Ultimate 06 /07: 1 pack

A long time ago I picked up a pack of Ultimate 06 /07. This is a middle of the road priced series of hockey cards from UD that has the same price point as a box of cards, but instead you receive 1 pack. Although it is only one pack, you are guaranteed at least 2 hits, plus a rookie card, that in some ways is the equivalent of the hits you would receive in a box of equally priced cards. Overall this can be a hit or miss product but for whatever reason I have had some good luck with this product as I have purchased in sum 1 pack of 06 /07, 1 pack of 08/09, and 2 packs of 10/11 Ultimate; I have no idea why I only purchase the product once every two years. As the 10/11 product recently came out, I felt I would post what I received in my previous packs before delving into what I got from the most recent product.

What I got:

Base: The base cards have a very elegant design with the hockey player removed from his original context and slapped onto a background with geometric and organic designs. The designs have a muted color scheme that allows the player's picture to be brought to focus, with parts of the player (hand & foot in this case), bleeding off the edges. Here I pulled a Wayne Gretzky wearing his Oilers jersey, which is perhaps the best base card you could possibly pull. The card is numbered out of 699, which isn't a bad print run for a base set. The weird thing about this card is that Gretzky's stats on the back of the card do not feature his years with the Oilers but instead his final years with the Kings to Rangers. Odd to say the least. Despite this, it is a great looking card.

Rookies: Here I pulled a Ryan Shannon rookie numbered out of 699. Again, not a bad print run as it does not feature an auto or jersey element to the card. The background differs a little too dramatically from the base set as it is very dark with a blah looking beige color and some slapped on gold colored foil along the lateral margins. Not a great player on a very blah looking card. This is probably the weakest element to the 06/07 product.

Autograph: I pulled an Ultimate Signatures of Jordan Staal that is not serial numbered. I feel that every card from a one pack product like Ultimate should always be serial numbered, so this is definitely a strike against Ultimate. This was Staal's rookie year, so pulling his auto dramatically improves this pack's excitement level. The background and overall design is dark like the rookie discussed above, but the auto is big and placed over a white with grey elements background. This allows for the auto (signed in blue) really stand out.

Patch: The leading card from the pack was a Evgeni Malkin Ultimate Patch numbered out of 75. This is a really stellar card as this was Malkin's rookie year. The patch is quite nice with two breaks and two colors, although the patch is incredibly small and should be much larger for a product such as this. The major downside to this card is that one of the corners is scuffed from the manufacturing process. High-end product like this (even with a middle-range price tag) should have high manufacturing standards. I understand a low-end product like O-Pee-Chee having some defect and error cards, but you should never find such a card when the product has only one pack per box. Great card but aggrivating that it has a defect.

Overall the Ultimate 06 /07 product is a nice looking set, with some strikes of dark looking backgrounds and small windows for patches. I pulled some excellent names from my pack, but the defect left me wanting more.