Retail return blister break...... "hodgepodge"

From Toys R Us in Nanaimo today, a 12 pack blister of retail return packs from Echo Brand Management. On sale for $14.99, just over $1 per pack. I know what you're thinking - retail packs are completely picked over. Well, I've bought these before and had bad experiences - the worst was when a few packs had obviously been bent. But I have pulled a few decent things, even game used cards.

Interesting one this time. They're normally within the past few years, but this one stretches all the way back to 1998. By pack, and comments..... when I have any.

Pack 1 - 1997-98 Score Pinnacle. Wow. As far as I remember, there were Dufex cards in here that looked pretty sweet. And we get - one card. By that I mean they're stuck together. Nice.

Jason Dawe, Owen Nolan, Hnat Domenichelli RC, Dino Ciccarelli, Martin Gelinas, Randy Cunneyworth, Valeri Kamensky, Kevin Hatcher, Curtis Joseph, Trevor Kidd, and a $10 discount on EA Sports NHL 98 (ummm.....cool)

Cards are ugly. That's about it.

Pack 2 - 1997-98 Pinnacle. Higher end, I guess. Insert with long odds - like 1:2250 packs for press plates, and 1:3888 for game used. My hopes aren't high. Let's see. Oh, and these are stuck together too.

Kevyn Adams RC, Steve Rucchin, Matthew Barnaby, Damian Rhodes, Mike Richter, Jason Allison, Chris Dingman RC, and a coupon to spent $7.99 US total on a screw down with "Pinnacle...Guaranteed Scarce" on it. Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Much nicer cards than the Score. A couple of RCs that are still in the league too. Pretty much worthless, but still......

Pack 3 - 1998-99 Pacific Dynagon Ice. Lots of Pacific-ky inserts.

Kevin Hatcher, Chris Gratton, Martin Straka, Jocelyn Thibault, Michael Peca

Difficult to look at, these are. And not just because of who I pulled - and after 7 years, 4 of the 5 players are in the league! Ok, sorry, I'm reaching again, aren't I.

Pack 4 - 1999-00 Pacific Paramount. A Paramount of inserts. More than you can handle.

Steve Konowalchuk Gold (1 per pack), Colin Forbes Holo-Gold 028/199 (supposed to be the 1 per pack copper), Bryan Berard, Markus Naslund, Paul Kariya, Curtis Brown

A decent pack for what you could get, I guess. As with most Pacific products, they tried to make the photos way too sharp, and so they appear a little funky.

Pack 5 - 1999-00 Pacific Omega. Pacific's first offering with jersey cards - after owner Mike Cramer said that it was a fad. After this, Pacific basically made jersey cards jump the shark - they put them in everything, and were the first to market with the 1 jersey per pack watermark. To the cards.

Sami Helenius/Brian Willsie RC, Jose Theodore, Alexei Kovalev, Brad Leeb/Alfie Michaud RC, Nikolai Antropov RC, Martin Biron RC

Did I mention that the jersey cards were 1:5 BOXES? Guess not. 4 rookies in a pack. Even heard of most of them.

Pack 6 - 2004-05 Pacific. The very last Pacific set before the NHL lockout, then UD took over the whole thing. Although Pacific didn't exactly make the nicest sets on the market, at least they tried some new things. And on opening a Pacific pack, you at least felt like you got something. And from the feast or famine in most sets from the last two years, that's significant.

Marc Savard, Sergei Zubov, Scott Walker, Dave Andreychuk red parallel (1 per pack), Steve Sullivan, JS Aubin, Gary Roberts.

A bit of an edit "And on opening a Pacific pack, you at least usually felt like you got something."

Pack 7 - 2005-06 UD Parkhurst. Ah yes. "The crap". "Feast or Famine". I'm betting on famine. Let's hope for a surprise.

Dallas Drake, Philippe Boucher, Stu Barnes, Brian Leetch, John Grahame, Kevyn Adams

Well, two Stars (favourite team). I've had worse Parkhurst packs.


Pack 8 - 2005-06 UD Parkhurst. Not a typo. 2 of them in here.

Jocelyn Thibault, Marek Zidlicky, Erik Christensen, Mike Cammaleri, Patrick Marleau, Andrew Raycroft, Crappy McCrapperson

The last card may have been my imagination.

Pack 9 - 2006-07 UD PowerPlay. Not nearly as good as the 05-06 version, I heard. So this is pack 1 of these for me.

Milan Hejduk, Jaromir Jagr, Masi Marjamaki RC (RCs seeded 1:4 packs), Eric Staal, Manny Fernandez, Hernik Sedin, card to potentially win a trip to Dallas for the All Star Game to be a stick boy (kinda old)

Cards aren't as nice as last year. Names are too small. I heard right, I think.

Pack 10 - 2006-07 UD MVP. I like these, already reviewed them!

Chris Clark, Steve Ott, Jamie Langenbrunner, Pierre Turgeon, Jussi Jokinen, Sergei Brylin, Todd White, Rick DiPietro International Icons insert

I collect Jokinens. Still like MVP.

Pack 11 - 2005-06 UD Ice. You're going to pull a Crosby or Ovechkin #/99 for thousands of dollars. Or a pack of cards containing NHL players or something resembling that.

Eric Lindros, David Aebischer, Nicklas Lidstrom, Brian Leetch, Kevin Weeks

The latter. Again. Still hate Ice.

Pack 12 - 2005-06 UD Rookie Update. The hobby version is good. Retail, not as good. Let's see.

Jarome Iginla, Nikolai Khabibulin, Grant Stevenson Black Diamond RC, Alexander Frolov, Eric Lindros

Not a bad pack. That's what the hobby version is like - names you know, and a rookie from a high end set.
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So....... as a pack ripping fan, this wasn't bad. I've gotten a lot less and spent a lot more, and I got to see lots of different cards. The Stevenson is an $8 card, and got a few others that I collect. I'm not displeased. Not thrilled either, but it is what it is.