What to Buy Part 2: UD Elements

Next up for consideration is Upper Deck's Elements:

These boxes are going for about US$75 at the moment, and you get 15 packs of 3 cards. So looking at about $1.70 per card. They are bloody great looking cards, I already have a couple of singles I picked up off ebay.

According to the release notes, each box contains 3 mini-boxes of 5 packs. Each box will contain 1 autographed game used, 1 autograph and 1 memorabilia card. They have some crazy different card technologies. Each mini-box features a different technology.

The first is 'foil board', which contains 42 cards on foil board, 42 rookies, 'Essential Elements' Memorabilia cards (1 per mini-box), dual, triple and quad elements cards falling 1 per case on average. There are also Elemental Autographs featuring 2, 3 or 4 signatures. And of course there is the 'snowball's chance in hell card' the 1/1 printing plates.

The auto cards look pretty sweet, and if lucky enough to hit one of the multi signed ones, you'd be cheering. There some awesome looking cards, with top players signed on them. There are 'multis' with Hanley Ramirez, Tulowitzki and others, Jeter, Ramirez and Tejada, and Cal Ripken and Jeter. Representing the Padres are Kouzmanoff and Peavy.

Mini-Box 2 is called 'Lt Fx Technology' and features 42 base cards, 42 rookies, and elemental autos falling one per mini-box. Despite wasting about half an hour on google, I have been unable to find out exactly what the heck 'Lt Fx Technology' is. Anyways, I shall move on.

Mini-Box 3 is PETG technology (google tells me this is something to do with polyethylene-terephthalate). It is pleasing to know that if the cards are shit, they will make excellent use in many shop fitting and display applications, including industrial guarding and machine covers! Awesome! Topps is still using chrome, but UD are leading the way in cutting-edge, useless card material. I want to see someone come out with some titanium cards, or maybe even kryptonite! But I digress. The mini-box 3 contains 42 base cards on PETG, 42 rookies as well, some 'clear-cut elements' and parallels, PETG auto/memorabilia cards numbered to 350 or less and rare 'elements patches' foil numbered patch cards falling 2 per case on average.

This all sounds pretty good to me. By this time i am really liking the look and the sound of them. The whole 3 mini-box thing is a bit of a gimmick I think, but it sounds kinda cool. I havent been able to find too many reviews though, so I dont know what the deal with that is. There are a few mixed reviews on the Beckett forums, but the negative reviews seem to be mostly from Topps lovers, or UD haters - however you want to class them. I am not a Topps lover, and am open minded about UD. While I didnt really love the UD Series 1 cards this year, UD Goudey was pretty awesome.

I like the look of these cards a lot more than the co-signers. The checklist seems a bit more favourable to my tastes too. Hmmm, food for thought.