Old School: Upper-Deck 99/00 Gold Reserve

A few weekends ago I went in search of different card stores in the Calgary area. It happened to be the Free Card Day where participating card stores were giving away packs of the Canadian National Card series, which prompted the search for more card stores in order to acquire the full set. In this quest I came across a small shop that had boxes of older Upper-Deck cards for about $20 each. From their selection I decided on a box of 99/00 Upper-Deck Gold Reserve which I had never purchased before. The cards look OK and I pulled the entire set including sp's from the one box. The drawback was that I was left with numerous doubles, off cut cards, and zero subset or chase cards. Then again, the box was only $20.

Base Cards: From the one box I pulled all 135 of the base cards. The cards have a shiny foil design on the front with the player taking up the vast majority of the photo. The photos are fairly generic of action shots and often have the player's image slightly bleeding off the side of the card. Some of the shots are also off-center and the overall composition is uninspiring. The backs of the card are incredibly dark with a dark blue back ground and tiny, sometimes blurry white lettering. The cards are often off cut and the information is fills up the majority of the card whereby an off cut becomes more pronounced because the text is frequently cut away. This is probably one of the worst card designs I've seen but the product is cheap and it is fun to see older players when they were still actively playing.

Star Power: This is a short-printed set that continues the base card numbering. The design is very similar to the base cards and suffers from all of the same problems. The redeeming feature of the set is how it highlights older players such as Shanahan and Sakic.

Young Guns: Again the design is the same as the other cards and suffers all the same problems. What is special about these young guns, however, is that the Sedin twins and Luongo are featured in the set. It is great pulling their young guns but it is odd that their rookie cards were actually produced a few years earlier in other products. It's also annoying that the cards were over produced so while these are three of the biggest stars in hockey, these particular cards are virtually worthless. Nonetheless, it is fun to pull a young gun of these top players in today's hockey.

Upper-Deck Gold 99/00 is a somewhat fun product to break as a box provides you the full set of cards, including the sp's. The overall design is too dark and pretty bland, with numerous off-cut and damaged cards; it also doesn't help that the card stick together when opening the packs. Regardless of over production, damages, and dark designs, it is still fun to pull some classic players and suedo rookies of the Sedin twins and Luongo.

Crown Royale 11/12: 2 Pack Break

Crown Royale was the most original product of last year. It was also one of the best selling products and it's prices quickly increased, with the result being that I picked up only a few packs before the prices flew out of my comfort range. This last week the 11/12 product was released and I decided to pick up 2 packs now. 

While I thought highly of last year's product I was left unimpressed by how long Panini (the manufacturer of Crown Royale) took to fulfill redemptions as I had requested a Henrik Karlsson rookie auto back in Sept of last year and have yet to see my redemption arrive! I figured that the redemptions would be the principle problem with the 11/12 product too but had seen that there were significant changes to other Panini products such as Limited. Checking the web for Crown Royale pulls I saw that many of the Scratching the Surface Signatures had blatant errors in that the team logo was incorrect or the image of the player showed a different team jersey than what was presented in the jersey or patch swatch (eg. player wearing a Blues uniform but the jersey /patch was from the Kings). As there were problems such as this and that there had been changes from the previous year's product, I thought I'd begin Crown Royale with only a couple of packs.

Commons: I pulled 6 commons from the 2 packs I bought. The card design is very similar to last years and has the unique die-cut crown with embossed foil motif. The base cards look very sharp and are worth collecting by themselves. Each pack is stated to contain 3 common cards, one subset or parallel, and one auto or memorabilia.

Parallel: I pulled one Ruby parallel from the two packs. This parallel stands out from the base by the foil being red colored and unlike last year the cards are not serial numbered. As a medium priced product I feel very strongly that these cards should be serial numbered, especially since lesser priced products such as Artifacts has serial numbers on everything but their common base cards!

Rookies: I pulled 2 rookies from my 2 packs, with one being autographed. Neither of the cards are serial numbered, which is a big mistake and I find it cheap and lazy by Panini. Nonetheless, the cards do look very sharp and have an almost identical design to the base cards except that the foil is a light blue and there's a block of text instead of stats on the back. A big bonus for these cards is that the auto is prominently displayed and is on the card instead of being a sticker. A big drawback, however, is that the word 'rookie' should be found somewhere on the card!

Memorabilia: I pulled one triple jersey card from the Royal Lineage set. The card features a swatch from Hall, Eberle, and Coffey. This is a nice looking card besides the overly dark design which is not helped by the three jersey swatches being dark in color, however, they are different colors themselves. Again the back does not include a serial number.

Crown Royale again delivers an outstanding product that delivers exactly what you expect for the money you invest in it. The design is wonderfully unique, although can be a little too dark on some cards. The usage of foil is a great touch and I love the on-card autos. The triple jersey card is great because it features three players that make sense together (all play or played for the Oilers). My only complaint is that NONE of the cards were serial numbered. This should never be the case for a medium to high priced product, especially when you are pulling autos, rookies, and memorabilia cards. From checking out other cards on the net it seems that only cards with patches were serial numbered, which is a big let down.

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Widevision Movie Cards

A week ago I went to a liquidation sale that featured comic books, comic book related statues, and sport cards. While I found some excellent sales on comics and statues, there wasn't too much there for cards. This was kind of expected since most comic book collectors /sellers tend to offer early 90's sport cards and random /bizarre collectors cards such as Desert Storm cards; cards from the early 90's were vastly over manufactured so their worth is negligible and their rarity is non-existent. However, I did come across one box of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Widevision Movie Cards. The vendor sold me the box for about $10 and I knew that one out of every 2 boxes included a signature card from someone that had appeared in the movie. Most of the signatures feature a very minor actor, but regardless this would be pretty neat since I am a massive Star Wars fan.

Example auto card, which I did not find :(

I did not find an autograph in my box. However, I did pull 4 chrome subset cards and compiled the entire base set. An average auto from this product (manufactured by Topps by-the-way) goes for between $5 and $20. The average chrome subset card goes for between $1 and $8, and the base set is under $10. Considering all this, I wouldn't pay much more than $20 for another box of this product. I am also less inclined to purchase this product again since I would be left with a mountain of double base cards and run a 50/50 chance of finding an auto card. The most expensive of the auto cards is Samuel L. Jackson's signature, which averages 1 in almost 3,000 packs, which would be about 1 in every 1,500 boxes! Not exactly great odds for finding a valuable auto.

Chrome cards

From what I pulled, the chrome cards are exceptionally sharp looking. Each card features production art from a particular scene from the movie. The chrome is nicely added so that the card does not bend too much and it does add a nice affect to the image. The back of the card does not have chrome, but instead a blurb explaining the front image. To the side of the back text is another production illustration, this time of a sketch instead of a fully rendered painting as is shown on the card's front.

Base cards

The base set consists of 80 2.5x4.75" cards. Busting a box will provide you with the full 80 card set, plus another 40 or so duplicates. The design is pretty generic in comparison to other movie trading card sets, but still looks sharp. The back of the card has text explaining a scene in the movie and includes a small photo from that scene. The front of the card has a crystal clear, widescreen photo from the scene in question. The resolution on the cards is fantastic and each side has a nice, almost semi-gloss to it. The front of the cards also have a tasteful amount of silver foil, used for the set's name. Overall, the base set is very nice looking.

Overall, a box of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Widevision Movie Cards, delivers a nice looking base set and a handful of chrome subset cards. An auto would've been nice to have been included in each box and the lack of an auto in each box is what would keep me from spending a lot on the product. At $10 though I really can't complain with what I got. A lot of fun to break too!

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.

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!

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.

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.