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Ambitious. That's the first word that comes to mind when looking at 2006 UD Special F/X baseball, with its 1000-plus card base set and multiple memorabilia and autograph cards per box. All of the cards are printed using Upper Deck's Serillusion technology, which makes the backgrounds of the cards look like they were etched with a laser.
Boxes of UD Special F/X hold 16 packs with four cards each, and the packaging promises two memorabilia cards and three signatures per box on average.
Base Set
Talk about a massive base set. The Special F/X set list checks in at just over 1,000 cards. Why so big? It's because the base set reprints all of the regular cards from Series 1 and 2 of 2006 Upper Deck baseball using the Verillusion process.
And there's the biggest drawback to Special F/X: while the cards look sharp, if you collected the Upper Deck base brand, you've seen all of them before. You'd also have to be pretty dedicated to compile the whole set, as my review box produced 27 commons, or less than three percent of the set.
The base cards all have multiple parallel levels; I found purple numbered to 150, green numbered to 99 and red numbered to 50. All told, they fell almost one per pack.
Insert Cards
Like the base set, the insert sets ape cards from the Upper Deck base brand, with Star Attractions from Series 1 and Player Highlights and Run Producers from Series 2.
The lone new offering is World Baseball Classic Counterparts, which pictures two players from different WBC countries on one card.
Memorabilia Cards
Finally something Special F/X can call its own. Special F/X Materials has a lineup of 49 big leaguers, and while the swatches are nothing special, the cards do pop with the Verillusion technology.
My review box contained the expected two game-used cards: Phillies second baseman Chase Utley and Red Sox outfielder Coco Crisp.
Autographed Cards
Special Endorsements autograph cards fall three per box on average, and I pulled Brian Anderson, Robert Andino and John Koronka. My review box also had a redemption card for a fourth Endorsements card of Ken Griffey Jr.
While the autographs are on stickers, the cards are designed in such a way that you have to inspect them up close to tell. As time goes on the card companies are getting better and better at making the sticker autos look aesthetically pleasing, and Upper Deck does a great job of that here.
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