Hockey Cards

2009-10 Upper Deck Hockey box break

A few days back at a card show, I purchased a box of 2009-10 Upper Deck Hockey. Here is what got:

169 Base Cards: Thankfully, I did not get any duplicates. This gives me about 85% of a complete base set.

6 Young Guns: Artem Amisimov, Jamie Benn, Dimitry Kulikov, Matt Pelech, Sergei Shirokov and James Van Riemsdyk. Other than Van Riemsdyk, a disappointing lot. Sure, we all want a Tavares rookie card, but I would have been happy with an Anti Niemi YG.

And now, onto the inserts that most of us don’t want anyway:

2 All World Team: Pekka Rinne and Patrick Kane. Looks like every hockey card set is going to have some sort of quasi-tie-in with the Olympics.

2 Draft Day Gems: Pekka Rinne and Theoren Fleury. What, is Rinne in every insert set?

2 Faces of the Franchise: Joe Thornton and Ales Hemsky. WHY?????????? What makes these any different than the typical “Hometown Heroes” inserts?
1 Top Guns: Thomas Vanek. Another useless insert set….
 
1 Season Highlight: Evgeni Malkin. Yawn.
2 Martin Brodeur Hockey Heroes: Looks like New Jersey’s “fat goalie” (as Sean Avery called him) gets his own insert set. 

1 Limited-to-100 Parallel: Dimitry Kulikov, numbered 069/100. Great…now I got the regular and parallel versions of this guy.

 
 2 UD Game Jersey: Jason Pominville and Jason Spezza. Two jersey cards of two Jasons. As much as I detest jersey cards, I am glad that the swatches at least match the uniforms the players are wearing.
Overall, I like Upper Deck brand-cards, but can do without the inserts . None of them really “grab” me, though the Draft Day Gems insert set is an interesting idea. It is lame that you get only 6 Young Guns in a box, but 10 insert cards. No one buys Upper Deck in hopes of getting a Pekka Rinne All-World Team  insert card. Maybe that will all change if someone else gets a license to do hockey cards next season.


Review: 2009 National Hockey Card Day

15 cards of Canada’s most beloved players

2009 National Hockey Card Day #11 - Wayne GretzkyGiven away in 5-card foil packs on February 21, 2009, the National Hockey Card Day set by Upper Deck focused on some of Canada’s most beloved players. Packs were handed out, free of charge, at card shops, Toys R’ Us, and Wal-Mart stores across Canada as an effort to increase interest in hockey card collecting. This is similar to Free Comic Book Day, when numerous comic books – made especially for the event – are given away at comic shops across the U.S. The 2009 National Hockey Card Day set has 15 cards: 5 are of rookies, 5 of popular current superstars and 5 of retired greats. Continue reading “Review: 2009 National Hockey Card Day”

Road Rash Roenick

1996-97 Leaf Limited card #86 – Jeremy Roenick

1996-97 Leaf Limited card #86 - Jeremy Roenick During the summer of 1996, the Chicago Blackhawks made one of their worst trades in the decade – hell, in their history – when they sent fan-favorite Jeremy Roenick to the Phoenix Coyotes in exchange for Alexi Zhamnov, Craig Mills and a first round draft pick. As a result, the Blackhawks became a downright abysmal team for the next 12 years. Another downside was this cheesy, tacky card of Roenick straddling a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Note the manly tassels hanging from the handlebars. Continue reading “Road Rash Roenick”

Fantastic Fowl

1991-92 Kellogg’s Card #24 – Cornelius Rooster

1991-92 Kellogg's Card #24 - Cornelius Rooster During the 1991-92 season, a set of 24 hockey cards was issued in specially-marked boxes of Corn Flakes cereal. Superstars found in the set included Steve Yzerman, Patrick Roy, Joe Sakic, Brett Hull…and Cornelius Rooster. Though small in stature, the Corn Flakes’ famous mascot overshadows them all, putting up numbers that would make even The Golden Brett jealous. Continue reading “Fantastic Fowl”

2009-10 Fleer Ultra pack

I’ve had this pack of 2009-10 Fleer Ultra for a few weeks now, and finally got around to opening it. Let’s see what my $1.99 ($2.20 with Chicago sales tax) nets me…

Card #114, Mikkel Boedker, Phoenix Coyotes – Despite watching a ton of Coyotes games last year, I don’t have an opinion on this guy one way or another. I’m not a huge fan of sets that flip-flop between vertical and horizontal photos, either.

Card #66, Tomas Vokoun, Florida Panthers – It looks like Vokoun is being screened by the Fleer Ultra logo.

Card #34, Christobal Huet, Chicago Blackhawks – Hey, one of those Gold Medallion cards. Parallel inserts suck–especially when you get one in every single pack. That means you’d have to buy 50 packs instead of 40 if you were going to try to complete the 200-card base set. Of course, Upper Deck knows this fact. As for the card itself, the photo is from the 2009 Winter Classic, so that makes it 10% cooler.

Card #110, Scott Hartnell, Philadelphia Flyers – I’m not sure why the Nashville Predators traded away this guy. Oh yeah–because his contract was about to expire. By the way, I’ve never been a fan of the black Flyers uniforms.

Card #236, Peter Regin, Ottawa Senators – An elusive Ultra Rookie card. You get one in every six packs. Too bad it had to be this one. It’s hard to get excited about–or even try to build–the rookie subset if it is just a bunch of leftovers from last year.

One thing I dig about these cards is that they show all of the player’s stats. Not sure how it deals with the stats of a super veteran like Mike Modano or Chris Chelios, but the layout looks like it can accommodate 20 seasons or so.

The back of the Gold Medallion parallel cards replace the big uniform number in the lower right with a “Gold Medallion” insignia.

Like most other sets with “hard-to-get-rookies,” I might just wait until I can find a base set in the $5 to $10 range. Then again, I did buy a jumbo pack too. If I get around to opening it, I’ll post the highlights from that too.

Review: 1990-91 Boston Bruins team set

Your 1990 Stanley Cup runner-ups!

1990-91 Bruins Team SetProduced by a company called Sports Action, this team set was sold at the Boston Bruins Pro Shop during the 1990-91 season. Appealing in its simplistic design, the 24-card set came in a cardboard and polybag package that was stapled shut.  Continue reading “Review: 1990-91 Boston Bruins team set”

Card of the Week: Me

1989-90 trading card of Sal Barry

Sal Barry 1989Like most hockey fans, I too made an attempt to play the game. Having discovered hockey in January 1989, I quickly decided that it was a game that I must learn to play. I soon purchased a floor hockey stick, and encouraged all of my friends in the neighborhood to follow suit. By March of ’89, we were playing street hockey in the alley behind my Aunt’s house on a regular basis. But that was not good enough for me; I would also have to try my hand at ice hockey…real hockey. Continue reading “Card of the Week: Me”

Review: 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee

A great shot that just misses the mark

2009-10 OPC #230 - Patrick Sharp (front)For the fourth year in a row, Upper Deck has leased the name “O-Pee-Chee” from Topps in order to brand a set of hockey cards. Overtly emblazoning the O-Pee-Chee logo and featuring Wayne Gretzky on the box and wrapper, the set is clearly meant to appeal to old school collectors who cut their card-collecting teeth during the 1970s and 1980s. And for the most part, it will. Comprising the set are 500 base cards, 50 short-printed Marquee Rookies and 50 short-printed Legends.

Continue reading “Review: 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee”

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.