A Real American Hero, or the 426 Unique Griffeys of 2008 SPx

In my collection: 22 different American Heroes, 24 total, and nothing of anything else including the base card.

Griffey looks: all G.I. Joe and stuff

Are these good Griffey cards? Yes.  It's a huge, expansive set dedicated to the man himself.  Gotta love it.

The set: 2008 SPx by Upper Deck is positively loaded with soul-numbing scarcity.  Numbered and relic cards abound with autographs, triple patches and all that nonsense.  The packs only contained 3 cards each but with an autograph or relic in every one.  It's as though the set was built in reverse with the autograph and relic cards having numerous parallels and the base set having none.

This means the base set ended up being pretty overlooked.  It took me an absurdly long time just to find what Griffey's base card looks like.  Here it is:

This picture is as close as we're gonna get.  Not a bad-looking card, though.  Cool die-cuts, etching, light refraction, nice logo - I would love to find one. 

I must admit there's a sliver of my soul that hurts when I publish a post of a set for which I am missing the base card.  Sadly, nobody seems to care about the base cards here.  I think they were mostly protection for the auto/relic card in each pack.  In fact there's very little information to be found about the set in general - just a massive 29-page checklist issued by Upper Deck and a lot of eBay auctions for the American Hero and relic cards.

Griffey collectors know 2008 SPx for two reasons.  First, the American Heroes set which, I admit, is awesome and not impossible (even a little fun) to complete.  I consider it a healthy though funds-consuming challenge. 

The other reason is that there are 426 unique Griffeys in this whole set including 100 1/1's and 100 1/3's.  It's a monster.  A beast.  Insurmountable.  A spirit-crusher.  2008 SPx was never meant to be completed.

So, for the purposes of this post I am only covering the Ken Griffey, Jr. American Hero insert set.  It's all I have for now.

Speaking of which:

 

 





 

 

 

This set is rich-looking.  The cards are all an old-gold foil backing color pictures and nice blurbs.  The foil fronts don't scan great, I'll admit; but I love how every single card reminds you that he does, indeed, still play outfield.

And that he's an American Hero, fighting terrorism and inspiring American youth, all G.I. Joe and stuff.  God bless him.

The back picture does not change until he goes to the Reds - this is not the only large Griffey-only set that does this.  I know it's for the sake of staying up-to-date on the uniform, but I'm surprised a set on this scale doesn't have a unique picture for the back of each card.  Still, no complaints.

Every card in this set is numbered to 725, meaning there are 72,500 regular cards of this set out there.  I have 24, putting me at 0.0331% of the lot.

In my research I used the official Upper Deck checklist as well as the parallels lists on Baseballcardpedia.com.  It took me a while, but here is a complete list of all 426 unique Griffeys from the 2008 SPx set and their quantities (again, apart from a few regular American Hero cards I have none of these.  Not even the base card):

#23
SSS-KG - Superstar Signatures
SSS-KG - Superstar Signatures Parallel
WM-KG - Winning Materials - #/150
WM-KG - Winning Materials - Autograph Parallel - #/20
WM-KG - Winning Materials - Die-Cut Parallel - #/150
WM-KG - Winning Materials - 3 Diamond Parallel - #/125
WM-KG - Winning Materials - Jersey # Parallel - #/125
WM-KG - Winning Materials - MLB Logo Parallel - #/99
WM-KG - Winning Materials - 3 Baseball Parallel - #/99
WM-KG - Winning Materials - MLB Team Letters Parallel - #/99
WM-KG - Winning Materials - Position Parallel - #/20
WM-KG - Winning Materials Rare - Patch Parallel 1 - #/99
WM-KG - Winning Materials Rare - Patch Parallel 2 - #/50
WM2-KG - Winning Materials 2 - #/75
WM2-KG - Winning Materials 2 - Jersey # Parallel - #/35
WM2-KG - Winning Materials 2 - Team Letters Parallel - #/25
WM2-KG - Winning Materials 2 - Position parallel - #/20
WM2-KG - Winning Materials 2 - 3 Baseball Parallel - #/20
WM2-KG - Winning Materials 2 Rare - Patch Parallel 1 - #/50
WM2-KG - Winning Materials 2 Rare - Patch Parallel 2 - #/25
WM3-KG - Winning Materials 3 - Parallel - #/99
WM3-KG - Winning Materials 3 - Team Letters - #/15
WM3-KG - Winning Materials 3 - SPx Parallel - #/10
WM3-KG - Winning Materials 3 Rare - Patch Parallel - #/15
WM3-KG - Winning Materials 3 Rare - Autograph Parallel - #/5
WT-GJP - Winning Trios (w/ Jeter & Pujols) - #/75
WT-GJP - Winning Trios (w/ Jeter & Pujols) - Parallel 1 - #/25
WT-GJP - Winning Trios (w/ Jeter & Pujols) - Parallel 2 - #/15
WT-GJP - Winning Trios Rare (w/ Jeter & Pujols) - Patch Parallel - #/25
KG1 through KG100 - Ken Griffey Jr American Hero - #/725
KG1 through KG100 - Ken Griffey Jr American Hero - Memorabilia Parallel - #/25
KG1 through KG100 - Ken Griffey Jr American Hero - Signature Parallel - #/3
KG1 through KG100 - Ken Griffey Jr American Hero - Boxscore Parallel - #/1

Ouch.

I have KG5, 6, 11, 12, 17, 19, 21, 25, 35, 37, 40, 42 (x2), 47, 49, 53, 62, 63, 64, 74, 78, 83, and 92 (x2).

I still hope to complete the American Hero set someday without spending a fortune, and also land a base card and possibly a 1/1.  An autograph would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath - I'm still hoping to land one of those from Nachos Grande's 2013 Topps Tribute Box break....

Have an excellent week, baseball card people!