Hockey Cards

Coming out tomorrow (June 20) is the 2013 Draft Prospects set, produced by In The Game Trading Cards. The set focuses on junior league prospects eligible for the  NHL Entry Draft later this summer.

But just like the Heroes and Prospects sets of years past, there are also cards of current and former NHLers — here categorized as “First Round Picks” or “Draft Surprises.” There are also cards of “Future Draft Prospects” who are new to junior hockey and may one day be drafted by an NHL team.

A box costs around $90 and contains 12 cards, including seven base cards, three autographs and two game-used jersey cards.

Here’s what I got in the box I opened: Continue reading “2013 ITG Draft Prospects Box Break”

It’s easy to figure out why someone would want to buy a box of SP Game Used Hockey by Upper Deck. Each and every pack in the box includes a card containing a game-used memorabilia card. A 5-pack box costs around $150, meaning that each 5-card pack costs $30. That heightens the expectations for getting great memorabilia cards instead of the lower-end memorabilia cards prevalent in Upper Deck’s more inexpensive sets.

Five packs is not a lot to play with, so this was one of the quickest boxes I ever opened. Continue reading “2012-13 SP Game Used Box Break”

Panini Limited gets its name, I assume, from the fact that every card is serial numbered. The base, parallels, inserts, jerseys and autographed cards all proudly display a serial number on the front of the card. A box of 2012-13 Panini Limited costs around $80 and contains 7 cards. Three of them are either jersey or memorabilia cards. I recently opened up a box–here’s what I got: Continue reading “2012-13 Panini Limited Box Break”

Artifacts was slated to coincide with the beginning of the 2012-13 NHL season. But we all know how that went. (For those of you reading this blog post 30 years from now, the 2012-13 season was delayed by a 3-month lockout.) Other than the rookie redemption cards, the labor dispute didn’t really have much of an effect on Artifacts, which is laden with current and former star players, as well as three memorabilia hits per box. Each box contains 10 4-card packs and costs around $100.

Here are the results of this box break: Continue reading “2012-13 Artifacts Box Break”

The cancellation of several sets by Upper Deck and Panini means that O-Pee-Chee will be the largest set of the 2012-13 season. There are 500 base cards, 50 Marquee Rookie cards and 50 Marquee Legends cards, making a total of 600 cards. There are several different parallel sets and a few interesting inserts, like Stickers and Pop-Ups, giving this year’s OPC set some nice variety.

I recently opened another box of OPC. Here are the results: Continue reading “2012-13 O-Pee-Chee Box Break”

Motown Madness, released at the end of February 2013, continues In The Game’s series of team-centric hockey card sets. Previously, ITG has released sets focusing on the Montreal Canadiens (Blue, Blanc et Rouge) and the Philadelphia Flyers (Broad Street Bullies). This set is all about the Detroit Red Wings.

A box of Motown Madness currently sells for around $90 and contains 12 cards. Each box guarantees 4 autographs and 2 game-used memorabilia cards.

Here are the results of the box I opened. Continue reading “Motown Madness Box Break”

Upper Deck Series One was released in November 2012. A box will cost you roughly $70 or $80, and contains 24 8-card packs. You can pretty much expect 6 Young Guns, 4 Canvas cards and 2 memorabilia cards in every box.

Here are the results of my most recent box break. Continue reading “2012-13 Upper Deck Series 1 Box Break”

Back in December, there was seemingly no NHL season in sight. But that didn’t stop Upper Deck from releasing their 2012-13 Black Diamond set. This set  has no redemption cards–just base cards, short-prints (at various levels of scarcity), and jersey cards (and we KNOW what I generally think of those). You might pull an autographed card, but at 1 in every 60 packs, your odds aren’t the greatest.

A box will cost you roughly between $90 to $110, and contains 24 five-card packs. Also included is a 25th “Bonus Pack” which has 5 cards from 2012-13 Upper Deck Ice.

By the way, these cards are all metallic-y, so they do not scan too well.

Here is what I got inside the box I opened: Continue reading “2012-13 Black Diamond Box Break”