UD Series 2 11/12: 2 Box Breaks

Over the past month I picked up 2 boxes of UD srs II. It is a weaker product from last year's srs II in respect to it not short-printed and hence loaded with big hits in each box; last year I was pulling parallel young guns in almost every box, not to mention auto and buy backs. Compared to other years of srs II, besides the 10/11 edition, the 11/12 product stands as one of the better years. The card design is very attractive, with bar-none the best photography found in any sport card product, much like this year's srs I UD. In continuation from previous year's UD srs II, each box reveals one rookie jersey, one regular player's jersey, and of course the rest of the year's crop of young guns cards. I'm not sure about who exactly is included in this product's young guns list, but I do know (from pulling the card) that Zack Kassian is one of the rookies. In addition to the young guns rookies, srs II again delivers an update to the Victory product. While I do not buy the Victory product, I do enjoy pulling the update cards from the srs II product because it adds some diversity to the box. The addition of Victory cards adds more rookie cards to each box than found in the srs I product which does not include update cards. New to this year's srs II are update cards for OPC and MVP. I really like the idea of adding these other update cards as it adds that much more diversity to what is being pulled and multiplies the number of rookies one finds in a box. Despite this year's srs II not being as loaded as last year's, UD still put out a solid product that is very fun to break and provides a decent bang for your buck.

Young Guns: The box wrapper suggests you will find 6 Young Guns per box, and upon opening my two boxes I found exactly that in each. I also did not pull any duplicate rookies from the two boxes, which is always a relief when trying to build a set! I didn't find any huge names, but it is pretty common that the bigger rookies are seeded in the first UD series.

Canvas Parallel Set: I pulled 6 canvas base cards, 1 young guns card, and 1 retired stars sp card. The base and rookie canvas cards all have the same look as those released through the srs I product. I really like this parallel set and is something unique to the UD srs product. Last year UD had retro parallel sets and it would seem that the addition of parallel sets will continue. My only complaint is that the words 'young guns' on the canvas cards blends too much into the background and I would prefer to see the words stand out more with the usage of a lighter or brighter color or with the use of some foil. As a side note, the retired star card I pulled (from a separate box than the young guns) was of Gretzky. I knew this was a sp card and wasn't something I particularly collect. I after pulling the card I quickly sold it on ebay for a nice little sum that greatly offset the price of the box. The selling of this card demonstrates that the srs II product does produce cards of value! *on a side note, I only received one UD Exclusives serial numbered parallel card. I realize on the box that they only fall 1 per 2 boxes, but I think that they should up it to every box as it does add a little bit more of excitement to opening the product.

Gretzky Canvas sp that I sold.

Subsets: The srs I UD products introduced a new, 1950's theme for the Hockey Heroes cards. This was used instead of highlighting one particular player and UD will continue this theme of highlighting decades in chronological order until at least next year with the 70's and 80's. The srs II, logically, gives us the 1960's theme set and again the cards look great; there are on average 2 cards inserted per box. UD wrote that inserted into packs will be hard-signed Hockey Heroes but it would seem that these will be incredibly scarce; maybe on 10 or so of each signed card. The Hockey Heroes set had become quite bland and overused for the past two decades. It is very refreshing to see a new take on this subset instead of taking the easy way out of not producing them at all.

Jersey Cards: The regular jersey cards have the same design as the srs I product, which is sharp looking with the usage of a geometric pattern and medium-sized photo of the player. The jersey swatch is of an average size for a product of this price range -thumb nail size- and features some strong players; I pulled a Tanguay and Dadonov card. The Rookie Materials cards have perhaps the best design out of any of the previous year's UD srs II products. The jersey swatch is thumb-nail size and put into a 'R' shaped window. The design is simple and has a small player photo on the left with an additional close-up on his face in the right corner. The cards look really great and as per usual, fun to pull.

Red card is the OPC Update parallel.

Update Sets: As I mentioned above, this year's srs II product offers three different update sets! You have the MVP, OPC, and Victory update sets included. The Victory cards pull more frequently than the OPC, which pull more frequently than the MVP. The differences in pull rates provides another level of depth to this product that I really enjoyed. I also enjoyed pulling big name rookies that were featured in the srs I product, and hence not available in the srs II young guns list. Most notably of these rookies is Nugent-Hopkins, whom I pulled a rookie of from the OPC and MVP sets! In addition to the Update cards are the parallels of them, which are featured for the Victory and OPC but I am unsure of for the MVP.

2011/12 UD SRS II is another strong product that sits well with its previous year's releases. The cards look very sharp and I greatly enjoy the additions and change ups from the previous year's releases. On the downside, it seems that the boxes are not as loaded or short-printed as the 2010/11 release, meaning that the 11/12 product will not be as collectible, however, also easier to collect because it won't sell out as fast. Another difference is that two boxes of the 11/12 product gave me a full set of the base cards, unlike the 10/11 product that took almost or over 4 boxes to complete. Base cards are not usually worth much, but to me it is nice to be able to complete a set with only a few boxes purchased.

In comparison to what else has come out for the 11/12 hockey market, UD srs II is one of the best products. You get a reasonable bang for your buck and it will leave you with a few bucks left to buy a new box to store your cards in! Much like the 11/12 srs I product, this product deserves a solid and fresh pickle!

Second Box of Score 2011/12

A few days ago I picked up second box of Score 11/12. The first box revealed an autographed rookie and a short printed rookie, along with a stack of nice looking base, glossy parallel, and subset cards. Score is one of the most affordable products in the realm of hockey cards and offers some good value. This second box left me scratching my head and was the opposite of what the first box offered.

The biggest problem with the second box was that I was left with a mountain of doubles. The product's base set includes 500 cards and an additional 50 rookies. A second box for a product with such a big base set should never leave you with a mountain of duplicates, but Score 11/12 did. Additionally, the second box even had duplicates within it -roughly 6 duplicate base cards and 1 duplicate rookie card. I really do not like finding duplicates within one box, let alone finding a mountain of duplicates for cards I busted from just one box previously! In the case of the rookies, I found a total of 17 rookies in the second box. Sixteen of these cards were duplicates from what I had previously pulled! This demonstrates poor random placement of cards in Score boxes. Also, I found 2 duplicate rookies in the second box itself. You should never find duplicate rookies in the same box, and I had never had this happen in last year's Score product. Overall I am not impressed with Score after busting this box!

Word glossy not included around #.

Upon looking at the glossy cards I pulled from the second box I noticed that not all of the cards said glossy on the back. Glossy cards from the 11/12 Score product should have the word glossy above and below the card number on the back, along with the front actually being glossy. I noticed that all of the Boston Bruins cards had the glossy front but did not have the word glossy on the back. I searched various web sites to see if this was a known error or perhaps a variant short print, but thus far I have not come across anything about this, except for a message board on Beckett cards where people think it is a misprint and seems to have occurred to all the glossy Boston cards.. It would seem that this is an error that occurred on all the Bruins' glossy cards. To me, this is a sign of poor quality.

I picked up roughly the same number of subset cards in the second box, expect did not find any NHL Shield Die-Cuts or First Goal Cards. I believe the Shield cards are not found in every box, much like the snow-dome of last year's product. However, I did find a Score B subset card which I believe falls one per every other box like the Shield cards. Score B is a nice looking card with a black and white photo of Brodeur on the front and a small blurb about him on the back, however I have no idea why this subset is called Score B. It seems pretty random. It seems even more out of place considering that all the other subsets have themes that are logical to what is shown on the card, for instance Making an Entrance depicts how marquee players are shown coming onto the ice prior to a home game.

Sateri Front

Sateri Back: # should be at top left.

The best card from the second box of Score was a short-printed Harri Sateri rookie card. This short print appears exactly the same as the other rookie cards but the number on the back is missing. According to various web sites, this is a purposeful error by Panini and were short printed to somewhere under 100. While it's nice to pull a short printed rookie, I'd much rather have it be stamped with a serial number, marked with a higher number like the Landeskog I pulled earlier, or have a completely different look to it (foil trim or different graphics).

Despite pulling a short printed rookie I am very disappointed with this second box of Score. The only saving grace is that the product is so cheap that I can afford to take another chance on it.

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 ICE 09 /10: 2 Box Break

Upper Deck Ice had been one of my consistently favorite hockey card products because of its beautiful design, rare and uniquely designed rookie cards, and generally fantastic hits. The boxes also have a reasonable price tag, which allows everyone to afford a few boxes. The 09 /10 Ice product is perhaps the weakest of the product's line due to the ghastly looking base set and what seems to be poor hits per box. The lineup of rookies in the 09/10 season was also not extremely strong, and while beyond the control of UD it did not help the attractive value of the Ice product as their main selling point are their rookie cards. As it would turn out, the 09 /10 Ice would be the last year this product would be sold in boxes as the 10 /11 season would see individual packs of the products inserted into the UD SPX boxes as a bonus.

What I pulled:

Rookies: The reason why Ice is an attractive product to invest in is because of their rookies. You average around 6 per box, each embossed with a serial number. There are a few levels of rarity in the rookies cards, ranging from print runs of 1999 to 99. The cards feature great looking silhouette photographs of the players on top a clear acetate card, which is a feature not found in any other product. Another positive note is that a small bio is presented on the back of the cards. While I prefer to see some stats, a bio is nonetheless appreciated as so many other rookie cards in other products do not list anything at all. From the two boxes I did not manage to pull any low numbered rookies, but did pull a couple solid names such as James Reimer and Cody Franson.

Materials: I pulled two Fresh Threads jersey cards; one card in each box. These are the same idea as the rookie jersey cards from the series 2 UD products, except with slightly larger jersey swatches. My problem with the 09 /10 design is that the backgrounds are far too dark. While the blue motif is logical and easy on the eyes, they should have used lighter shades of the color and perhaps one other color (sparingly) to add a bit of contrast. The cards are also not serial numbered, which is a shame because the rookie cards are. For these cards I pulled a Sergei Shirokov and Jakub Voracek Fresh Threads.

I also pulled two Frozen Fabrics jersey card, and again these were found 1 per box. This line of jersey card features classic or current star players instead of rookie players like the Fresh Threads. The Frozen Fabrics cards are similar to the Fresh Threads in that they have a similar sized swatch of jersey and are not serial numbered. However unlike the Fresh Threads, the Frozen Fabrics have a better design because a contrasting color to the blue was used here (that being red). Also, the background to the player's photo is ghosted, allowing the player himself to pop forward while still retaining the context of the shot. Very nice cards, in which I pulled a Pavel Datsyuk and Steve Shutt. Two very good names to pull.

Autographs: From each box of Ice you can average 2 material cards and 1 autograph card. Off E-Bay I scored two very cheap autograph cards to add to my meager collection of 09/10 Ice. These two auto cards belong to the Glacial Graphs series, which are an absolutely beautiful set of autographed cards. First off the autos are hard signed; no stickers here! The cards are made of acetate like the rookies, which has a great look for showcasing an autograph. The photos are crisp and silhouetted atop a geometric background and ghosted background image from the original photograph. Further, the autos themselves were signed in blue ink, which is always more interesting than the generic black. The only downside is that again no serial number was provided for these cards. It seems that Ice is very reluctent to provide serial numbers except for their rookie cards.

Notice how the auto blends into the blue of the flag?

I pulled 'The Champions' auto from the first box I had picked up of Ice. This series of autographs feature hard-signed autos from Olympic Athletes that are not serial numbered. Some card fans were upset about pulling these autos as it frequently featured people who did not play hockey. Personally, I think it's a pretty neat idea as the Olympics occurred the year before and provides you with an autograph of someone you would rarely obtain one of. That being said, I do wish that these would be a bonus autograph because I do agree that if UD says you will receive at least one autograph per box then at least one of those autographs belong to an NHL hockey player. From this box I pulled a Natalie Darwitz auto, who is the captain of the US women's hockey team (not bad at all really). The auto looks great, but I do wish they had provided a larger light colored space for the auto as it could be much more prominent in comparison to the background.

The final hit I have came from the second box. This is a mammoth, case break hit of a Signature Swatches of Mario Lemieux. This is an absolutely beaut of a card with a huge black swatch of Lemieux's jersey with his autograph in silver laid over top. The card design is perfect  and I couldn't be happier. On second thought there are two things that would make me happier. One is that again there is no serial number which is completely unacceptable for a case break hit. Second is that the auto has a small smudge on the 'L', which shows a lack of care in UD's part during packaging. Nonetheless, this is a beautiful card that is one of the best in my hockey card collection.

In sum, the UD Ice 09/10 product is a solid product that has a few problems. While not shown here, the base card design is poor in comparison to previous years. The lack of serial numbers are also frustrating but become more so on the case hit. On the positive side I received some good hits from my two boxes, and the rookie cards again deliver some of the best looking and most unique looking cards out of any product on the shelves. The rookie cards are the reason to pick up the Ice product, and for that reason alone the 09 /10 Ice product is worth putting some cash down on the counter for. Ice is still a cold and crisp pickle!

SP Authentic 2010-11

SPA is one of my favorite products every year because of its great design and solid output of autographed rookie cards, plus the occasional pull of an auto-patch rookie. However, with this year's product there are a few negative points that make it not the strongest product of the year.

In comparison to other products brought out this year, SPA did not appear to increase the quality or quantity of their hits. When Paninini re-entered the hockey card market I was worried it would flood the market and devalue cards much like what happened in the 1990's. Instead, I am finding that card value has remained constant but the quality and frequency of pulling hits has increased, which is a definite win-win for the consumer. Further, while UD has not decreased their price tags, Paninini is offering a product that is slightly less or comparable in quality to UD's but with a 1/3 to 1/2 the sticker price. SPA however, did not pick up on this trend of lower price tags and more /better hits. Instead, SPA is offering fewer hits at the same price as every other year's SPA set. Specifically what is missing from SPA are the parallel cards that are serial numbered. Granted they do have an enlarged patch /auto collection this year, but with their insertion rate of 1 per case good luck finding one! The parallels were always nice because you knew you'd pull one per box and there was always a chance it would be a low numbered rookie.

Other Problems: The design of the set is very crisp and dynamic, but the set layout is the same as every other year. By set layout I mean what types of cards are included, which in this case you get base cards, sp notables (serial numbered), non-auto rookies (serial numbered), auto rookies, and the subsets. I suppose making the layout the same brings the SPA line together as a cohesive product but I would like to see it take some level of a different form in next few years, otherwise it will become dry. The other problem is that you only receive three auto's per box on average. That's it! Compared to other products with a similar price tag there should be at 2 more autos per box! A third problem is that the serial numbered cards should have much lower print runs. The auto rookies are numbered out of 999, which is a huge number considering how many auto rookies you can pull in a box (at best 2!). A print run of 999 for the non-auto rookies is more than fair, but an auto rookie should have a print run of less than 750.

What I pulled from the boxes I bought:

Notables, Front

Notables, Back

SP Notables: I averaged 4 Notables per box. The cards have a very nice design, however the image of the player could be in more focus. The cards are numbered to out of 1999. The 'notable' players are notable and feature the greats of the current and past game. Fun to pull.

Non-Auto Rookies: I averaged 1-2 of these per box. The cards are numbered out of 999, which I think is a fair print run for a non-auto rookie card in a mid-range priced box of cards. The design of the cards is sharp and the best part is that the player's stats and draft info is listed on the back of the card. I don't know why it has become more and more uncommon to display this info on rookie cards, but in my opinion you shouldn't call a card a rookie without having some stats on the back. But I digress...

Auto-Rookies: I averaged 2-3 per box. The front design for the auto vs. non-auto rookies is almost identical but for the deletion of the team logo from the auto rookies, which I prefer being included. The back of the cards (much to my chagrin) is missing the player info /stats and instead has the UD generic 'congratulations' for pulling an auto that you already knew you were getting (it's not actually like you won something here UD). The autos themselves are nice as there is a generous white area for autos on the cards, providing some medium to large autos. The autos were also done with blue markers, which makes it pop off the card. The biggest down side is that the cards are numbered out of 999, which as I said previously should be lower.

The two best auto-rookies I pulled was a Seguin and Subban. Subban's auto looks pretty nice but came as a redemption; however, I only had to wait 2 months for the card which is uncommonly quick for UD redemptions. The Seguin card is also nice but the auto is pretty skimpy. The card is numbered 172/999 but by the shape of his signature I would say the guy had been signing a few thousand cards before getting to sign the one I pulled! Nonetheless, two great rookie cards!

Sign of the Times (subset): I pulled at least 1 Sign of the Times per box. These are auto cards with no information on the back of the card, and tend to feature last year and this year's rookies. The cards have a great design and have ample room for the autos, which again are signed in blue marker. The cards are unfortunately not serial numbered. The vast majority of the cards I pulled were of recognizable players, which makes it worth pulling (such as Hamill, Eller, Kadri, & Couture pictured here). However it seems to be incredibly difficult to pull any of the cards with more than one auto, as I pulled only one and it was a redemption. This year's redemptions do not list the name of the players who will sign your card, but instead list it as a mystery redemption  (fingers crossed for Crosby!).

HOLO FX front

HOLO FX back

HOLO FX (subset): I pulled at least 2 of these per box. Not serial numbered or autographed. This subset has been included in every SPA product and they are a fun pull. The cards feature great photos of some great present and past players. The shiny background could have a bit more style to it (other than a repeated SPA logo), but nonetheless looks really sharp. The back of the cards also list some simple stats such as their weight and height. Cool and fun to pull cards.

So in sum, SPA is a decent product but not the year's best. The loss of parallel base cards from last year is a strike, as is the high print runs of the auto-rookies. Another strike comes in comparison to other products this year that seem to give you a bigger bang for your buck. However, you still get some great looking cards and autos of some of the best players in the game. Really, it's just a soggy if still sweet pickle.

Between the Pipes 2010-11

Between the Pipes (BTP) by In the Game has always been a fun product because it highlights goalies. It showcases the art of their masks, delves into the history of goal tending, and spotlights up & coming and current stars. In the past, hobby boxes of BTP has offered a few great box and case breaks, but the hits have been somewhat lack luster in comparison to other products. The price tag has always been fair (at or below 100) and a box gives you 90 to 100% completion of the base set. The problem with the hits has been sticker autos, and hits of players few people have actually heard of. That and the hits were few, with most boxes offering basic hits per box (jersey & an auto); however the 2009-2010 did seem to be a generous year for this product in providing great hits (I'll talk about this in a future post).

The 2010-11 BTP is a great product and noticeably improved from previous years.

Base Cards: Design pretty much the same as previous years. You have the standard array of cards such as Future Stars, Stars of the Game, Immortals, and so on. Nonetheless, I still enjoy seeing who they include in the base set, even if it is getting tiresome. The standout for me is that they included female goalies this time, which oddly is what was not included in my box! I got almost the entire set minus the female goalies! Weird...

Non-Hit Subset: Here I'm referring to the cards without material or autographs. For BTP the highlight of the subsets are the Masked Men cards, which have foil fronts. This years cards look great, but watch out for the typo, the garden variety masked men have a green front and the backside calls them an emerald version 1/1. These are not 1/1, but rather a dime a dozen. Regardless I love the masked men design (see photo below)!

I picked up two other subsets in the box. One subset is called Guarding The Blue and White Net. I pulled one card from this subset, and ITG says there are a few different types of the 'Guarding' series, each with a name referring to the team's colors. I'm not a fan of this subset as the design is too dark and has little balance. The idea is OK, but nothing that spectacular. Plus, as per usual with BTP the cards are not serial numbered. The other subset is a much better concept, which is called Deep in the Crease. This series highlights all the goaltenders from one NHL team. The front depicts all the goalies, which is rarely shown in other sets. It's also just plain cool to see all the goalies lined up like that. The downside is that the design again is really dark and uninspired. Looking even to the text, the font is commonplace and doesn't stand out at all.

Maxime Clermont

Dwayne Roloson

Autographs: I pulled 2 autos from the box. The first is a Future Stars auto of Maxime Clermont. Not exactly a stellar name, but the card design is nice with a large photo of the player next to the auto. Both the autos I pulled are stickers, but with how the design is shaped around the auto you really don't notice the sticker. The font of the text is again boring, and the colors are muted. The second auto is a Stars of the Game Dwayne Roloson auto. This was a great hit as he is a staring goaltender for the Tampa Bay Lightening. The design is almost identical except for a change in background colors, which is a pretty cheap move by BTP.

Jonas Hiller Jersey

Materials: I pulled 2 material cards from the box, and this is what made the box really worth it! The first was a Game-Used Jersey Black. Going by the production run of the 2009-10 BTP, the print run on the Jersey Blacks should be 130. I pulled a Jonas Hiller jersey, which is definitely an A list goalie! The card has a seam break at the top right corner, which makes the jersey really pop! The seam also breaks into the second color -white. The placement of seams on the jerseys is something I've found that ITG does fairly frequently, and I love it! It makes the jersey card really stand out from those produced by UD.

The second material card I pulled was a Game-Used Emblem Black of Sergei Bobrovsky, and again going by last year's print run there should've been 6 made. The card has 3 breaks, with the top two being patch breaks of black & white, and the bottom third is orange jersey. Personally I don't like it when there is jersey material on a patch card, but in this case it looks pretty good. This was also a great pull because while Bobrovsky didn't have a great season in 10-11, he is a break-out rookie goaltender and is a name that most hockey fans know well, much like Hiller!

Sergei Bobrovsky Between the Pipes 2010-11 Game-Used Emblem Black

Final Thought: This is a great product but I am curious if what I pulled would be repeated in future boxes. I pulled two memorabilia and two auto cards, three of which featured prominent names. The product design is definitely tired and needs to be redone, but the content is still fun if somewhat stale. The presence of three different non-hit subsets also adds a little bit more excitement to opening the packs as well.