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!

Ultimate 10 /11: 2 Pack Break

Ultimate 10 /11 is a far superior product than the 08/09 & 06/07 products that I had ripped in previous years. The latest product features a sharp design, and even better, the product is loaded with big hits. The two packs I opened are proof of the big hits and make you salivate for more!

What I pulled:

Base: Ultimate 10/11 has a small run of base cards, from 1-60 with many of these featuring classic players. The cards are numbered out of 399 and have a great gray tone design that makes the color photograph of the hockey player pop. I pulled a Ron Hextall and Ron Francis cards. The Francis card is pretty interesting since I don't remember seeing a retro Francis card before in any previous UD set.

Rookies: I unfortunately did not pull any big name rookies, despite there being a lot of big names in the 10/11 season. There is an autographed and non-autographed version of the rookie cards, with the autographed versions having print runs of either 299 or 99. Both my rookies did not have an autograph and are numbered out of 399. I pulled a Jamie Arniel and a Matt Hackett rookie. Despite the lack of auto and that these are not first rate rookies, the cards are still very sharp looking and include the player's stats on the back.

Materials: I pulled one Debut Threads jersey numbered out of 200. The card is of Justin Falk and is of one color. The jersey window is massive as it takes up around 1/3 of the card and has a nice looking gold foil border. The design of the card again is quite sharp and despite it not featuring a big name player it still adds some depth to the pack.

In addition to the jersey, I also pulled a Debut Threads Patch. This is a beautiful looking card with the patch being the same size as the jersey in the previous card. The patch has three breaks and four colors! The card is numbered out of 35 and belongs to Kevin Shattenkirk, one of the better rookies of 10 /11. This was pulled from the first pack and made it all worthwhile.

Autograph: From the second pack I pulled the mother-load of autographs, Bobby Orr. I have never pulled a Bobby Orr autograph before and I was shocked to the say the least when I did here! The card is unfortunately not numbered. It has a beautiful design and the auto was signed in blue. As the guy at the shop said when I pulled the card, this is to be a cornerstone of my collection!

I also pulled a redemption card for an autographed debut thread jersey, numbered out of 50. I'll post about this card when it arrives in the mail.

Overall the Ultimate 10 /11 product is absolutely stellar and is hands down my favorite of the season. The cards look really sharp and each pack seems to sport at least one really tremendous card. Online it seems that every second pack has a patch in it too, suggesting UD ramped up the number of hits per case! This product deserves a big ol' sweet and perfectly chilled pickle!

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.

Artifacts 2010-11: Two 3-Pack Adventures!

On two separate occasions I picked up 3 packs of 2010-11 Artifacts. I really enjoy this product as it has a low price-point that produces a hit per pack that could either be a serial numbered card or a material /auto card. Also, the cards look really sharp with a flashy foil accents on the borders.

The hits I pulled:

Legends: Pulled 1 Cam Neely Legends card numbered out of 999. The card is without auto or material attributes, but nonetheless is a nice looking card. The card is not part of a subset but rather belongs to the regular set which is broken into base cards, rookie cards, legends cards, and stars cards. This is the same organization as the previous years' Artifacts product.

Rookies: Pulled 2 rookies, both numbered out of 999. The rookies weren't big names (Tokarski & Hamill), but the cards are still sharp looking serial numbered rookies that always adds depth to a card collection.

Jersey Cards: I pulled a base card parallel where two small swatches of jersey were placed at the bottom, and the card numbered out of 150. This is a great way to produce a base card parallel, and while the jerseys are white and the player is not a big name, the card is still very sharp looking and a fine addition to the collection. The second jersey card I pulled was of Roberto Luongo and is also numbered out of 150. The card belongs to the Frozen Artifacts subset and features two square jersey swatches, with one above the other. Not a bad looking card of an A-list player.

Patch Cards: This is perhaps the best patch card I have ever pulled from an Artifacts product. This is a duel patch card of the Tundra Artifacts Tandems subset and features the two A-list players of Henrik Lundqvist and H. Zetterberg. The card is numbered out of 15. The patches are of the same size and shape as the jersey cards: two squares over top one another. The patches are really unique as the Lundqvist patch is all white, but the material is looks like looped wool; really neat looking. The Zetterberg patch is also very nice looking, with a seem on the left side, showing a splash of red along the squares border.

Overall I felt I did quite well with these 6 packs. Artifacts continues to be a strong product, but I do wish they would make the jersey and patch windows a bit bigger.