Just out of curiosity, and also partly due to the fact that I haven't
bought a whole lot of Upper Deck this year, I decided to pick up two
boxes of this year's SPX product. Each box contains a total of five
hits, one of which is a "Rookie Materials" card, and one of which is an
auto/relic from one of this year's rookies. It's a little odd to me,
maybe since I'm not much of a prospector, but it seems as though I'd
advertise the potential of relics from players who already stars,
instead of those who may not ever amount to anything in the NHL.
Anyway, here's a look at what I pulled.
Base:
I like the look of the base cards. It straddles the line between the
look of a regular issue card and the look of an insert set, which I like
for a product like this. Foil is used for the team logo and brand logo,
as well as the player name, but I don't think they went overboard. The
fact that most of it is concentrated on the square that contains the
team logo works really well.
Each
box also contains a five-card box topper of Upper Deck Ice cards. Four
of those are base cards, and one is a serial numbered rookie. I was
satisfied with my first pack, but underwhelmed with the second pack, and
I'm sure you'll see why.
The
only difference were the rookie cards of John Moore and Andy Meile.
Great looking cards, but the fact that I bought both of these boxes from
the same LCS within a week of each other means HORRIBLE collation by
Upper Deck.
Anyway. Enough with the base cards and the throw-ins. Here are the goods:
From box #1:
Legends of Hockey: Bobby Clarke 491/499
Rookie: Brendon Nash 5/499
The Hits:
Winning Combos: Ryan Getzlaf & Bobby Ryan
Winning Materials: Mike Richards
Throwback Fabrics: Kari Lehtonen
Autographed Rookie: Matt Frattin 542/799
Rookie Materials: Craig Smith
The Winning Combos card has already been promised to the Blogosphere's biggest Ryan Getzlaf fan, Greg Zakwin,
but the rest are for trade. The Lehtonen is a two-per-case hit, I
think, and although I'm sure no one has hear of Frattin, it's always
nice for me to pull a hit from a UND kid.
From box #2:
Legends of Hockey: Ted Lindsay 23/25, Patrick Roy 496/499
Rookie: Robert Bortuzzo 495/499
Not only do I pull a /25 card of a hockey hall of famer, btu I get a serial numbered rookie card from my favorite team!
The Hits:
Winning Materials: Henrik Lundqvist
Autographed Rookie: Tim Erixon 81/799
Winning Combos: Nikolai Kulemin & Clarke MacArthur
Rookie Materials: Erik Gudbranson
The only good one here for me is Lundqvist, but that's ok, because in the LAST pack in the box contained JUST ONE card:
For
those unfamiliar with the Shadowbox concept, Upper Deck basically uses
three layers, with space in between to create one of the coolest-looking
and most sought after cards in the hockey market. These are pretty much
the case hits of the products, and the Programme of Excellence versions
fall in just one in every 1,058 packs, and the fact that I ACTUALLY
pulled a Crosby makes it extra special.
As tempting as it is to cash in on my box-busting luck, for THIS Penguins fan, this card is going NOWHERE!
nice pull pal.
ReplyDeleteI know nothing about hockey,but that's a pretty cool shadowbox card.
ReplyDeleteThat's excellent. How often do you actually pull THE card you really want? Congrats!
ReplyDeletegreat pull especially with the news today...penguin for life..how thick are those things?
ReplyDeleteYou'll be busting my box of Ginter this year. Seriously, fantastic pull! You're on quite the tear this year!
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks again in advance for the sweet Getz!
Congrats on the Crosby pull, that's an incredible looking card!
ReplyDeleteAnyone else curious as to why UD went with a partial decapitation of all the cards in the base set though? To me it looks just awful. Always thought that was rule #1 when cropping a photo; never carve off the top of someone's head.
Great pull! Congrats!
ReplyDeleteAs a fellow hockey fan, that Crosby is sick. Epic pull.
ReplyDelete