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!

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.

UD Srs II 10/11: Buyback

Today I picked up a bunch of baseball and hockey cards because of a boxing week sale at my nearby card store. I'll be bringing up a number of posts from this box and pack breaking extravaganza, and here I begin with 6 packs from the Upper-Deck srs II 10/11 product that I opened.

I keep buying UD srs II 10/11 because of the high-frequency of case and box break cards that you pull. I've pulled some seriously great cards such as 2 black parallel Victory rookies (short printed to about 5) and an exclusive Parjavi UD Young Gun rookie serial numbered to 100. So with the sale I decided to try another 6 packs. Amazing I only pulled two duplicate Young Gun rookies while finding 1 that I previously didn't have. I also pulled 3 Victory rookies that I didn't have, making that 6 rookies from 6 packs! Pretty awesome odds considering rookies fall roughly 1 in 4 packs. On top of these rookies, I also pulled an UD Exclusives base (of Chris Kelly) numbered 87/100 and another Young Guns, this time a UD Exclusives Ryan Reaves rookie numbered 40/100. This blows the odds out of the water considering Exclusives fall one per box!

Buyback

The big hit of the box was a case break Buyback card. These cards are previously released Upper-Deck cards that have been purchase through the secondary market by UD to be re-released in current products. I had only pulled one buyback before in an OPC 08/09 box, which was a signed 07/08 OPC rookie. This time around the buyback was an Ilya Kovalchuk jersey card numbered 73/100 from their 07/08 Black Diamond product. The card is unaltered and was packed within a plastic sleeve and had a Buyback certificate inserted alongside it (pictured left). The card itself looks OK, but it is lackluster in that it was not signed like my previous buyback. Further, the card itself seems pretty random and I don't understand of why UD would go through such a hassle of buying back an average jersey card. The whole thing isn't helped either by me not being a Kovalchuk fan -I actually loathe the player and will probably sell it, back to the secondary market!

Goodwin Champions 2011: 1 box break

Recently I won a box of Goodwin Champions from Upper Deck's Facebook fan site. This is a product I had not originally intended to purchase but now that I won one I may just pick up another box!

Goodwin Champions is an odd product to say the least. The word 'champions' should be used loosely as many of the cards feature people that are or were considered champions. It would seem that all major sports in the word are represented, except for perhaps cricket, as there are Olympic athletes, soccer players, and of course the North American big 4: baseball, basketball, football, and hockey. All of the athletes from these sports are certainly champions, however the addition of cards featuring people such as Annie Oakley is bizarre to say the least. Regardless, it is fun breaking this product and being absolutely surprised as to who you will find. Besides the unexpected individuals, this product also features three exceedingly rare and equally bizarre case hits. The first are the Museum Collection Relics, which features portions of historic objects such as a piece of Lord Nelson's battle flag. Second are the Goodwin Masterpieces which are hand painted portraits of American presidents, with only 10 made for each of the handful of presidents represented. Lastly are the Entomology cards that have rare and exotic insects housed within thick and over-sized cards.

What I pulled:

Base Cards

Base Cards: A total of 80 base cards, without duplicates, were pulled from the box. The base cards are printed on thick cardboard stock with the backs being lighter or darker in color depending on the paper quality. Personally I like this difference as it reminds me of how cards used to look when I was a kid. A short bio and one-line condensed career stats are listed on the back for each card. I greatly enjoyed these bios but did feel that the font could have been cleaner looking; for example the t's appear very odd. The front of the cards sport a painted portrait of the individual in question, with the person striking a candid or framed pose. The quality of the art varies and I would guess that some of the artists were rushed into finishing the pieces. Some of the faces were painted sloppily and lack necessary detail, some of the paintings also have incorrect body proportions, and some of the backgrounds are slapped together with little thought put into them. However, some of the paintings are very well done and are often portraits of the more famous individuals.

SP's black & blue

Eight base card sp's were pulled. These have black or blue bottom borders, unlike the red borders on the rest of the base set. The sp's have a much smaller print run but UD is not stating what this print run is, however the black are supposed to be more rare than the blue bordered cards. There is no difference between the regular and sp base cards other than the color of the border. With the sp's included, the base card set comprises a total of 200 cards.

Die-Cut Subset: I pulled one Figures of Sport die-cut card, which average one per box. The card I pulled is a decent painting of Lebron James. The card appears to be in the shape of a tin can, which is another remarkably odd feature to the Goodwin Champions product. The card does not have a serial number.

Memorabilia: Despite Goodwin Champions featuring athletes from a variety of sports, I managed to pull memorabilia cards of two basketball players. These cards have a small swath of material fitted under a cut out of an 'M' on the card. The cards are not serial numbered and the same image shown on the player's base card but slightly smaller. One of the memorabilia cads was of Derrick Rose, and has a bright red swath of material. The second card features a yellow mesh swath from Magic Johnson. The pulling of a Magic Johnson memorabilia card made everything worth it, even if the card is not worth vast sums of money.

Autograph: On average there are three autograph or memorabilia hits from a box of Goodwin Champions. This autograph constitutes the final hit. The design of this card is identical to the memorabilia cards and is autographed by Kasey Keller. At first I had no idea as to who Kasey Keller was, but upon googling his name I came to find out he was one of the pre-eminent US football goalies. I can't say I follow soccer, but it is still an interesting card that adds depth to my card collection. What is also nice about this card is that it is a hard sign with a blue auto.

Minis: A parallel of the base cards were produced where the cards were shrunk down to a 1/4 of their original size, hence the name mini. The Minis are a fascinating idea but do not fit well with the other cards so I usually lump them all into one soft plastic sleeve. In all I pulled 7 minis. In addition, I also pulled 2 variants of these minis. These variants have a smaller print run, but again UD is not saying exactly how many were produced. The variants have the same fronts as the regular mini except that the border is black. The back of the minis have 'Lady Luck' written across the back in red, replacing the bios and stats found on the regular minis.

A third version of the minis was also pulled. This was a case hit as it is a black foil version with the word magician on the back. These cards are incredibly scarce as they had a print run of only 9, and the print is hand written onto the back of the card in red (see photo)! The card is of Kyle Parker, who I really don't know much about him as he plays for Colorado, which is not by a long shot one of my favorite MLB teams. Nonetheless, the Parker card was very exciting to pull because of its scarcity but will likely be put up on the auctioning block of E-Bay!

Overall the Goodwin Champions 2011 product is hands down one of the weirdest products I've ever had the pleasure of breaking. There were some good hits and lots of surprises. The product is entertaining and offers something a little different to the world of cards. For these reasons I give this product a pickle with googly eyes and a sombrero, because that makes as much sense but is just as fun as this product is.

Upper Deck ICE 08 /09: Collection

Upper Deck Ice is one of my favorite products in the arena of hockey cards. Ice has a great original design and features quality box and case breaks. As I haven't had the money to pick up any new packs of cards, I've begun showcasing what I have bought in the past. In this post I am highlighting my collection of Upper Deck ICE 08 /09, which is the result of opening 3 boxes.

Base Cards: The base cards feature what I suppose has become an almost standard design of a photo of a hockey player removed from his original background. This silhouetted figure is placed upon a light colored color backdrop that includes a few geometric shapes. The background also has small scratches embedded into the card that are akin to scratches on an ice rink. The outline of the player is also raised up and a slight shadow is cast on the lower edges. This gives the card a nice 3D effect and certainly makes it memorable in comparison to so many other products.

Rookies: I absolutely adore the ICE rookies. The acetate card with serial number printed on the card make them unique and highly collectable. The images always look sharp and the acetate gives the images a wonderful soft and realistic feel to the photographs. The silver foil accents also add another dimensions to the card's appearance and appeal. Additionally, there are several levels of the rookies with higher draft picks receiving lower serial numbers, ranging from a printing run of 1999 to 99. From the 1999 print run I picked up a  Karl Alzner rookie and from the 499 print run a Patrik Berglund rookie. Both have become strong and important players in the NHL. The cream-of-the-crop rookie that I pulled was a Kyle Turris numbered 1/99. Turris was a first round pick and has become a strong player on the Coyotes team. Turris is not a household name due primarily to him being a part of a third-string NHL team. Regardless, rookies numbered to 99 fall one per case which makes the Turris card a tremendous hit!

Fresh Threads Jersey Cards: The Fresh Threads cards feature two small square swatches of 'event-used hockey memorabilia' from a rookie player and does not sport a serial number. The cards have an excellent design that compliments the base and rookie card designs; this makes the product more cohesive when subsets and base cards have a similar design. I also love the 'cracked ice' design on the lateral margins of the card. While I cannot be absolutely positive it appears that the two swatches always feature two different colors, which makes the cards that much more attractive. As a side note, the word 'memorabilia' has replaced 'jersey' for many products as the material is being drawn from the player's entire uniform, from the pants to the jersey.

From the Fresh Threads series I pulled two parallels. One is an Oscar Moller card with a serial number of 12 /100. The front and back of the card have an acetate cover that adds a wonderful gloss and shine to the card, and of course makes it slightly more thick. The second card is a jersey /patch card of Andreas Nodl numbered 11 of 25. This is a great card for it has the same design as the other Fresh Threads but includes a two color break on a patch and has a very low serial number.

Frozen Fabrics: Fresh Threads featured rookie NHL players and in contrast Frozen Fabrics features retired and current superstar NHL players. This series has a similar design with angled lines and a cool blue motif as the Fresh Threads, but inverts the position of the two material swatches. The regular version of the Frozen Fabrics that I pulled features Larry Robinson of the Canadiens. The second Frozen Fabrics card I pulled was a parallel version numbered 44 out of 100 and showcases Sergei Fedorov from when he played for the Capitals. This card has an acetate front and back, the same as the Moller parallel mentioned above.

Glacial Graphs: I pulled three Glacial Graphs, which are autographs on clear acetate cards. These cards do not sport serial numbers. The three cards feature (individually), the autographs of Alexander Edler, Luke Schenn, and Devin Setoguchi. These are three very strong names for the 08 /09 NHL season and I was ecstatic when I pulled them. Again the cards feature a complimentary design to the rest of the set through the usage of angled lines and a light grey /blue color scheme. The autographs are signed with a fine blue marker in an open spot on the acetate card next to a medium sized silhouette image of the player. The autographs look absolutely superb as they are of a great size, and the Schenn auto has great detail that does not look rushed or tired, unlike so many other autographs you might pull.

Upper Deck Ice 08/09 is a truly great product and was the highlight of that season for me. I loved the cohesive design and the usage of acetate. I loved how the material and autos were brought to the forefront on the card and featured recognizable NHL players. The great collectability of the rookie cards with different levels of print runs also makes each box exciting to open and encourages the collector to continue picking up more; I'm still yearning for a Stamkos rookie! As per usual, 08/09 ICE is a certifiable cold and crisp pickle, fresh from the canning jar picked up at grandma's house -and nothing's better than that!

UD Trilogy 09 /10: 4 Pack Break

Akin to how I went about collecting the previously discussed UD SP Game Used product, I every so often would pick up on pack of 09 /10 Trilogy alongside a stack of a cheaper product's packs.  Trilogy is a higher end product that boasts at least one hit per pack, but unlike SPGU the hits are a mixture of autograph and material. According to Josh Zusman (UD brand manager), the product is named Trilogy because each box contains three autograph cards, three rookie cards, and three jersey cards.

The 09 /10 Trilogy product has numerous problems, most notably that the hits you receive are not worth the price you pay. Hence why I picked up only 4 packs. I only picked up this many because they were on sale and because I thought I was just having poor luck.

One important negative with the 09 /10 Trilogy product is that the base card design is really bland. Base card design is important to me because it is the base cards that comprise the majority of the pack. It is the base cards that also comprise the majority of the collection and in my opinion work as a standard of quality of what the better cards (the hits) in the series will look like. If the people that put together a product cannot afford a high quality base card then how can they be expected to produce a high quality hit.

The second important negative is that only one hit from the four packs was actually worth what I had paid into the product. It would be foolish to consistently expect the cards from each pack to be worth the same amount as you paid for the pack; otherwise the manufacturer is loosing money as they have to spend more money to make better cards while selling the product at face value. It unfortunately does not work that way. However, I believe that the cards pulled from a pack should be (on average) worth between 50 and 75% of what you paid for the pack. The more expensive the product, the more valuable the cards that you pull. Otherwise why would people continually purchase a product that they never pull valuable cards out of (this is why there are products like Victory that are very cheap and produce likewise cheap cards).

A third negative is that Trilogy seems utterly directionless. Most products have specific types of cards that are highlighted, such as SPGU that emphasizes material (jersey or patch) based hits and Be A Player that emphasizes autographed cards. Trilogy does not seem to emphasize anything as it offers a mishmash of material and auto cards, alongside limited serial numbered cards. The motif of the cards are also non-nonsensical as it seems to have little to do with the sport of hockey -as in random geometric designs.

What I pulled:

Jersey card: I pulled on Honorary Swatches of Eric Staal. The card features two square swatches that have a couple of breaks with red and black color. The card design is bland with odd geometric shapes used almost as filler with an image of Staal to the left. For a high-end product, each hit should be serial numbered but unfortunately this is not the case here. On the plus side there is a fair amount of fabric shown, there are a few breaks in the fabric which make it more interesting, and the card features a B or A level player.

Autographs: In all I pulled three autographs. The frist was a young Star Scripts autograph of Matt D'Agostini. It is my understanding that these cards are to feature rookie or sophomore players. D'Agostini is not exactly the best player in the league (posting +/- of -17 & -12 in his first two years with the Canadiens), but at least I picked up a player from a team I do like. The big downside to this card is that the auto is on a sticker, which is ok on cheaper products but not on higher end products (it costs more than SP Authentic which does offer hard-signed autos).

The second autograph is a Super Star Scripts and features the autograph of Dustin Penner when he was still with the Oilers. I'm not a big Oilers fan but I do think highly of Penner, even more so now that he plays for the Kings. Penner is also a fairly big name and not someone you have to Google. Again it is unfortunate that a sticker auto was used and the design is really dark and filled with nonsensical geometric designs; auto cards always look better with simple and light colored designs that allow the autograph to take center stage.

The third autograph was the one that made the pack worth picking up. This is a Trilogy 1-2 Clearcut Combos autograph of Ted Lindsay and Alex Delvecchio. The autographs are in blue atop a thick acetate card (thickness of a patch card). The card is serial numbered 24/100 and features two great black and white photographs of these legendary Detroit Red Wings players. The card also has a simple design and the placement of the autograph is well executed. This is an excellent card and is what should be expected in each pack from this product. Unfortunately that does not appear to be the case.

Lastly, I also picked up a Frozen in Time card of Jonathan Toews. This card is made on thick acetate the same as the Clearcut Combos. The card is not autographed but is limited to 442 our of 599. Like the Combos card, this features a great design that reminds me of something the UD Ice product would release.

In sum, the 09 /10 Trilogy product is pretty close to a waste of money. There are some nice cards to be had but they do not seem to be too common, and the majority of the cards have an absolutely awful design. You are much better off spending your money on other products like Be A Player or SPA. I give 09 /10 Trilogy one unhappy, soggy and brown pickle.

Upper Deck SP Game Used 09 /10: Collection

For a period of time I picked up a solitary pack of Upper Deck SP Game Used (spgu) alongside multiple packs of a cheaper product. I did this because I knew that the SPGU guaranteed at least one hit per pack, which is something the cheaper product could not boast. SPGU has a high-end price tag, where each pack runs between $20 and $30 and the average hit is a jersey of some sort. In all I believe I picked up 6 packs and managed to find a box or case break in each pack, which are incredible odds and is why I picked up as many packs as I did.

The 09 /10 season was the first time I had picked up packs of SPGU and it might be my last as well. This is because the 09 /10 season has the sharpest designs I have ever seen come from the product's line and has the highest ratio of great hits. I've not known previous or later years of SPGU to release so many great hits but I suppose the ratio of hits might have been my uncanny luck and not due to the manufacturer. The other reason I am not inclined to buy into this product again is because it has a high price tag that only guarantees you a jersey card. The regular jersey card is not numbered and honestly not all that special in comparison to the jersey cards you automatically receive from a box of regular series 1 or 2 UD, which costs only slightly more than two packs of SPGU. For this price tag I'd be better off purchasing a middle-range priced box or saving for a pack of Ultimate or whatnot.

What I pulled:

Base: The base cards are not serial numbered but do have a great design. The lettering and team logos are embossed in silver foil and make the cards look very attractive. The image of the hockey players are silhouetted against a mostly white with limited geometric patterned background. The pattern also has a texture similar to cloth, with stitching going over the top margin of the design. This design is great because it ties the base set into what the SPGU is all about: jersey cards.

Base Card Parallel: I believe that one parallel of either a jersey, rookie, or base card was inserted into each box. I pulled one parallel of a Drew Doughty base card numbered 100 out of a 100. It is a very nice looking card that has the same design as the regular base set except that the foil and bottom of the card is gold colored. My only complaint is that the serial number is part of a sticker. I much prefer it when serial numbers are stamped onto the card as it seems less like an afterthought or a lazy method to serial number a card.

Rookies: SPGU is not known for its highly collectible rookie cards. These tend to be listed in the Beckets for almost half the value of products with half the retail values; for example Ice has twice the value of SPGU rookies and SPGU rookies are roughly on par with regular UD rookies. Despite the lack of collectability, the 09/10 SPGU rookies have a nice design to them. The fronts sport a silhouetted photo of the player in question alongside a serial number out of 699 at the top of the card and the back of the card has a small bio and stat listing. Overall a nice looking rookie card. I can't say I pulled any big names from the packs but I am still happy with what I did pull because of the sharp design.

Jersey: I pulled one regular Authentic Fabrics jersey card of J.P. Dumont. The card does not have a serial number and features a medium sized square swatch of his jersey. This is roughly the size of jersey swatch found in the UD Ice product. Overall it is a nice design, but with a high price tag each memorabilia card should be serial numbered.

I also pulled three parallel Authentic Fabrics jersey cards, which do have serial numbers. Like the base parallel, these are serial numbered out of 100 and have the same overall design as the regular Authentic Fabrics except for the addition of some gold coloring. Of the parallel jerseys I pulled a Jay Bouwmeester (awesome card since I live in Calgary) and two Steven Stamkos jerseys. I'm still a little stunned I managed to pull two Stamkos parallel jerseys due to their rarity, and have a hard time parting with the duplicate since he's a big name and the cards look so damn nice!

Patch Time!: There is a chance to pull a patch per box, and I pulled a doozey! This was a Dual Athentic Fabrics patch numbered 24/25 of Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin. This was my second Malkin patch (first is from Ultimate 07/08) but the first Ovechkin memorabilia! The patches are slightly smaller than the jerseys from the regular Authentic Fabrics cards but the patches themselves are really nice and easily make up for the smallish size. The Ovechkin patch features 8 breaks and 4 colors, while the Malkin patch has two breaks and two colors.

Significant Numbers: Continuing with the theme of Evgeni Malkin, I also pulled one Significant Numbers of Evgeni Malkin that features a swatch of his jersey (black) shaped into his jersey number that is accented by a sticker auto below it. While a hard auto would have been nicer, the auto is signed in blue and the combo material and auto make the card a real prize! Also is that the card is limited to his jersey number, meaning this card is serial numbered 19 out of 71! Terrific looking card.

The final hit from SPGU was not actually pulled from a pack. Instead this was sent to me by UD because they had lost one of my redemption cards. I don't recall exactly who the player was, but I do remember that it was not a big name player. So in apology for the delay (it took about a year) and for them loosing the card, they sent me a Dale Hawerchuk Marks of a Nation autographed patch card numbered out of 6! This is an absolutely amazing card and really made me think highly of UD. These limited marks of a Nation cards were inserted roughly 1 per case of SPGU, and each player's card was limited to the number of letters found in their home country's name. These were in celebration of the Olympics and featured prominent players both past and present from across the world who have played in the NHL. For Mr. Hawerchuk I received number 1 of 6, meaning I got the letter C. Along the side of the C is his autograph signed in metallic silver. Absolutely great card.

The 09 /10 SPGU product is filled with massive hits. The overall look of the cards, from base to jersey designs are all spot on and have great details (like the stitching I had mentioned). The hits feature A list players and I managed to pull quite a few case and box break hits. While the price tag is prohibitive, and the previous and later years products of SPGU were not as strong, I would still recomend picking up a pack or two of the 09 /10 line. In all the SPGU 09 /10 product is sweet and delicious pickle with many surprises!

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!