My resolve has already been tested and I have already given in to temptation. While doing some fatherly shopping (picking up diapers) at the local Meijer (a Midwest Walmart Clone), I came across this:

Huh? I was immediately attracted to the recognizable “SP” logo and the Upper Deck logo all over the outer plastic wrapper, but something didn’t seem right. I had never seen a box of “SP” before. No “SP Authentic” or “SPx”, just “SP”. I was intrigued, so I threw one in the cart and kept shopping. Since I want all the chances at getting some LeBron James cards, Upper Deck is my only chance. You’ve got to go with what you’ve got.

When I got home, I checked Upper Deck’s site, which was most unhelpful. No mention of a “SP”. The Checklist site was even worse. As far as I could tell, Upper Deck doesn’t claim ownership to this line. Very strange.

Finally, after a little more sleuthing and searching, I came across 2007 Basic SP. This is a SP Authentic parallel, it appears. Having been out of the hobby for a while, I’m still a little fuzzy on what that means, but I’ve now got 8 Basic SP packs to break. I’ll probably jump the queue to post one or two of these soon. They cards don’t look bad, but they’re certainly not on the level of SPx or Authentic. A poor-man’s version, I guess.