Category: Box / Pack Breaks

2010-11 Certified Hockey box break

Normally, I don’t purchase boxes of cards in the $100 range. But I had to make an exception. 2010-11 Certified is Panini’s first hockey release since getting the license earlier this year. How would it stack up to a similar Upper Deck product like Artifacts?

A box of 10 packs costs anywhere from $80 to $100, depending on where you bought it. You get 5 cards per pack. I purchased this box from my local card shop for $95. Here is what I got:  Continue reading “2010-11 Certified Hockey box break”

2009-10 Champ’s Hockey box break #2

(Can you find the hockey player on this box? What about the sailboat? No? Keep looking…)

On Monday, I posted my first box break of 2009-10 Champ’s Hockey, as well as some general info about the product. Read that post before continuing this one. I’ll wait…

Done? Good. Let’s see what I got in my 2nd box of CHAAAAMMMMPPPP’S: Continue reading “2009-10 Champ’s Hockey box break #2”

2009-10 Champ’s Hockey box break #1

Chris Chelios adorns the front of this year’s Champ’s Hockey set.
  • 20 packs per box
  • 5 cards per pack (3 standard-sized cards, 2 mini-sized cards)
  • 4 “hits” per box (jerseys and/or autographed cards)
  • Between $65-$70 per box

I thoroughly enjoyed last year’s Champ’s Hockey set. Sure, some of the cards–of dinosaurs and passenger pigeons and such–were a bit odd. And the rookie card mini set was nearly impossible to put together. But the standard set itself had a classy, early 20th century look that I enjoyed.

This year’s Champ’s set looked just as cool–and boxes are around $70, instead of $100 like they were last year. So I decided to jump in with both feet and purchase two boxes.

This is what I got in the first box:

49 base cards

This year, the base cards have a muted blue border. In fact, none of the jersey or other colors are bright, either. If he subdued colors don’t bother you, then you’ll probably like this design. Personally, I like the muted hues because it adds to that old-timey feel. 100 of these make up the base set.

5 light blue parallel cards

Unfortunately, this year’s Champ’s set is heavy on the parallels. You get one light blue bordered parallel card in every four packs. But if that isn’t bad enough…

 2 orange parallel cards

 …then there’s also orange-bordered parallels, falling one in every ten packs. And yes, I did get the normal (blue), light blue and orange versions of Nikolai Khabibulin in this box…which would be great if I collected variants of Russian goalie cards, or something to that extent. 

1 yellow parallel card

 Does anyone else see the uselessness of these parallels. I’d rather be 8 cards closer to completing a base set than get 8 cards with variant border colors. These yellow variants come one in every 20 packs. I guess that matters if you have a fetish for yellow-bordered cards. 

18 mini cards

The mini cards are closer in size to the cigarette cards from a century ago.There are 192 of the mini “non rookie cards”, so it will take you some time to put together this set.

1 “blue back” mini card parallel – the only difference is that the ink on the back is printed in blue instead of black. A dumb variation that is not even worth scanning. 

5 mini Champ’s Rookies

This year’s Champ’s set skips out on the regular sized Champ’s Rookies, and instead only offers the mini-sized rookie cards. The slightly shiny gold border of these mini rookie cards somewhat betrays the early 20th century design. Also, only 5 rookie cards per box is kind of depressing if you think about it.

5 Natural History

For some inexplicable reason, I like these cards. Yeah, they are kind of pointless in a hockey set. Maybe that’s why I enjoy them.

4 Historical Figures

Presidents and Prime Ministers? Apparently, Lester B. Pearson was a Canadian Prime Minister, and not just a trophy name. I learn something new every day.

1 Wonders of the World

Why? Seriously–why? Oh, and at one per box, you know some idiots will be trying to get $10-$20 for one of these on eBay.

Mini Jersey – Chris Osgood

Osgood has played a long time, and red-colored Red Wings jersey swatches are quite plentiful. So, it’s not like this card is super rare or anything. Nonetheless, Osgood has had a mighty fine NHL career.

Mini Jersey – Daniel Alfredsson

Rockin’! And it’s a black swatch too–which looks a lot nicer than a white swatch against the tan card background.

So that’s two decent-looking jersey cards of two stellar NHL players. Onto the autographs, then…

Mini Autograph – Oscar Moller

Uh oh….you know you’re in trouble when you pull a signed card of a guy you’ve never heard of. Of course, people in Los Angeles know who this guy is, but until now I didn’t. Maybe I’ll get an autograph of a “known player”…

Mini Autograph – Andrew Ebbetts

Andrew Ebbett? Come on! Yeah, I know this guy…he played 10 games for Chicago this season–a season where he started in Anaheim, went to Chicago and is now currently with Minnesota. Sorry if I can’t get too excited about pulling this signature (FYI, I wrote to Ebbett a few months back, and he is very fan friendly with TTM autographs).

Balancing out the two decent jersey cards are two mediocre autograph cards. You’d expect ‘graphs of these guys in lower-end sets, but in Champ’s? Of course, at the $65-$70 range, Champ’s is more of a “mid-range” product now; a step above Upper Deck proper, and a few steps below Black Diamond or Artifacts.

Later this week, I’ll post what I got in my other box of Champ’s, as well as some other goodies I scored at the card show this past Saturday.

2009-10 Fleer Ultra blaster break

 

After buying a single pack, and later a rack pack, of this year’s Fleer Ultra, I have to admit that the set has grown on me. That said, I bought a blaster box at Target last week. Yes, we all know that blasters suck harder than 36-count “retail” boxes…but I had a 10% of coupon, and figured that, you know, maybe this blaster would be special.

Yeah right. (Well, it did happen to me once.)

I don’t wanna scan all the cards I got. I’m not even going to scan the best card from each of the 12 packs, but rather just the best “type” of each card.

Here is what I got:

  
43 base cards. You can practically see the Gatorade dripping off of Sidney Crosby’s face in this pic.
  
11 Gold Cards: All these do is take the place of a “real” card, which makes completing a set 20% harder. So, I might just mix and match gold and regular cards in my set build, just to piss off Upper Deck. By the way, another great horizontal shot–notice the puck in the upper right corner.
  
2 Ultra Rookies. I’ve heard of Yannick Weber. The other one I got was of some kid on the Tampa Bay Lightning named Brandon Segal.
  
1 Gold Ultra Rookie: I guess in a way, I “beat” the odds by getting THREE (and not TWO) Ultra Rookies. Though when I pulled this one from a pack, the first thing I muttered was “this better not count as one of the two rookies I get.” Why do I hate parallels so much?
  
2 Scoring Kings: These look like a lame insert set that could be in ANY low-to-mid end Upper Deck set. Just slap a Victory or Collector’s Choice or UD logo in the corner
  
1 Crowning Achievements: Why? Oh right–because they CAN. Anyone else tired of Martin Brodeur yet? No, I am not bitter that he set his all-time-wins record in a game against the Blackhawks. That actually makes his record cooler to me. 
Dare I say it, but I might actually try to buy a hobby box of these cards. I’ve got about 90 or so towards the 200-card base set, plus another 4 short-prints. The pictures in this set are pretty good, and there’s room for up to 20 years of stats (more on that here).


2009-10 Black Diamond three-pack blister

A few days back, I purchased some hockey cards at Target. Like DFG, I too have been trying to swear off the retail packs this year. And I remember Card on Ice, saying the product wasn’t all that. But I had a 10% coupon on Target, and I was deeply intrigued by this 3-pack blister pack of 2009-10 Black Diamond Hockey cards. 

Three-pack blister? That’s a pack of packs! Just the sheer novelty of that would be hard for me to pass up.

Including sales tax–but minus my discount at Target–it came out to $10–a cool $3.33 per pack. Worth it? Probably not. But then again, Jonathan Toews of my Chicago Blackhawks is on the card wrapper. Would “Tazer” steer me wrong?

These shiny, foil-y cards never look good when scanned, so I only scanned what I deemed the “best” card from each pack:

Pack 1

  • #1 – Jonas Hiller, Ducks
  • #2 – Sean Avery, Rangers
  • #49 – Jussi Jokinen, Hurricanes
  • #52 – Pekka Rinne, Predators
  • #81 – David Krejci, Bruins

    Krejci gets “best card status” from this pack because I know some guy who blogs about him.

    Pack 2

    • #13 – Evgeni Nabokov, Sharks
    • #26 – Nik Antropov, Rangers
    • #35 – Patrik Elias, Devils
    • #42 – Jack Johnson, Kings
    • #136 – Dale Hawerchuk, Jets

    A Triple Diamond card seeded 1 in every 4 packs, I beat the odds by getting one in the 3 packs I purchased. Plus, it is always great to get a card of a retired great like “Ducky.”

    Pack 3

    • #3 – Peter Mueller, Coyotes
    • #8 – Justin Abdelkader, Red Wings
    • #14 – Joe Pavelski, Sharks
    • #37 – Scott Hartnell, Flyers
    • #72 – Erik Cole, Hurricanes

    Hmmmm….none of these guys really stand out to me, so I’ll arbitrarily pick Abdelkader as the best card in the pack because it is colorful.

    The backs of each card are actually pretty well laid-out. I guess I’m a sucker for symmetry.

     
    What I like is that the team logo is on one side of the player’s head shot, while the vitals (position, height, weight, shoots and  DOB) are on the right. 
     

    The back accommodates up to 5 lines of stats. As much as I prefer complete statistics, I almost expect these kinds of sets to only show a few years.

    I don’t know if this is a set that I will collect. Retail packs suck, and a hobby box goes for $90 to $100–but their only upside seems to be jersey cards or parallels, neither of which I am particularly fond of.

    2009-10 MVP pack

    I purchased a pack of 2009-10 Upper Deck MVP hockey cards the other day. $1.99 (plus tax) gets you 8 cards. That’s pretty good, considering that a pack of Fleer Ultra only nets you 5 cards for that price, while an 8-card pack of Upper Deck costs $1 more at $2.99. Fittingly, last year’s Stanley Cup MVP Evgeni Malkin is on the MVP card wrapper. Anyway, on to the cards!!!

    Card #248, Jarome Iginla, Calgary Flames – Getting “iggy” with it. A good way to start off this pack. Not only is the guy a superstar, but he’s an Olympian too. 2010 will be his third Olympic tournament.

    Card #176, Keith Ballard, Florida Panthers – Hey Keith, watch that stick!
    Card #200, Loui Eriksson, Dallas Stars – Eriksson will represent Sweden in the 2010 Winter Olympics.
    Card #156, Marek Zidlicky, Minnesota Wild –  Zidlicky will also appear in the Olympics this year, playing for the Czech Republic.
    Card #275, Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins –  Bergeron currently leads the Bruins in scoring. Oh yeah, he’ll be in the Olympics too, playing for Team Canada.
    Card #63, Jordan Staal, Pittsburgh Penguins – Man, there are some great cards in this pack!
    Card #132, Shea Weber, Nashville Predators – Another guy who will play for Canada in the 2010 Olympics, Weber is one of my favorite defensemen of today.
    Card #325, Alexander Sulzer, Nashville Predators – MVP Rookies are seeded 1 in every 2 packs. Believe it or not, Sulzer will be in the Olympics too, for the German team.

    Overall, this was a pretty sweet pack. Some superstars and some Olympians, and a rookie card.

    My biggest problem with Upper Deck MVP is the shiny foil silver facsimile autograph on the front of each card. I collect autograph cards TTM, but I don’t like getting MVP cards signed because they already have a pre-printed ‘graph on it…and that just looks silly when you get a real autograph on it.

    I can also do without all the other shiny stuff. The Upper Deck logo in the corner I can live with, but the MVP logo should have been smaller. Instead, that garish blob of silver becomes the first thing your eye notices.

    But believe it or not, I still like these cards. They’re pretty good looking (for MVP, anyway). Hey, at least Upper Deck retired that shield-type design that they used every year since 2006.