The swatches were colorful too, with the Lakers’ purple the nicest piece of the card.

Upper Deck promises (on average) two multi-swatch memorabilia cards and an autograph card in every pack, and the box I opened hit that average nicely.

The autographs featured rookies, veterans, and even a former star like the 76ers’ Maurice Cheeks.

It’s an expensive set, sure. But the rewards definitely outweigh the costs, and in some packs, exceed it by a lot.