Box Break - - 2011-12 SP Game Used

Oh, how I never learn my lesson from SP Game Used.  Every few years or so, I get the bug to bust a box of this stuff and this was the year it came up in the rotation.  I don't think I've opened one for two or three years and I'm not too sure why I wanted to this year.  Maybe it was that I had the urge for something new.  Maybe it was the preview images of some of the awesome material pieces jam packed in here.  I don't know.

But...here we are.  I picked this one up from my LCS, More Fun Sports, and got a great deal for LCS pricing.  There are some online dealers that are already out of stock on these so I'm guessing UD put them into limited production. This years boxes contain 6 packs of 3 cards.  Each pack contains either 1 memorabilia card or 1 signature card.  Also, there should be 2-3 rookies in each box. 

This years set also has cards called 500 Goal Club Marks which feature game used lettermarks of the best goal scorers of all time.  There are also Gold Letter Variations on all the Authentic Fabrics cards.  Each of these features four letter or number abbreviations pertaining to the specific player.  Plus the short printed rookie parallels are all signed!!

I was excited to try and pull one of the Supreme Pads cards which feature all the best goalies and giant leg pad pieces.  I have seen a few of these and they look spectacular.  But the odds are not in my favor as they are numbered out of /10.  You never know, though.  So here we go.

Here are a couple base cards from the box.  They looked strangely familiar to me until I realized they are almost the same design as the old Upper Deck Piece of History set, with the stripes down the side.  My scanner cut off the tops so there is some white space up there on the border.  The design is clean with nothing fancy or in your face, which is kind of disappointing considering the MSRP $180/box price.  Basically that comes out to about $10 per card and these certainly don't look like $10. 

I only pulled 8 base cards in this box which didn't make much sense to me considering logically there should have been 12 (along with 6 GU or Auto).  So with 100 base cards in the set, I don't think I will be trying to put this together.  Or maybe I'll change my mind.

I pulled a Gold parallel of Steven Stamkos numbered /100.  There are also Silver Spectrum /10, and Gold Spectrum /1.  Needless to say, I received neither of those two.

Here is where it got interesting.  Most boxes contain, or are supposed to contain 2-3 rookie cards.  Mine had these:

 Carl Klingberg and Teemu Hartikainen

 Maxime Macenauer and John Moore

 Jonathan Blum and Adam Larsson

Yes, you counted that correctly.  There were 6 rookie cards in this box.  In fact, a bunch of these packs had 4 cards instead of 3.  There was even one pack with 5 cards.  This was odd, especially for a larger priced box.  

And then there were the GU cards.

The first one out of the box was this beaut.  It's a Crosby jersey...GOLD!  These are 1:3 packs and as I mentioned, spell out a four letter/number phrase.  On the back, this one says it will spell out "PITT".  Obviously I now have the "I".  It always makes me happy to pull a PC card out of a box.

The next one was also a GOLD version.  It is a Mark Messier jersey with a blue swatch.  These will oddly enough, spell out the word "BLUE". 

The next one was this plain white swatch of Scott Hartnell, and another GOLD version.  That's three 1:3 odds cards in 3 packs which is one more than should have been in the box.  These ones spell out "FLYR".  I was less than thrilled to see the orange and white peaking out as I opened the pack this was in.  Man are the Pens getting spanked so far.  

The next card was once again a GOLD version of the Authentic Fabrics.  This time we have Dan Boyle but it is a piece of his Team Canada jersey from the Olympics.  The swatch window is shaped like a "D" and these will spell out "GOLD".  So now I pulled 4 GOLD version jersey's in the same box.  Crazy!

The next pack had this.

Another evil Flyer card but as you can see, it's a PATCH card of Ilya Bryzgalov numbered /35.  This one is also gold in color but there isn't a separate gold version of the patch cards.  The patch is a white patch but if you really look at it in person, it almost looks like the orange bled into the white fabric.  It is definitely not completely white.

Finally, the last pack had an auto.  This is probably one of the best cards I have pulled this year out of any product yet.  

Gabriel Landeskog Rookie Exclusive Auto numbered /100.  Yes it's a sticker auto but it is Landeskog.  He led all rookies in points during the regular season with 52 and he finished 2 goals behind Matt Read with 22 for the league lead.  He also showed he can be a work horse contributor, playing in 82 regular season games.  Even though RNH is getting all the attention up there in Edmonton, Gabe has my vote as the front runner for NHL Rookie of the Year and the Calder Trophy.  Awesome card.

Overall, this is not a product for everyone.  If you have the cash and it's burning a hole in your pocket, maybe take a shot.  I don't think the design will wow any collector's but the chance at pulling some really nice inserts may just be worth it.  My box had 5 GU, 1 Auto, 6 Rookies, 1 base parallel and 8 base cards.  That's 21 cards, not 18 like the box says.  I doubt many boxes will have as many parallel GU cards as this one either and I'm not totally sure this would be considered a HOT BOX since I haven't heard anything about them even existing but based on this break, they are obviously out there.