2009-10 Artifacts pack

I picked up a pack of 2009-10 Artifacts the other day at Target. Understand that buying a single retail pack won’t yield you anything but base cards most of the time, since someone has already sniffed out the 1:36 box hit. Still, I was curious about the design of the cards. Let’s see what $2.99 (plus 10.25% Chicago sales tax) gets us…

Card #23: Jeff Carter, Philadelphia Flyers – Scored 46 goals last year. But skating with your head down like that is gonna get you hurt. Hey Jeff, eyes up!

Card #43: Tomas Vokoun, Florida Panthers – He’s also looking down at the puck, but it’s totally cool because he’s a goalie.

Card #45: Patrick Berglund, St. Louis Blues – Those Blues third jerseys are cool-looking, but totally ripping off the “old time hockey” feel of the Minnesota Wild third jerseys from the past few seasons.

Card 88: Andrei Markov, Montreal Canadiens – Is this guy any good? The back of the card says that he was “arguably the Canadiens best player in 2008-09.” But I don’t know enough about the Habs to know if that is an accurate assessment of Markov.

Card #97: Jakub Voracek, Columbus Blue Jackets – Uh, whatever.

As you can see, no jersey card or autograph card or even a 1:20 Rookies/Legends card (Now if I had only bought 19 more packs). Are these five cards worth $3.00? Only to someone who pays $3.00 for them.

I’m not too hype on the design either, with the columns on either side of the player, and that weird swirly thing in the background. Last year’s design looked more like a dusty old book, which was a great design for a set called “Artifacts.” This year’s design would work better if the set was called “Illuminati” or something like that.

As for the card backs…

Nothing special here. It won’t offend anyone, but it probably won’t get asked out on too many dates either.

As a rule, I’m usually not impressed with “memorabilia” sets. It’s as if the jersey or autograph cards are–dare I say it?–more important than the base cards themselves. Artifacts has a hit-or-miss design which is definitely “miss” this year.

Edit: Great minds think alike. Shane at Shoebox Legends also plunked down $3 to bring you all a pack rip from this set. Don’t let his purchase be in vain–go check it out.

mm

Author: Sal Barry

Sal Barry is the editor and webmaster of Puck Junk. He is a freelance hockey writer, college professor and terrible hockey player. Follow him on Twitter @puckjunk

3 thoughts on “2009-10 Artifacts pack”

  1. Haha, just bought a pack of this at Target over the weekend and typed up a quick rip that's scheduled for tomorrow night. I'll make sure to link to yours! I had about as much luck as you did, not a big fan of the design either.

  2. I think the columns are supposed to represent the oldness of actual artifacts from the gladiator days of the Roman…you know what? These are hockey cards. Dude should have his head up before he gets smoked.

  3. Markov is/was Montreals best player. Multiple All Star, easily one of the top 4 defensmen in the NHL.

    Blew out his knee early this season, may or may not be back this year. Montreal is not the same team without him.

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