Topps Chrome 2010 Baseball: 1 Box Break

This is it! The last of what I broke open from my boxing day bonanza at my local card shop! Lots of success from these breaks that left me yearning for more. This is easily the weakest of the products I busted, but it still had a few gems. In respect to the 2011 Topps Chrome product, this 2010 box pails in comparison for the quality of the cards and the number of hits I received. Click here to see my review of the 2011 Topps Chrome product.

This is the first box of Topps Chrome 2010 I have bought and is only the second Topps Chrome product I have ever purchased. What this box showed me is that the 2011 product is far superior to the 2010 product and that I am better off spending my future pennies on the 2011 product. In the end I should count myself lucky I received a few good cards from this product and leave it at that!

The biggest problem with the 2010 Topps Chrome cards is that the cards were poorly made. The chrome makes the cards severely bend to the point it becomes difficult to stack them. The images on the front are also not nearly as clear as the 2011 product. The players on the 2010 product have an almost double image around them from the application of chrome that makes the whole image blurry. Additionally, the chrome is not always evenly covering the cards, leaving globby bits on some places on the card's front. 

Another problem is that the cards were often poorly packaged. Often the back card would have an impression left from the wrapper's seal. The worst was in one of the autographs I received had a scratch down the middle of the auto from the wrapper's seal. Another card (the Derek Jeter shown here) had a line running down the back of it, presumably created from when the pack was mechanically sealed. There were also a number of packs at the bottom of the box that only contained 2 cards, both of which were base. I have never seen a trading card product with this many problems and TOPPS should have RECALLED their product.

Despite the numerous manufacturing problems, the 2010 Topps Chrome set does have some attractive features. The base cards feature a similar design to the 2011 product and have some satisfying action shots. The backs of the base set also have a healthy amount of text and stats. The rookie cards follow the same format as the 2011 product in that they are the high numbered cards in the base set. These cards are distinguished by a RC on the front.

The common base card parallel is the refractor. These parallels look identical to the regular cards except they have a silvery tint and extra gloss to the fronts. On the back of the card, the word refractor is printed around the card's number on the back. These cards look nice, but not nice enough to build an entire set of. They are also not serial numbered, unlike the blue parallel that I found 1 of. This blue parallel is identified by its blue border and is serial numbered on the back to out of 199. 

I pulled 3 subset cards out of this box. I feel that this is a really low number of subset cards as I pulled about twice that in the 2011 box. The fronts of the cards are especially glossy and reflective, with each card featuring a particular outstanding player of that season. The backs of the cards have a retro look with cardboard backs and a classic text font. Each of the cards are serial numbered out of 1961, 999, and 499. If it wasn't for how much the chrome makes these cards bend, I'd be much more inclined to collect these.

I pulled two autographed rookies, neither of which were serial numbered. One of these was Jenrry Mejia and the other was Jon Jay. The autos were signed in blue ink and look pretty nice except for the bending. I feel that any card that is autographed should be serial numbered, but there are a lot of products out there that refuse to do this. The biggest problem with the autos is that the Jay auto has multiple scratches down the center, along with a smudge just below. This is all from the packaging process as the auto cards were put face up towards the package's seal. I have no idea how Topps thought this would be a good idea.

The Cardinals are my favourite team, so I am over the moon with a Jon Jay rookie auto. However, the numerous damages and card bending left me deflated over this product. There is a chance that I pulled a bad box, but I have read elsewhere that the 2010 product had severe bending. I would not recomend this product unless I can buy it on sale, which is perhaps why the box I bought was on sale. I give the 2010 Topps Chrome product a half eaten soggy pickle!

Score 11/12: 1 Box

What makes Score a great product is that it is very affordable and offers autograph /chase cards. Products with a similar price point, such as Victory, do not offer autograph cards nor as many subsets or parallels. A box of Score should cost around $30 and I'd recommend buying it early as last year's product has doubled in cost! The cost is why I picked it up during my boxing day shopping, as it added a bit of volume to my purchase while not depleting my bank account!

Score 11/12 boasts a 500 base card set and a further 50 rookies. In addition, there are another 20 rookie cards that are short-printed -not serial numbered. Beyond the base and rookie sets are 11 subsets to collect, all of which vary in rarity. As for the autographs, there are three different sets of autos! The common set is the autographed version of the base set, followed by the Hot Rookie signatures, the short-printed rookie signatures, and finally the Recollection Collection which is a small list of cards from the original 1990-91 Score set that have been autographed. None of the cards in Score are serial numbered, and the odds of finding the cards is not clearly laid out by Score, if mentioned at all. However, most of the information about rarity and checklists can be found on Panini's website or various blogs such as mine! Follow this link to find a comprehensive list of the Score 11/12 cards.

BASE: The base card design is not as attractive as last years. The front of the cards have a white boarder with red curved lines  along the vertical sides and the player's name at the bottom. The problem is that the white boarders become lost in photos of hockey players that already are dominated by the absence of color. Allowing the image to fade out or to bleed past the boarder would have looked better. What doesn't help either is that the player's name also becomes lost in the image as each text color corresponds to that player's particular team. While colors like black and red work well, silver is completely lost; why would anyone think this was a good idea?! Also, the photos are fairly generic and rarely have well framed shots. Too many of the photos are taken at shoulder or eye level with the player's upper body being lost in the arena's crowd. Here, the image would be improved by blurring the background so that the player would take center stage. Score is out-shot by the Upper-Deck series one base cards! However, the Score product is less than half the price of UD and you do get what you pay for.

PARALLELS: Each pack of Score includes one parallel. These parallels are often the glossy variety, which has been improved upon from last year's product. The front of the cards are identical to the regular set except for it being glossy. In last year's product you could sometimes 'gloss' right over these parallels. New for this year, the glossy cards have the word glossy written around the card number on the back. Simple and effective. I also pulled one Gold Rush parallel, which is identical to the regular base set except for the card has a gold colored border on the front. Nothing too special and not exactly worth collecting; the glossy cards look much better. Gold Rush cards fall one per box.

SUBSETS: There are a ton of subsets in Score. There are two that can only be found in retail jumbo packs and another 9 in hobby packs. There are two die-cut subset cards that I think fall one per box (not one each). The design of the non-die-cut subset cards look OK and are nothing too special. They are printed on the same stock as the regular set and have a similar layout to the base set. Regardless, the cards emphasize important moments throughout the season, such as the first goals from the previous year's rookies, highlights from the Stanley Cup playoffs, or the fan affection and ticker-tape atmosphere when a player enters the arena. All of these cards are fun to look at and read the backs of, which is something too many subset cards forget about -fun! What's also fun is the die-cut card. I pulled a NHL Shield die-cut that features a silhouetted Nicklas Lidstrom with a NHL shield graphic cut out of the card's top. The card just looks cool and has a small blurb on the back that explains why Lidstrom is such a powerful force in the NHL -seven time Norris Trophy winner.

HOT ROOKIES: Perhaps the most attractive aspect of buying a box of Score is that you know you will walk away with a mitt full of rookies and one is likely to be a top draft pick! Score rookies do not tend to be highly valued because they are common but it is because they are so common that at least you can say that you have so-and-so's rookie card unlike other products (UD) where you might have to buy 10 boxes before you find that top rookie card! I pulled 17 regular rookies cards and one double (which is likely an error because I never found doubles in any boxes last year). The design of the rookies follows the same format as last years but adds a bit more drama. The player is silhouetted with thick design borders and bold text. The background behind the player is a water color pattern that can be easily created in Photoshop but nonetheless is used for good affect here. As I said before, it is rewarding to pull a known high-draft rookie in a box, and here I found a Cody Hodgson rookie. 

I also pulled a short-printed and an autographed rookie. Short printed rookies are identical to the regular rookies. These cards are numbered 551 to 570, being the additional 20 cards to the regular rookie set. The one I pulled was of Gabriel Landeskog, someone definitely making an impact in the NHL. The autographed rookie was of Erik Condra and this card is from the regular set of rookies. The autograph is signed in blue ink over top a sticker. I am not a fan of sticker autos but I know they are cheaper to produce and hence more commonly used in cheaper products. Overall, my luck was definitely running high with picking up a sp and auto rookie in one box!

The verdict for Score 11/12 is that it is a certified sweet pickle of a winner. There are many short-comings with this set and there is a lot to improve upon. However, there are noticeable improvements over last year's product so it would seem this would be a product that will continually evolve and improve. The most important aspect of the Score product is it's price! At $30 a box, this is a very affordable set to build and it is a set that is not too large like the 800 card OPC sets that are very difficult to build and who's boxes cost roughly $70 a pop. I also really appreciate the number of subsets and the restrained amount of parallels. The inclusion of autographs and short prints also adds that extra layer of icing to this cake.

Bowman Platinum 2011 Baseball: 4 Packs

I picked up 4 packs of Bowman Platinum 2011 baseball during my boxing day shopping spree. I had never purchased this product before and had not bought Bowman baseball cards since the early 90's. The packs were on sale but were regularly priced at $10 each. This is the same price point as the NHL Artifacts cards and I figured the Platinum product should produce some good results because of this. I was only somewhat right.

In all I pulled 6 hits, consisting of 2 parallel cards, 3 prospects and one auto redemption card. I also pulled 3 rookie cards, none of which were serial numbered and are part of the base set.

The base cards are printed on a slightly thicker than average paper stock that is roughly half the thickness of the Ultimate NHL cards. The backs have a clear design with a hefty amount of text that doesn't read like a book. The number on the back is placed within a red bubble on regular cards and green ones for rookies, which is helpful since the only other difference between base and rookie is that there is a small RC printed on the front. The front of the base and rookie cards is slightly glossy with a silvery sheen that makes the photos pop! The backgrounds are blurred to allow the player to stand out, and each player is featured in an action shot. The front graphics are isolated to the bottom 1/5 of the card and are very clear and the palyer's name is printed in a reflective silver over top a dark and non-reflective background. Overall these are excellent looking base cards and would make an outstanding looking set.

I pulled three prospects subset cards, all of which where printed with chrome fronts. The design is almost identical to the base cards except that there is more text and no stats on the backs. I also pulled two parallel cards, one of which is a prospects parallel. This parallel is of Yasmani Grandal and is dubbed a X-Fractor, which fall 1 in 4 packs. The second parallel is a gold base card, which is identical to the base cards except that the front has a gold tint. Gold variation cards fall 1 in 5 packs. None of the parallels or prospects I pulled were serial numbered.

The final hit of the 4 packs is a Trevor Bell auto relic card base; I believe this will be a signed jersey card. This came as a redemption card, so hopefully I won't have to wait too long for the card to arrive in the mail. This is also the first redemption I've pulled from a Topps product (Bowman is produced by Topps).

Compared to the 4 packs of Artifacts that I opened, the Bowman product was much weaker. However, I still came out with 3 rookies and an auto. I'll be trying my hand at this product again if not just for grabbing a few more of the excellent looking base cards.

Upper-Deck Artifacts 11/12: 4 Pack Break

Continuing my thread of boxing day box and pack break extravaganza is the rundown of what came out of 4 packs of Artifacts 11/12. This is hands-down THE best product so far of the 11/12 season. The packs can be a little expensive at $10 each but there is a guaranteed hit in each one! This guarantee is included in all the Artifacts products from previous years except the 11/12 product includes the biggest and most numerous hits!

Two of the four packs had common hits, which I refer to the subset base cards as. These cards are broken into two groups, Stars and Hockey Legends. Both of these sets are serial numbered out of 999 and continue the base card numbering. These sets are getting tired as they have been included in each year Artifacts has been produced, but it is fun to see which current NHL star will be included for that year. Regardless, I pulled one Star and one Legend from the packs. Thankfully the other two packs provided a much bigger jaw dropping experience!

The first big hit was an Artifacts Tundra Trios card, numbered 148 of 149 that featured three jersey swatches. The jerseys came from Subban, Price, and Plekanec of the Montreal Canadiens and features two red and one white swatch. I loved that more than one color was found in the jerseys and loved it even more that the card featured some of my favorite players from one of my favorite teams! Awesome jaw dropping moment!

The fourth hit of the packs was huge! This hit was of a jersey and patch base parallel numbered 42 out of 65! The card is of Patrice Bergeron, and yes I know it is sacrilege to like both Boston and Montreal. Nonetheless, the patch is beautiful with three breaks, featuring a large yellow chunk and a smaller black and white area along with a second tiny black piece in the corner. The jersey is lackluster as it is solid white but who cares when the patch is this prominent!

Striking two big hits like the Montreal Trios jersey and Bergeron patch /jersey cards are why I will keep going back to this season's Artifacts product! Just awesome stuff!

UD Srs II 10/11: Buyback

Today I picked up a bunch of baseball and hockey cards because of a boxing week sale at my nearby card store. I'll be bringing up a number of posts from this box and pack breaking extravaganza, and here I begin with 6 packs from the Upper-Deck srs II 10/11 product that I opened.

I keep buying UD srs II 10/11 because of the high-frequency of case and box break cards that you pull. I've pulled some seriously great cards such as 2 black parallel Victory rookies (short printed to about 5) and an exclusive Parjavi UD Young Gun rookie serial numbered to 100. So with the sale I decided to try another 6 packs. Amazing I only pulled two duplicate Young Gun rookies while finding 1 that I previously didn't have. I also pulled 3 Victory rookies that I didn't have, making that 6 rookies from 6 packs! Pretty awesome odds considering rookies fall roughly 1 in 4 packs. On top of these rookies, I also pulled an UD Exclusives base (of Chris Kelly) numbered 87/100 and another Young Guns, this time a UD Exclusives Ryan Reaves rookie numbered 40/100. This blows the odds out of the water considering Exclusives fall one per box!

Buyback

The big hit of the box was a case break Buyback card. These cards are previously released Upper-Deck cards that have been purchase through the secondary market by UD to be re-released in current products. I had only pulled one buyback before in an OPC 08/09 box, which was a signed 07/08 OPC rookie. This time around the buyback was an Ilya Kovalchuk jersey card numbered 73/100 from their 07/08 Black Diamond product. The card is unaltered and was packed within a plastic sleeve and had a Buyback certificate inserted alongside it (pictured left). The card itself looks OK, but it is lackluster in that it was not signed like my previous buyback. Further, the card itself seems pretty random and I don't understand of why UD would go through such a hassle of buying back an average jersey card. The whole thing isn't helped either by me not being a Kovalchuk fan -I actually loathe the player and will probably sell it, back to the secondary market!

Topps Chrome 2011 Baseball: 1 Box

As I previously wrote, I have re-started collecting baseball cards. I really love baseball because it was the first sport I was engaged by. I was born just outside St. Louis and of course was infected by the feverish passion of baseball at an early age. Some of my earliest memories are of attending Cardinals games, but as a young teenager I moved to Canada and my ability to connect to the sport was greatly diminished, especially in continuing to collect baseball cards. As of the past few years I have picked up the odd pack of baseball cards and for one reason or another I decided to try a full box the other day. I decided on Topps Chrome 2011 because it is a very affordable product that promises 2 autographs per box, and Topps is synonymous with baseball like O-Pee-Chee is with hockey.

Here's what I got from the one box:

Base: In all I picked up 58 base cards from the box. The base cards have a clean design with pretty standard action shot photographs of the players. The text and graphics are simple and leave lots of room for the photo to shine, which the chrome covering definitely helps with! The chrome is very nice and makes each card sparkle! The backs of the cards have again a clean appearance with easy to read text and a glossy instead of chrome covering.

Rookies: The last 50 cards of the base set feature rookies. These have the same design of the rest of the base set except for a small RC placed near the bottom. The backs of the cards have a healthy blurb about each player to fill-in the lack of stats. The rookies are not serial numbered and I doubt that they have a high collectibility because of this.

Refractor Parallel: The easiest to pull parallel set are the refractor cards. I pulled 8 of these, with three being rookies. The cards are not numbered but have a super reflective and somewhat silver sheen to their fronts. The cards look really nice but I didn't realize they were parallel cards until a second look through the cards. One of the refractors, pictured here, was of Mickey Mantle. It was nice to see a HOF player being featured in the set but it also seemed out of place as he is the only (?) HOF player included in the set.

Sepia Parallel: I pulled only two of these parallel cards that are the same as the regular set except for the sepia tone of the fronts and an inclusion of a serial number (out of 99) on the back. The cards have a really nice look with the sepia tone and I can understand why someone would try to build this parallel set. The sepia cards fall 1:43, so I did very well finding two in this box.

Blue Parallel: I pulled one blue parallel from the box, which fall 1:57 packs. This parallel set has a blue border and are serial numbered on the back to out of 99. This parallel card does not look quite as sharp as the sepia ones and I am somewhat confused why they don't have a different production run -most parallel sets have different production runs as is found in the multiple parallel sets included in Artifacts hockey.

Heritage Chrome Subset: This subset is obvious when found because they feature a great throw-back design from the 1962 Topps set but stars current players and of course has a chrome front. The backs of the cards are serial numbered out of 1962, which is a nice nod to what the set is honoring. There were 4 of these cards found in the box, plus an additional black refractor heritage chrome. This black card has a slightly more shiny front and numbered out of 562. These fall 1:148 packs. There are 100 cards in this subset, so completing the set is likely incredibly hard considering the few I pulled in this box.

Vintage Chrome: This subset is more similar to the base set and I am at a loss as to what it contributes to the product. The Vintage set features 50 of the biggest stars in current baseball, and again I pulled only 4 of these cards. The fronts have a very similar design to the base cards and includes the player's stats and short bio on the back but with a different layout. The cards are not serial numbered and seem to be repetitive from the base set.

Autographs: There are roughly 2 autographs per box of Topps Chrome. These autographs can be either a rookie card variation, which is a card with an identical design to the base set rookies but with a concave blank area at the bottom where the hard-signed autograph (in blue ink) is located. The second autograph set is of members from the USA baseball team; I did not find any of these. I pulled three autograph cards, which makes this a very strong box that I broke considering all the parallels I had also pulled. Of the autographs, I pulled an Andrew Cashner rookie auto and a Mark Trumbo rookie auto. Both autos look really great and don't appear like they were rushed. Trumbo's autograph is so nice you can actually recognize almost every letter, which is a real rarity in autographed cards. The only negative comment about these cards is that they are not serial numbered. Personally, I feel that every memorabilia or auto card should be numbered. The third auto card was numbered. This was a blue parallel auto, numbered out of 199. I was happy to see one of the autos numbered but I am confused why this card was out of 199 when the non-autographed blue parallel I pulled was numbered out of 99.

This was an extremely fun box to break because all the cards look really nice. I received a bunch of parallels and it was a lot of fun to find something a little special in the pack, not to mention I was above average on the number of autographs I found. I will definitely return to this product and hope I do just as well again! This product is a teeth rattling, chrome encrusted pickle that deserves to be placed in pride on your shelf! Good product!

Upper-Deck Series I Hockey: 2011/12

Upper-Deck series I & II hockey are perhaps the best sets available for this sport. It is an affordable product where the base set is easy to build and rookies and subsets add an element of chase, not to mention some very attractive case breaks. While this is traditionally a great product, it has become stagnant over the years and UD has addressed this by offering three types of parallel cards, more types of case breaks, and overhauled the Hockey Heroes subset which is a mainstay of this product. On all of these revamped fronts the 2011/12 product has hit a bulls-eye, however the base cards are perhaps the most poorly designed ever.

The other day I picked up 6 packs of UD srs I. My superstition, which is shared by many card collectors, is that I always grab the last few packs in a box. Again, this was a case where I wasn't disappointed!

Base: As per usual with UD srs products, we have here a 200 base card set, with another 200 base card set tacked on with the srs II. The base cards feature a few of the key players from each team and nothing else too fantastic. This year's base cards are no exception, but for perhaps some of the best photos I have ever seen in this product: loved how Getzlaf is turned into a pretzel in his photo! My criticism for this year's base set is that the front design is very bland, with an uninspired silver outline puck shaped area that presents the player's name at the bottom. The graphics around this puck shape are also very bland and blend into background, which does feature a great photo that is not obscured by the graphics or text. The other weak note is that the backs of the cards have little to no colour, making them again very bland. The text stands out well and even features french translations. The worst part of the backs is that there is a massive negative space between the stats and blurb about the player. This negative space is non-existent on players who have been in the league for more than 8 or so years, but on sophomore players this space is massive! I don't know if UD didn't have enough to say about each player or if someone was too lazy to move the text up a centimeter to match where the stats ended. Either way, I greatly disliked the look of the base cards.

Hockey Heroes: I pulled one of the Hockey Heroes cards and they look superb! For series I, the subset features the great players of the 1950's, and here I found a Bobby Hull card. I love the graphics and the whole concept of this subset! This is a must collect set for sure.

UD Exclusives: I pulled on parallel card from the 6 packs. These parallels are numbered out of 100 and fall roughly one per box. I didn't find a great parallel card (Zidlicky), but it was still nice to pull one. On the side of criticizing the base cards, this parallel base differs from the regular base only in the addition of the gold foil, numbering, and statement that it is a parallel card. Again, the design is weak and the gold foil does little to improve it.

UD Game Jersey: While not a favourite player, Ilya Kovalchuk is a star player and I was delighted to pull it! The jersey card is pretty much the same as every year except that the design is different. The design differs in the geometric patterns that appear behind the player's photo and in the shape of the jersey window. As per usual, these memorabilia cards are not numbered, but do look pretty sharp. On average these cards fall 2 per box.

Young Guns UD Canvas: I pulled a second short print but un-numbered parallel. This time it was of a rookie card instead of the regular base. The card has a textured front, similar to a canvas, and is printed on thicker stock. The design is also slightly altered from the regular edition rookie cards. This fall one per 2 or so boxes, so I was definitely lucky to pull one of these.

Overall UD srs I is a fun-as-expected product to break. I definitely lucked out on the cards I pulled, and will be returning to this product shortly. I love the price point and the canvas cards are very cool looking; perhaps even better than last year's retro rookie cards. The only down fall of this product is that the base cards have a horrible design, but the rookie and subset cards are what most people collect this product and I am really no different. This is a sweet if slightly soggy pickle of a product!

Topps Marquee 2011 Baseball: 1 Pack Break

This is a fun product to break for it guarantees you a hit and offered at a reasonable price, despite it only taking a minute to open because there are only 5 cards including the lone hit. I haven't been collecting too much baseball over the past few years even though I do watch it and root for a few teams quite heavily. Recently I decided to pick up some baseball cards and I decided on Topps Marquee 2011.

Here's what I got:

Base: In all there were three base cards, each featuring a HOF player of great vintage. The players were Honus Wagner, Johnny Mize, and Whitey Ford, each a memorable name from baseball's illustrious past. It was very interesting popping these cards out as it would be more expected to see a player from the 60's to 90's be highlighted as is the case in hockey, but then again hockey does not share baseball's depth of time. As for the card's design, it is quite appealing with an image of the player that includes the background and an interesting story along with the player's career stats presented on the back. My only criticism is that the name 'Topps Marquee' should have been written over top a dark background as the silver etched lettering is not too visible on cards with light coloured photos.

Base Parallel (Copper): One base parallel was pulled from the pack, which features Carlos Gonzalez of the Rockies. I'm not a fan of the Rockies, but the card still looks pretty nice. The design is exactly the same as the regular base except for the front foil is copper coloured and it is serial numbered out of 199.

Hit: The single hit from the pack was an autographed rookie card of Michael Pineda from the Seattle Mariners. I quite like the Mariners, so this was a decent card to pull even if it wasn't a case break card. The autograph is nice and large, written over a completely white background with a silhouette image of the player above; which is why I scanned this card with a dark piece of paper behind it. The card is also hard-signed which is very refreshing from the all too common sticker autos that Upper-Deck relies upon. The card is also serial numbered out of 570, which seems like a random number but I won't complain as it is all too often that signed cards are not numbered at all, much like what's found in Upper-Deck's Ultimate product.

Overall this is a really sharp product that delivers a nice hit for an affordable price. The base parallel are nothing special, but nonetheless adds a small measure of depth and excitement. The base themselves are clean in design with the players brought to the forefront; plus the choice of HOF players adds a further measure of interest.

Goodwin Champions 2011: 1 box break

Recently I won a box of Goodwin Champions from Upper Deck's Facebook fan site. This is a product I had not originally intended to purchase but now that I won one I may just pick up another box!

Goodwin Champions is an odd product to say the least. The word 'champions' should be used loosely as many of the cards feature people that are or were considered champions. It would seem that all major sports in the word are represented, except for perhaps cricket, as there are Olympic athletes, soccer players, and of course the North American big 4: baseball, basketball, football, and hockey. All of the athletes from these sports are certainly champions, however the addition of cards featuring people such as Annie Oakley is bizarre to say the least. Regardless, it is fun breaking this product and being absolutely surprised as to who you will find. Besides the unexpected individuals, this product also features three exceedingly rare and equally bizarre case hits. The first are the Museum Collection Relics, which features portions of historic objects such as a piece of Lord Nelson's battle flag. Second are the Goodwin Masterpieces which are hand painted portraits of American presidents, with only 10 made for each of the handful of presidents represented. Lastly are the Entomology cards that have rare and exotic insects housed within thick and over-sized cards.

What I pulled:

Base Cards

Base Cards: A total of 80 base cards, without duplicates, were pulled from the box. The base cards are printed on thick cardboard stock with the backs being lighter or darker in color depending on the paper quality. Personally I like this difference as it reminds me of how cards used to look when I was a kid. A short bio and one-line condensed career stats are listed on the back for each card. I greatly enjoyed these bios but did feel that the font could have been cleaner looking; for example the t's appear very odd. The front of the cards sport a painted portrait of the individual in question, with the person striking a candid or framed pose. The quality of the art varies and I would guess that some of the artists were rushed into finishing the pieces. Some of the faces were painted sloppily and lack necessary detail, some of the paintings also have incorrect body proportions, and some of the backgrounds are slapped together with little thought put into them. However, some of the paintings are very well done and are often portraits of the more famous individuals.

SP's black & blue

Eight base card sp's were pulled. These have black or blue bottom borders, unlike the red borders on the rest of the base set. The sp's have a much smaller print run but UD is not stating what this print run is, however the black are supposed to be more rare than the blue bordered cards. There is no difference between the regular and sp base cards other than the color of the border. With the sp's included, the base card set comprises a total of 200 cards.

Die-Cut Subset: I pulled one Figures of Sport die-cut card, which average one per box. The card I pulled is a decent painting of Lebron James. The card appears to be in the shape of a tin can, which is another remarkably odd feature to the Goodwin Champions product. The card does not have a serial number.

Memorabilia: Despite Goodwin Champions featuring athletes from a variety of sports, I managed to pull memorabilia cards of two basketball players. These cards have a small swath of material fitted under a cut out of an 'M' on the card. The cards are not serial numbered and the same image shown on the player's base card but slightly smaller. One of the memorabilia cads was of Derrick Rose, and has a bright red swath of material. The second card features a yellow mesh swath from Magic Johnson. The pulling of a Magic Johnson memorabilia card made everything worth it, even if the card is not worth vast sums of money.

Autograph: On average there are three autograph or memorabilia hits from a box of Goodwin Champions. This autograph constitutes the final hit. The design of this card is identical to the memorabilia cards and is autographed by Kasey Keller. At first I had no idea as to who Kasey Keller was, but upon googling his name I came to find out he was one of the pre-eminent US football goalies. I can't say I follow soccer, but it is still an interesting card that adds depth to my card collection. What is also nice about this card is that it is a hard sign with a blue auto.

Minis: A parallel of the base cards were produced where the cards were shrunk down to a 1/4 of their original size, hence the name mini. The Minis are a fascinating idea but do not fit well with the other cards so I usually lump them all into one soft plastic sleeve. In all I pulled 7 minis. In addition, I also pulled 2 variants of these minis. These variants have a smaller print run, but again UD is not saying exactly how many were produced. The variants have the same fronts as the regular mini except that the border is black. The back of the minis have 'Lady Luck' written across the back in red, replacing the bios and stats found on the regular minis.

A third version of the minis was also pulled. This was a case hit as it is a black foil version with the word magician on the back. These cards are incredibly scarce as they had a print run of only 9, and the print is hand written onto the back of the card in red (see photo)! The card is of Kyle Parker, who I really don't know much about him as he plays for Colorado, which is not by a long shot one of my favorite MLB teams. Nonetheless, the Parker card was very exciting to pull because of its scarcity but will likely be put up on the auctioning block of E-Bay!

Overall the Goodwin Champions 2011 product is hands down one of the weirdest products I've ever had the pleasure of breaking. There were some good hits and lots of surprises. The product is entertaining and offers something a little different to the world of cards. For these reasons I give this product a pickle with googly eyes and a sombrero, because that makes as much sense but is just as fun as this product is.

Upper Deck ICE 08 /09: Collection

Upper Deck Ice is one of my favorite products in the arena of hockey cards. Ice has a great original design and features quality box and case breaks. As I haven't had the money to pick up any new packs of cards, I've begun showcasing what I have bought in the past. In this post I am highlighting my collection of Upper Deck ICE 08 /09, which is the result of opening 3 boxes.

Base Cards: The base cards feature what I suppose has become an almost standard design of a photo of a hockey player removed from his original background. This silhouetted figure is placed upon a light colored color backdrop that includes a few geometric shapes. The background also has small scratches embedded into the card that are akin to scratches on an ice rink. The outline of the player is also raised up and a slight shadow is cast on the lower edges. This gives the card a nice 3D effect and certainly makes it memorable in comparison to so many other products.

Rookies: I absolutely adore the ICE rookies. The acetate card with serial number printed on the card make them unique and highly collectable. The images always look sharp and the acetate gives the images a wonderful soft and realistic feel to the photographs. The silver foil accents also add another dimensions to the card's appearance and appeal. Additionally, there are several levels of the rookies with higher draft picks receiving lower serial numbers, ranging from a printing run of 1999 to 99. From the 1999 print run I picked up a  Karl Alzner rookie and from the 499 print run a Patrik Berglund rookie. Both have become strong and important players in the NHL. The cream-of-the-crop rookie that I pulled was a Kyle Turris numbered 1/99. Turris was a first round pick and has become a strong player on the Coyotes team. Turris is not a household name due primarily to him being a part of a third-string NHL team. Regardless, rookies numbered to 99 fall one per case which makes the Turris card a tremendous hit!

Fresh Threads Jersey Cards: The Fresh Threads cards feature two small square swatches of 'event-used hockey memorabilia' from a rookie player and does not sport a serial number. The cards have an excellent design that compliments the base and rookie card designs; this makes the product more cohesive when subsets and base cards have a similar design. I also love the 'cracked ice' design on the lateral margins of the card. While I cannot be absolutely positive it appears that the two swatches always feature two different colors, which makes the cards that much more attractive. As a side note, the word 'memorabilia' has replaced 'jersey' for many products as the material is being drawn from the player's entire uniform, from the pants to the jersey.

From the Fresh Threads series I pulled two parallels. One is an Oscar Moller card with a serial number of 12 /100. The front and back of the card have an acetate cover that adds a wonderful gloss and shine to the card, and of course makes it slightly more thick. The second card is a jersey /patch card of Andreas Nodl numbered 11 of 25. This is a great card for it has the same design as the other Fresh Threads but includes a two color break on a patch and has a very low serial number.

Frozen Fabrics: Fresh Threads featured rookie NHL players and in contrast Frozen Fabrics features retired and current superstar NHL players. This series has a similar design with angled lines and a cool blue motif as the Fresh Threads, but inverts the position of the two material swatches. The regular version of the Frozen Fabrics that I pulled features Larry Robinson of the Canadiens. The second Frozen Fabrics card I pulled was a parallel version numbered 44 out of 100 and showcases Sergei Fedorov from when he played for the Capitals. This card has an acetate front and back, the same as the Moller parallel mentioned above.

Glacial Graphs: I pulled three Glacial Graphs, which are autographs on clear acetate cards. These cards do not sport serial numbers. The three cards feature (individually), the autographs of Alexander Edler, Luke Schenn, and Devin Setoguchi. These are three very strong names for the 08 /09 NHL season and I was ecstatic when I pulled them. Again the cards feature a complimentary design to the rest of the set through the usage of angled lines and a light grey /blue color scheme. The autographs are signed with a fine blue marker in an open spot on the acetate card next to a medium sized silhouette image of the player. The autographs look absolutely superb as they are of a great size, and the Schenn auto has great detail that does not look rushed or tired, unlike so many other autographs you might pull.

Upper Deck Ice 08/09 is a truly great product and was the highlight of that season for me. I loved the cohesive design and the usage of acetate. I loved how the material and autos were brought to the forefront on the card and featured recognizable NHL players. The great collectability of the rookie cards with different levels of print runs also makes each box exciting to open and encourages the collector to continue picking up more; I'm still yearning for a Stamkos rookie! As per usual, 08/09 ICE is a certifiable cold and crisp pickle, fresh from the canning jar picked up at grandma's house -and nothing's better than that!