Upper Deck dips into American history again this year with its 2012 Goodwin Champions set. The company has released information about the product, which will include a couple of unique elements. Upper Deck has commissioned artists to create the original 50 cards from the original 1888 Goodwin Champions set with each card being limited to just ten copies. The company has also bought up some original Civil War relics including uniform buttons, original soldier photos and Confederate money.
That 1888 Goodwin’s set is still considered one of the most eye-pleasing sets from the pre-War era and contains two of the greatest baseball cards ever produced in Cap Anson and Mike “King” Kelly. Also included is the first football card ever produced (Harry Beecher of Yale) and big name boxers of the day including John L. Sullivan. The paintings will give moder
n era collectors a taste of the originals but they’ll have to do some chasing to find them.
The company has also commissioned 200 paintings to capture the subjects of this year’s set, which will include a checklist of 231 cards including 40 short prints and 20 ‘super short prints’.
The Civil War relics are an interesting, if slightly spooky lot. In addition to the items mentioned above, Upper Deck will box up remnants of an 1864 Union Army battle flag, pieces of guns and even a soldier’s leather wallet.
Bug cards are back along with chips of meteorites and other space-related memorabilia. Michael Jordan autographed cards will be part of the insert mix as well.
2012 Goodwin Champions releases in May with 20 packs per box and five cards per pack. There are three hits per box.
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