Early season retail baseball card products have been fairly common over the past few years, and First Edition is Upper Deck's entrant in that category for 2007. The set shares an almost identical design to 2007 Upper Deck Series 1 Baseball, but First Edition has a smaller base set (300 cards instead of 500) and no memorabilia or autographed inserts. In return, it does have some exclusive regular insert cards.
Boxes of 2007 Upper Deck First Edition Baseball have 36 packs of 10 cards each. The packaging tells collectors to look for the first RC's of the season and to expect one insert card in each pack.
Base Cards
A total of 300 MLB players are the subjects of First Edition's base set, which is about as no-frills as it gets - no subsets of any kind. The card design has gold stripes flanking a large action picture, with smaller stripes (so small they are difficult to read) containing the player's team (on the left) and position (on the right).
Player names are printed in large font near the bottom of the card. Card backs include a head shot, a small write-up and player stats.
One box of First Edition Baseball may be enough to complete the set, as my review box gave me all 300 base cards plus 24 duplicates. The checklist features 50 cards that sport the MLB Rookie Card logo.
Insert Cards
Five different insert sets add a little bit extra to every pack of First Edition Baseball. First Pitch Aces and Leading Off are the most self-explanatory, depicting top starting pitchers and leadoff hitters respectively.
First Pitch Foundations puts young stars in the spotlight, while Momentum Swing focuses on clutch hitters. The most unique insert might be Pennant Chasers, which have teams' 2007 home schedules on the backs.
As expected, the sample box supplied to About.com yielded 36 insert cards, exactly one per pack.
The Last Word
This is a pretty short review because First Edition Baseball doesn't have that many different elements. Upper Deck's photography is excellent, as usual, the design grew on me and the inserts are colorful.
But that's all there is to it, which is pretty sparse even for a retail product. If Upper Deck Series 1 was coming out a few months later, it would make more sense. As it is, Upper Deck's base brand seems like it will have more to offer both set builders and memorabilia/insert collectors - at a price point that won't be too much higher - so this product seems like it may be lacking a niche.
Collectors who need an inexpensive baseball card fix may find 2007 Upper Deck First Edition Baseball satisfies it, but others may want to spend a little more to get something more suited for them.