Upper Deck MVP was unveiled in 1999, replacing Collector’s Choice as Upper Deck’s value-priced baseball product. The 1999 and 2000 sets saw some of the same parallels found in Collector’s Choice products, like Silver Script and Gold Script, which featured a player’s facsimile signature in silver or gold foil. For some reason, those did not appear in the 2001 Upper Deck MVP Baseball release.

2001 Upper Deck MVP Baseball featured a 330-card base checklist. There were no parallels, which was a big change for the product. There were also just two insert sets, Super Tools and Drawing Power. After those two inserts, there are tough to find memorabilia and autograph cards, including a bunch of cards featuring Ken Griffey Jr. These are still highly sought after today, with Griffey autographs from this product fetching more than $200.

Though this was the year of the Ichiro and Albert Pujols rookie cards, only Ichiro appears on the checklist.

2001 Upper Deck MVP Baseball Hobby Box Break 

Cards per pack: 8
Packs per box: 24 
Price paid: $100 

• Buy 2001 Upper Deck MVP Baseball boxes on eBay

Pinstripe Exclusives box topper pack:

Three Mantles!

Pack 1 highlights: 

Mark Kotsay

Kotsay is currently in his fourth season managing the former Oakland (and future Las Vegas) Athletics.

Pack 2: 

Carlos Delgado, Nomar Garciaparra and Johnny Damon

Pack 3: 

Jason Varitek, Matt Williams, Moises Alou and Jim Edmonds Super Tools (1:6 packs)

Pack 4: 

Dean Palmer

Did you know? Palmer had four seasons of 30+ home runs.

Pack 5: 

John Olerud, Todd Helton and Mike Cameron

Pack 6: 

A couple of Angels: Bengie Molina and Darin Erstad

Pack 7: 

Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Ken Griffey Jr. and Randy Johnson Super Tools (1:6 packs)

Just one B short of Houston’s Killer Bs.

Pack 8: 

Roberto Alomar and Barry Bonds

Pack 9: 

Mark McGwire, Jim Edmonds and Mike Lowell

Pack 10: 

Andres Galarraga, Magglio Ordonez, Kerry Wood, Gary Sheffield and Vladimir Guerrero Drawing Power (1:12 packs)

How good was Guerrero’s .931 career OPS? That would rank sixth in the majors this season, and he kept that up for 16 MLB seasons.

Pack 11: 

Greg Maddux and Ken Caminiti

Pack 12: 

Omar Vizquel, Greg Vaughn and Jim Thome 

Pack 13: 

Mike Piazza, Rafael Palmiro and Randy Johnson

Randy Johnson was on hand to see Ichiro’s number get retired in Seattle this weekend. Both players wore #51.

Pack 14: 

J.D. Drew, Derek Jeter checklist and Jeter’s base card

Pack 15: 

Carlos Beltran, Trevor Hoffman and Ellis Burks

Pack 16: 

Bobby Abreu and Alex Rodriguez Drawing Power (1:12 packs)

Abreu’s .395 career OBP ranks him just behind Hall of Famer Hack Wilson’s .3951.

Pack 17: 

Luis Castillo and Tim Salmon

Pack 18: 

Chipper Jones and Paul O’Neill

Pack 19: 

Jorge Posada, Lance Berkman and Mark McGwire CL

Pack 20: 

Ichiro Suzuki RC, Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez

Ichiro has had quite an eventful couple weeks. Number retired in Seattle, and of course his Hall of Fame induction at the end of July.

Pack 21: 

Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez and Jermaine Dye Super Tools (1:6 packs)

Pack 22: 

Alex Rodriguez CL and Barry Larkin

Pack 23: 

Frank Thomas, Brian Jordan and Andy Pettitte

Pack 24: 

Mariano Rivera and Barry Bonds Super Tools (1:6 packs)

Unfortunately, it seems that Mariano tore his Achilles tendon while playing in the Yankees’ Old Timers’ game this past weekend.

Lastly, the Mariano Rivera card back. He would go on to save almost 500 more games after this point in his career.

Unfortunately, none of the memorabilia or autograph chase cards were in this box. The most common relic cards fall about once in every four boxes.

But, we did pull an Ichiro rookie card! It is always more fun to pull one yourself than to buy it, at least in my book.

Want more installments of Shane Salmonson’s Cheap Wax Wednesday? Check out his other breaks in the archives.