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Showing posts with label MVP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MVP. Show all posts

Friday, December 4, 2009

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.)

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Find The Gems - Series 2

Ok, I have always seen these boxes at the checkout counter but never actually bought one. I always wondered if it would be all scrub players and commons shoved into a plastic container or if there was a real shot at something good. At any rate, I broke down and bought one of the Gems Of The Game boxes that claims 10 Hockey Packs plus 1 Graded Card in every box. It also states that 1 in 6 have a Crosby or Ovechkin rookie. If that was really the case, why wouldn't you buy it? Ok, here goes.

Ok, the first card in the box is the graded card, of course. It is a BCCG 9 Steve Yzerman 1994-95 Parkhurst Vintage #V57. Not a common, not a high ticket but I am not disappointed at this juncture.

And now the packs.

Pack #1 2007-08 Ultra Retail

Colby Armstrong #41
Anze Kopitar #109
Michael Nylander #70
Mike Modano #132
Danny Bois (RC) Gold Medallion #208

Not awful, but not awesome either. The Bois Gold Medallion is nice.


Pack #2 2007-08 Ultra Retail

Miroslav Satan #73
Scott Gomez #83
Jay Bouwmeester Gold Medallion #115
Niklas Backstrom #100
Miikka Kiprusoff #168

Not impressed with that one.


Pack #3 2007-08 Hot Prospects (these have never been good for me)

Brad Richards #10
Niklas Backstrom #68
Steve Bernier #94
Guillaume Latendresse #31

Blah!!

Pack #4 2007-08 Hot Prospects

Nathan Horton #66
Jason Spezza #38
Jason Arnott #95
Jonathan Cheechoo #43

Double Blah!!!


Pack #5 2007-08 MVP

Henrik Lundqvist
Shawn Horcoff
Mike Ribeiro
Taylor Pyatt
Chris Phillips
Saku Koivu
Jon Grahame
Jack Johnson (RC)

The Johnson was not a bad pull, but the rest...unless you are a hockey fan you would have no idea.

Pack #6 2007-08 MVP

Marty Turco
Ryan Whitney
Antero Nittymaki
Thomas Vanek
Doug Weight
Vincent LeCavalier
Daniel Alfredsson
Rod Pelley (RC)

A much better mix of players. Better pack.

Pack #7 2007-08 Upper Deck Series 2 Retail

Travis Moen
Kurtis Foster
Manny Fernandez
Joe Sakic
Henrik Lundqvist
Cam Ward
Willie Mitchell
Viktor Kozlov - Victory Update

This was the "sideways" pack. The Moen, Foster, Fernandez, and Lundqvist are all sidways photo shots.

Pack #8 2007-08 Artifacts Retail (The one I was excited about. I like these cards.)

Marian Hossa
Mikael Tellqvist
Brad Boyes
Henrik Lundqvist
Jarome Iginla

A sad, sad batch...but I still like these.

Pack #9 2007-08 Victory

Mathieu Garon
Mikko Koivu
Ryan Whitney
Jozef Stumpel
Scott Gomez
Ryan Parent (RC)

Booooo!!!

And finally...
Pack #10 2007-08 Victory

Ilya Kovalchuk
Cory Stillman
Ryan Smyth
Daniel Sedin
Daniel Briere

Extreme Uber-Booooo!! And I got cheated out of another card.


I guess I should have expected this but at least now I know...Pick the box at the back of the shelf.