Hockey Cards

2013-14 Panini Contenders Hockey came out last week, but I didn’t really notice until yesterday. Admittedly, I have not reviewed much Panini stuff this year. What drew me to Contenders is the fact that a $20 retail blaster box has two autographs. Sure, it only has 20 cards total, but come on — two ‘graphs for $20 isn’t bad.

So I had to give Contenders a try. Actually, I had to give it two tries, since my local Target had two blasters left, and I didn’t want to pick one and then wonder if the other blaster had the better autographs.

I will let you be the judge of which blaster had the better autographs. Continue reading “Two-Box Blaster Break: 2013-14 Panini Contenders Hockey”

Upper Deck SPx hockey cards are hard to miss. They are shiny, usually horizontal and have a giant “X” in the background. But as I’ve stated many times before, collectors don’t really buy a set like SPx for the base cards — they buy it for the hits.

A box of 2013-14 SPx Hockey costs around $100 per box and promises four hits on average. Each box contains 12 four-card packs, plus one bonus five-card pack of Upper Deck Ice, which has been relegated from stand-alone set to an impossible-to-complete insert set.

Here is what I got in this box of SPx:

Continue reading “Box Break: 2013-14 SPx Hockey”

Fleer Showcase picks up where 2012-13 Fleer Retro left off. Showcase is your typical mid-range Upper Deck hockey card set, with 100 base cards to collect. But 2013-14 Fleer Showcase also has inserts designed after 1990s Fleer sets — just like Fleer Retro did two years back, making it a spiritual successor to Retro.

For those who don’t know, the Fleer Showcase brand was used on baseball, football and basketball trading card sets from 2000 until around 2005. This is the first time that the Showcase name has been applied to hockey cards.

A box costs around $130 and gets you 15 five-card packs. What goodies could be lurking inside? Continue reading “Box Break: 2013-14 Fleer Showcase”

Earlier this year, Upper Deck released a team-centric set called the Edmonton Oilers Collection. The set focuses on the greatest players in Oilers’ history — even including some players from the team’s WHA days. A box contains 10 packs, and each pack has 10 cards. The front of the box boasts that you will “get a full base set in every box!”

Spoiler Alert – I did indeed get a full base set in this box, and a few other goodies too. Continue reading “Box Break: 2013-14 Upper Deck Edmonton Oilers Collection”

It’s goalies, more goalies and only goalies. Between the Pipes is back for its 12th year, and is poised to please fans of old school ‘tenders, current players and NHL hopefuls. A box contains 18 pack, and each pack has nine cards. Here’s what I got in my recent box break. Continue reading “Box Break: 2013-14 Between The Pipes”

Initially, I thought that 2013-14 Prizm would be another clunker from Panini. The cards are printed on shiny foil stock, look like pretty much every other Panini set out there and originally cost $100 for a 20-pack box (each pack contains six cards). But I found a box at a recent show for $50, so I took a chance and was pleasantly surprised.

Prizm cards are printed on a silver, mirror-like card stock. Whereas Upper Deck’s Black Diamond are shiny but dark, Prizm cards have bright, vibrant colors that jump out at you. The cards are also printed on heavy stock. After opening a box, I totally understand why baseball card collectors go nuts over sets like Bowman Chrome: they just look so cool. Of course, I was a sucker for “chromium covers” back in my comic book collecting days in the 1990s, so enjoying “chromium” hockey cards isn’t much of a stretch for me.

Anyway, onto the break. Continue reading “Box Break: 2013-14 Panini Prizm”