Today, three regular type packs - 1 2005-06 Upper Deck Ice Hockey, and 2 2005-06 UD SPAuthentic hockey. Also, have a blast from the past.... brought to the present. NHL Pogs! Also, at the end, one surprise pack that I've heard of, but never seen in person. More on that at the end when I open it. :)
First, the POGS pack. Don't know much about it, but it has a Shane Doan card in it, so if I pull that, we call this a success. "Collect all 60" it says. 5 POGS per pack, 1 "slammer" (whatever that is) and 1 "series card" (whatever that is.....). Anyway, on to opening:
The opening tab on the side of the pack is nice. It's also in a blister pack. Ooh.
The series card is a checklist, probably should have figured that out. An Ovechkin in here, but no Crosby. I guess Upper Deck owns Crosby. The slammer appears to be a plastic mini-puck about a 1/4 inch thick, with the NHL logo on the back. I guess this IS supposed to be a game of some type, so this slammer must facilitate that.
Pogs? Daniel Briere, Jarome Iginla, Keith Primeau, Mark Recchi, Glen Murray. Funky holograms on the back, much better quality than the previous ones. This was a loose pack I saw at Superstore. No price tag. I hope I didn't pay much. Oops, looked at the sales slip. $4.98. Well, once is fine.
UD Ice pack - I reviewed this already :). On to the pack: Esche, Nabokov, Poti, Antropov, Luongo. You know, I don't really like the one insert per pack idea..... but crap, if you don't pull an auto or jersey, you get nothing from these.
SP Authentic. One of the sets rookie collectors look forward to every year. Feast or famine, really. You get something great, or you get..... well, cards. Anyone who's collected hockey cards knows the drill on these, so I won't go into detail. Let's look at the two packs and see what's there:
Pack 1 -Palffy, Lindros, Ribiero, Stajan, Roloson
Worse than crap. Unimaginable.
Pack 2 - Biron, Gomez, Gionta, Khabibulin, Yzerman
Slightly better than pack 1. Slightly worse than eating thumbtacks.
Cards look nice. High quality card stock, no damage. But again, feast or famine. In my case, famine.
Now for the odd one. I found a pack of 2003-04 UD Manchester United soccer cards! Match-worn shirts 1 per box, autos 1:96 packs (1 in 4 boxes). Definitely a rare item. Finding it alone is tough, so really, even if I get all commons, finding it was a reward. Although it would be nice not to find crap. Here we go:
Opening..... A checklist card. Sir Alex Ferguson hoisting a trophy. To be honest, I have no idea which one, and I've been unable to find out. It's got kind of a crown thingy on top. Four regular cards, Diego Forlan, Bojan Djordic, David Bellion, and Wes Brown. Then, a "Ruud Awakening" insert card, seeded 1:12 packs.
Unique cards, but the design reminds me of UD's golf card offerings, or the old Collector's Choice hockey. The red foil should have been yellow or gold, not red. They tried to use red and black for everything, it just makes it difficult to see properly. Pics are rather boring. The Diego card is the only one with actual in-game action. The rest are practice, or in the insert card's case, a pic, but no background. I give them points for being different to me, but there isn't much special about them.
Overall, not a great pack busting episode. I basically got nothing except something unique in the ManU cards. Oh well, I guess there's those days.
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Saturday, June 03, 2006
UD Ice pack break.... and pack wars!
Went to a card show today and participated in my first "pack wars". I'd heard a lot about them, but had never done one. A dealer I know invited me to play - 4 of us, $20 per person, 6 packs each of UD series 2 hockey. The first person says a number that would appear in the set, and everyone opens one pack. The person with the card in the newly opened pack that is the closest to the one said gets all 4 packs. So if you pull a pack with an Ovechkin Young Guns and you don't have the number closest to the one said...... fork it over.
Sounds maddening, but for pack rippers like myself, it's potentially addicting. I ended up winning twice out of the 6, but I didn't get the Joe Thornton Majestic Materials /50. :( Oh well, I had fun, and for $20, I got 8 packs of UD Series 2, with 3 rookies. Not a bad return.
Bought 4 packs of UD Ice at the show. The dealer I knew gave me the Shane Doan card I needed. Decent looking cards, I think. But very reminicent of the old Ovation brand, the same nicked up ice design. Still, I liked that design, so it's not a bad thing. I also picked up a Jussi Jokinen Cool Threads jersey for $8 at the show. Odd jersey piece - looks like it might be from a retro North Stars jersey. I should e-mail UD about it. Anyway, nice card, but not acetate, which was too bad. To the packs! Here's live play by play: :)
Pack 1 - Sakic, Jagr, Staal, Weiss, Selanne (all base)
Nice cards for the price point. No damaged cards, another plus.
Pack 2 - Weekes, Frolov, Alfredsson, Ryder, DiPietro (all base)
Like the first pack, except about a quarter of the star power. I figure it can't get worse than this one.
Pack 3 - Kovalchuk, Lehtonen, Yashin, Nabokov, Poti (all base)
Ummm...... has this box been searched?
Pack 4- Sundin, Morrison (base), Maxime Talbot Fresh Ice jersey card (acetate!)
Finally. Although I nearly soiled myself when I saw the Penguins logo on the back. Photo shoot jersey, but a very nice card.
Thoughts? Nice cards. I didn't have a whole lot of luck, but this is a nice enough set that I might actually collect it as an entire set. And NO damaged cards, which is an amazing plus considering UD's quality issues this year. I got them at $5 per pack (tax in), which might appear a little high, but for better quality nicer looking cards and some nice inserts, it's better than something like the atrocious Beehive. I'd recommend you buy a few packs. From what I hear, if you get 4 packs, you'll get something at least. I've heard some disastrous box breaks, though.
Ratings 1-5:
Design: 4.5
- a slightly reused design, but well done and fairly nice, I think.
Rookies: odds ?, value 1.5-2
- I didn't pull any. It looks like they are plentiful, but not of much value. The Crosby is out of 99 (I think), but it's a long pull.
Game used: 4
- Nice cards, values aren't looking too good though
Autographs: 5
- Acetate autos for many of them, and autos on the actual cards.
OVERALL RATING: 4
- Well done, I think. Maybe a little high priced, but compared to other offerings this year, not bad.
Sounds maddening, but for pack rippers like myself, it's potentially addicting. I ended up winning twice out of the 6, but I didn't get the Joe Thornton Majestic Materials /50. :( Oh well, I had fun, and for $20, I got 8 packs of UD Series 2, with 3 rookies. Not a bad return.
Bought 4 packs of UD Ice at the show. The dealer I knew gave me the Shane Doan card I needed. Decent looking cards, I think. But very reminicent of the old Ovation brand, the same nicked up ice design. Still, I liked that design, so it's not a bad thing. I also picked up a Jussi Jokinen Cool Threads jersey for $8 at the show. Odd jersey piece - looks like it might be from a retro North Stars jersey. I should e-mail UD about it. Anyway, nice card, but not acetate, which was too bad. To the packs! Here's live play by play: :)
Pack 1 - Sakic, Jagr, Staal, Weiss, Selanne (all base)
Nice cards for the price point. No damaged cards, another plus.
Pack 2 - Weekes, Frolov, Alfredsson, Ryder, DiPietro (all base)
Like the first pack, except about a quarter of the star power. I figure it can't get worse than this one.
Pack 3 - Kovalchuk, Lehtonen, Yashin, Nabokov, Poti (all base)
Ummm...... has this box been searched?
Pack 4- Sundin, Morrison (base), Maxime Talbot Fresh Ice jersey card (acetate!)
Finally. Although I nearly soiled myself when I saw the Penguins logo on the back. Photo shoot jersey, but a very nice card.
Thoughts? Nice cards. I didn't have a whole lot of luck, but this is a nice enough set that I might actually collect it as an entire set. And NO damaged cards, which is an amazing plus considering UD's quality issues this year. I got them at $5 per pack (tax in), which might appear a little high, but for better quality nicer looking cards and some nice inserts, it's better than something like the atrocious Beehive. I'd recommend you buy a few packs. From what I hear, if you get 4 packs, you'll get something at least. I've heard some disastrous box breaks, though.
Ratings 1-5:
Design: 4.5
- a slightly reused design, but well done and fairly nice, I think.
Rookies: odds ?, value 1.5-2
- I didn't pull any. It looks like they are plentiful, but not of much value. The Crosby is out of 99 (I think), but it's a long pull.
Game used: 4
- Nice cards, values aren't looking too good though
Autographs: 5
- Acetate autos for many of them, and autos on the actual cards.
OVERALL RATING: 4
- Well done, I think. Maybe a little high priced, but compared to other offerings this year, not bad.
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