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.

Bowman Platinum 2011 Redemption

I had previously opened a few packs of Bowman Platinum 2011 and discussed it here. In the box was a redemption for a Relic Auto card that I had contacted Topps about in early January. About 3 weeks later the redemption arrived in the mail. This was the first redemption I have ever had through Topps and I have to admit I am pretty happy with the process. Ideally you never want to find a redemption because they are time sensitive (can expire), can take months or longer to arrive in the mail, and because when you buy a box of cards you should expect all the cards promised on the package to be in the box and not contingent on you contacting the company. Redemptions can be an especially painful process because they are often auto or memorabilia cards, where it is that card that holds all the value in the box of cards you just bought. Thus far, the Topps redemption was painless much like my experiences with Uppder-Deck. Panini, however, is horrible. I have been waiting months for a redemption to be fulfilled and am annoyed that I see that some collectors had received their redemptions (for the same card I am requesting) months ago! Furthermore, my e-mails about the redemption have never been asnwered by Panini. Boo Panini! Yay Topps!

back

front

OK, so back to the Bowman Platinum 2011 redemption. The card I received was an autographed memorabilia card from Angels' pitcher, Trevor Bell. The card features a sticker auto signed in blue with a moderate sized memorabilia swatch. The fabric is all white, but that's common for baseball jersey swatches. The card has a great gloss /shiny design that matches with the rest of the base cards. The card is serial numbered out of 1166, which is really high for a card of this sort. 

Overall, the card looks fantastic but the drawbacks are in that it has a sticker auto and the print run is exceptionally high. I greatly appreciated how quickly the card was shipped and that it was nicely /securely packaged. Any concerns I had over Topps' redemptions are now gone, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to be over the moon when I find one because I'd rather have the card inserted in the pack rather than contacting the company for it.

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!

TOPPS Heritage 2011 (Baseball): 8 Pack Break

I love baseball but do not collect baseball cards to the same volume as I do hockey cards. When I was a kid I collected nothing but baseball cards and for some reason that is not the case anymore. This week I picked up 8 packs of Topps Heritage 2011 Baseball cards. I did the same for the 2010 Heritage product and was fairly satisfied with the product and thought I'd do the same again this year -try out a few packs.

The 2011 Heritage product has a design that mimics the 1962 Topps card series. It is a nice looking set with faux wood borders and a staged, often portrait shot of a baseball player. The bottom right corner of the photos are slightly rolled so that the player's name and team name can be shown. The color and sharpness of the photos are also skewed so that they are reminiscent of older photographs. The skewing is nice because it makes an otherwise boring portrait shot instead dynamic and interesting. The back of the cards are also nice because they include a tasty paragraph of trivia on each player, their combined career stats, and a bit of trivia that is associated with a comic-style drawing of the player in action. Overall, this set is really nice looking and worth picking up!

Each pack contains 9 cards with the chance of subset, memorabilia, and autograph cards. From the base cards I picked up 5 rookies and two high-numbered cards. The high-numbered cards are base cards numbered between 461 and 500 (I believe), and they are short printed. High-numbered cards fall 1 in every 3 packs. In addition, I picked up one News Flash Backs and Baseball Flash Backs cards. I like the baseball flash backs as it highlights the major events of the year this product pays homage to, but the News cards can be weak. I picked up the 'Dodger Stadium opens its doors' card, which is fine, but I've seen some of these cards feature news stories about the Mona Lisa and American politicians. I'm sorry, but I'm buying baseball cards and not random stuff cards. These two cards represent part of the product's subset and are perhaps the weakest part of the product. They are not numbered nor do they stand out from the base cards. I think they could have just done without these. Next, I pulled a check list. There are six checklists in this series and they are not part of the base set. I prefer checklists to be part of the base sets and there is nothing interesting about this card other than the card stock and colors are different from the base set. I don't get this as a checklist should go with the base set cards, and why does this card stand out from the base cards more than the subset cards do? Weird.

Pulls from the 8 packs: 5 rookies, 2 chrome, and 2 relic /memorabilia cards.

OK, I saved the best for last here. From the eight packs I broke, I found two chrome and two memorabilia cards. The chrome cards are the same as the 2010 series, but still look really nice. The chrome cards are numbered out of 1962 (makes sense) and there are multiple versions of them with different numbering schemes. For instance, there are green chrome cards that are numbered out of 100 something and fall 1 per case. Next, I pulled two memorabilia cards or what Topps calls clubhouse relic cards. The first was of Justin Morneau (Twins), and the other was Albert Pujols (Cardinals). The relic cards look nice with clear portrait photos of the players and a decent sized jersey, although some relic cards also feature wood instead of jerseys.

I had heard that relic (and autos) fall one per box so obviously I had lady luck on my side with these eight packs. Even if I had pulled only one relic card in these eight packs I think I would've still been happy. The base set looks good and the chrome cards and relics add a nice additional value. There are two drawbacks to this product. One is that the subset cards don't make sense and blend in with the rest of the set. Second is that I don't like there being too many parallels to a product. From what I've gathered, there is the regular chrome, green chrome, blue chrome, black border, and red something or the other parallels. I think a product should stick to one or two parallel editions. Anymore than that and it waters down the value and interest of the parallels. That being said, I still love the look of the chrome cards.


This product is pickled.

Upper Deck Artifacts 2010-11: 3 Pack Break

Picked up 3 packs of Upper-Deck Artifacts, 2011.

Never been a huge fan of this series as the design has been weak and last year's product had many defects. The primary defect is that the foil along the cards was often scratched or ripped. Nevertheless I picked up 3 packs of this year's series in the hopes of finding one of this year's great rookies.

From the three packs came 8 base cards. The base cards are not numbered and feature a similar design to the 2010 product, including the foiled accents. Unlike last year's product is that the foil is mint from the pack! The cards also have a really sharp look, with the players displayed over a stylized background that is either blue or yellow in color. The highlight of this product is that each pack contains a hit, although the hits can vary from a serial numbered 'Star', 'Legends', or 'Rookie' to a memorabilia or auto. The Star, Legends and Rookie cards are the same as last year's series, along with the hits of memorabilia and autos. The fact that the only difference from the 10-11 and 09-10 products is that the backgrounds have been changed on the base cards does not warrant a 'pickled' status. I still like how you get a hit, even if it is weak because the price of the Artifacts product is affordable and as my three packs show, it is worth it. I would just not recomend sinking too much cash into this product as there are better products out this year.

Hits from the 3 packs of Artifacts.

Getting back to the three packs I opened, the three hits were one memorabilia, one auto, and one rookie. The memorabilia card was a Frozen Artifacts Paul Stastny single color, two-piece jersey numbered out of 150. The autograph was from a less than pickled player. The auto is an unnumbered Gilbert Brule card. The auto is not a hard sign but instead on a sticker. I prefer hard signs, but am not upset over the usage of stickers either. What was nice about the auto is that it was signed in blue ink, unlike the more common black ink used for most cards; I don't get why more autos aren't done in different colors, but maybe that's just me. Lastly, the rookie was of Corey Elkins, numbered out of 999. Overall not bad pulls from three packs, but again the unimaginative design leaves me wanting a lot more. I'll probably pick up a few but not many more packs as I would rather spend the money on a different product.

Crown Royale 2010-11: Pack Break

Saw some good cards coming out of the Crown Royale packs from online posts and thought I'd try my hand. I prefer Upper Deck products to some of the new Panini products that have come out this year, but thought one pack wouldn't hurt!


Crown Royale 2011: Pickled!

A box of Crown Royale contains 3 packs, with 5 cards per pack and each pack has at least one hit: autograph or memorabilia! The packs are reasonably priced and is a nice alternative to the much pricier Upper Deck products that offer a guaranteed 'hit' per pack. Upon opening the pack I was immediately satisfied. In the pack were three base cards that were die-cut with a shiny crown at the top. Base cards are not numbered but there are parallel base cards that are. In addition to the base cards was one subset card: Royal Pains. This subset has a silver embossed area on the card that matches the base set, which is nice that the team behind Crown Royale had put some thought into making a unified set. The Royal Pains cards are also serial numbered out of 499, which is not a bad run as many subsets from other products are numbered at 999 or more. Finally, the hit of the pack was truly OUT OF THE PARK, or I guess rink might be a more appropriate word! What I pulled was a Royal Lineage patch card numbered out of 25! The card featured three pickled (!) patches, one from each: Kyle Okposo, Evander Kane, and Wayne Simmonds. A great collection of young players!

Crown Royale 2011 pack

Now, while I pulled a great pack there is one con to this product. One is that the awesome patch card is slightly curved because (I think) of the size patches. In my experience, Upper Deck patch cards do not warp from their thicknesses. Because of this I do wonder about the quality behind Panini's manufacturing. There may be more cons to this product, but as the one pack I picked up treated me so well I will definitely try my hand again!