Box Break - - 2009-10 MVP Hockey Blaster

I told myself before the start of the season this year that I wasn't going to buy anymore blasters. I think I spent $12.3 million on them last year and ended up with piles and piles of stuff; I don't even know what is in there. After reading some reviews on the product, I decided that a blaster was best to "test the waters" on this one.

As most hockey collector's know, MVP is always been a couple steps from the bottom when it comes to price but loaded when it comes to the proverbial hit. I make an attempt to get the Upper Deck main set each year, as well as SP and O-Pee-Chee. MVP is always my third or fourth choice because I like the design and, like I already said, there are a ton of rookies and the insert sets are well designed.

This year is no different so I picked one up the other day.

2009-10 MVP Hockey Retail Blaster

12 Packs per Blaster
8 Cards per Pack
84 base cards / 394 total base set
No Doubles
Guarantees: MVP Rookies 1:2 packs on average

Rookies: (6)

304 Matt Beleskey, 305 T.J. Galiardi, 335 John Scott, 365 Jamie Fraser, 361 Michael Vernance, and 371 Matt Duchene

Inserts: (6)

Hart Winner (1:40): Bobby Orr; Hart Candidates (1:5): Evgeni Malkin, Rick DiPietro; MVP Winter Classic: Scott Hartnell, Patrice Bergeron, Milan Lucic

Autos: (0)

GU: (0)

Overall, this is a nice set for a builder because of its mid-range size and the slew of rookies. Although I didn't get one of the 2-On-2 jersey cards, it was hardly to be expected out of a blaster (even though I pulled one last year). I found it interesting that of the 6 rookies I pulled, 3 of them were Avs and 2 of them were Wild players. Not sure if that has anything to do with quality control but I won't argue with a Duchene. That guy will be a superstar

I think this is a solid hockey set to collect/buy. At about 20 bucks for a retail blaster or around $35-45 for a hobby box, you can't really go wrong here. I would give it a 7/10 for the cards and a 7/10 for my box.

(A special welcome to Hackenbush from over at the Can't Have Too Many Cards blog. He is my newest follower of the Real DFG blog and comes from the Chicagoland area like me. Unfortunately, he is a Cubs fan. We can't all be perfect though.)