UD Trilogy 09 /10: 4 Pack Break

Akin to how I went about collecting the previously discussed UD SP Game Used product, I every so often would pick up on pack of 09 /10 Trilogy alongside a stack of a cheaper product's packs.  Trilogy is a higher end product that boasts at least one hit per pack, but unlike SPGU the hits are a mixture of autograph and material. According to Josh Zusman (UD brand manager), the product is named Trilogy because each box contains three autograph cards, three rookie cards, and three jersey cards.

The 09 /10 Trilogy product has numerous problems, most notably that the hits you receive are not worth the price you pay. Hence why I picked up only 4 packs. I only picked up this many because they were on sale and because I thought I was just having poor luck.

One important negative with the 09 /10 Trilogy product is that the base card design is really bland. Base card design is important to me because it is the base cards that comprise the majority of the pack. It is the base cards that also comprise the majority of the collection and in my opinion work as a standard of quality of what the better cards (the hits) in the series will look like. If the people that put together a product cannot afford a high quality base card then how can they be expected to produce a high quality hit.

The second important negative is that only one hit from the four packs was actually worth what I had paid into the product. It would be foolish to consistently expect the cards from each pack to be worth the same amount as you paid for the pack; otherwise the manufacturer is loosing money as they have to spend more money to make better cards while selling the product at face value. It unfortunately does not work that way. However, I believe that the cards pulled from a pack should be (on average) worth between 50 and 75% of what you paid for the pack. The more expensive the product, the more valuable the cards that you pull. Otherwise why would people continually purchase a product that they never pull valuable cards out of (this is why there are products like Victory that are very cheap and produce likewise cheap cards).

A third negative is that Trilogy seems utterly directionless. Most products have specific types of cards that are highlighted, such as SPGU that emphasizes material (jersey or patch) based hits and Be A Player that emphasizes autographed cards. Trilogy does not seem to emphasize anything as it offers a mishmash of material and auto cards, alongside limited serial numbered cards. The motif of the cards are also non-nonsensical as it seems to have little to do with the sport of hockey -as in random geometric designs.

What I pulled:

Jersey card: I pulled on Honorary Swatches of Eric Staal. The card features two square swatches that have a couple of breaks with red and black color. The card design is bland with odd geometric shapes used almost as filler with an image of Staal to the left. For a high-end product, each hit should be serial numbered but unfortunately this is not the case here. On the plus side there is a fair amount of fabric shown, there are a few breaks in the fabric which make it more interesting, and the card features a B or A level player.

Autographs: In all I pulled three autographs. The frist was a young Star Scripts autograph of Matt D'Agostini. It is my understanding that these cards are to feature rookie or sophomore players. D'Agostini is not exactly the best player in the league (posting +/- of -17 & -12 in his first two years with the Canadiens), but at least I picked up a player from a team I do like. The big downside to this card is that the auto is on a sticker, which is ok on cheaper products but not on higher end products (it costs more than SP Authentic which does offer hard-signed autos).

The second autograph is a Super Star Scripts and features the autograph of Dustin Penner when he was still with the Oilers. I'm not a big Oilers fan but I do think highly of Penner, even more so now that he plays for the Kings. Penner is also a fairly big name and not someone you have to Google. Again it is unfortunate that a sticker auto was used and the design is really dark and filled with nonsensical geometric designs; auto cards always look better with simple and light colored designs that allow the autograph to take center stage.

The third autograph was the one that made the pack worth picking up. This is a Trilogy 1-2 Clearcut Combos autograph of Ted Lindsay and Alex Delvecchio. The autographs are in blue atop a thick acetate card (thickness of a patch card). The card is serial numbered 24/100 and features two great black and white photographs of these legendary Detroit Red Wings players. The card also has a simple design and the placement of the autograph is well executed. This is an excellent card and is what should be expected in each pack from this product. Unfortunately that does not appear to be the case.

Lastly, I also picked up a Frozen in Time card of Jonathan Toews. This card is made on thick acetate the same as the Clearcut Combos. The card is not autographed but is limited to 442 our of 599. Like the Combos card, this features a great design that reminds me of something the UD Ice product would release.

In sum, the 09 /10 Trilogy product is pretty close to a waste of money. There are some nice cards to be had but they do not seem to be too common, and the majority of the cards have an absolutely awful design. You are much better off spending your money on other products like Be A Player or SPA. I give 09 /10 Trilogy one unhappy, soggy and brown pickle.