Rack Pack Busting: New Ultra Hockey

I decided I would take a stab at a couple rack packs of the new 2009-10 Ultra Hockey (I have had these for a couple weeks now so I still have yet to purchase anything in 2010). I don't have any of these yet and was a bit skeptical since Ultra has had basically the same design for the last 3 years.

I was pleasantly surprised by these cards. In fact, I think the design is great. Instead of the script writing on the bottom or side of the card, they decided to digitize the players last name in a silver foil stamp open font with the printed name underneath. They still have the full bleed action photo shots of each player on the front and it fades into a silver border that holds the name plate. Very appealing design in my opinion. The backs also have the players stats for their entire career and not just the previous season.

I was able to pull 2 Team Leader (#TL26 David Backes, #TL28 Jason Black) cards and 2 Rookie Sensations (#RS1 Alex Goligoski, #RS29 T.J. Oshie), as they are inserted 1 per rack pack. I also was happy with the #119 Marc-Andre Fleury - Gold Medallion which is going straight into the PC.

The highlight of the packs was #RED214 Rookie Redemption Card which is normally a 1 per Hobby box hit. I think this is Davis Drewiske, who played 17 games for the Kings last year and was the team captain back when he played for the University of Wisconsin. He only has 1 goal in 32 games so far this year but he isn't known for his scoring. He is one of the old school style defensemen that, get this...plays defense. Go figure. I am scratching it off as we speak and sending off for the redemption. We will see how long this one takes.

Overall, I'd say I am impressed with the set design. It is different from the past Ultra sets and sets itself apart from the other standard issue Upper Deck releases. Despite what others have voiced about the base product design, I like the fact that they used the bleed in borders on the edges. I also really am liking the insert set designs, especially the E-X inserts. From what I have seen, the memorabilia cards are well designed, other than the smaller than average pieces. I'm going to give it a 7/10 for the pack configuration and value and 8/10 for the design.

(A warm welcome goes out to one of my many influencers in the card blogging world who is my newest follower, Rob from Voice of the Collector. Hopefully you find my stuff marginally entertaining as I love reading your posts on VOTC.)

More Fun With Explosives...I Mean Pack Busting

I swear this is the last 5 pack combo busting post for awhile. I only have a few more unopened rack packs/boxes left in there but the random packs are depleted. Overall I'd say I faired pretty poorly considering there was nothing of super value here. There was also nothing of substance to add to my PC other than about a half dozen or so. Maybe this final round will make up for everything...or maybe it won't.

Pack #1: 2005-06 Upper Deck Series 2 Hockey

#289 Adrian Aucoin
#413 Jamal Mayers
#407 Joe Thornton
#450 Mikko Koivu (R) - Young Guns
#250 Marian Hossa
#422 Ed Belfour
#330 Martin Gelinas
#DP16 Sidney Crosby - Diary of a Phenom
#221 Nathan Horton - Victory Update Insert

Nice Pack!! Finally a couple cards that I can safely be happy with. The Koivu Young Guns is a fairly decent rookie to pull out of pack of these, barring the Crosby or Ovechkin. I'm also a fan of the Crosby DOAP cards since, of course, one of my collecting goals is to get as many Pens cards as I can.

Pack #2: 2007-08 Upper Deck Series 2 Hockey

#323 Travis Moen
#293 Kurtis Foster
#411 Manny Fernandez
#307 Joe Sakic
#302 Cory Sarich
#368 Michal Rozsival
#420 Ilya Kovalchuk
#284 Ryan Smyth - Victory Update Insert

I'm not 100% but I think I need at least 5 of these for my set. Major positive there. I still love the photography on the Upper Deck cards. I don't even seem to mind the fact that they have produced the same product for the last three years with a different player name layout. They are just clean looking cards.

Pack #3: 2007-08 Victory Hockey

#26 Jaromir Jagr
#194 Alexander Frolov
#30 Mike Knuble
#184 Mike Ribeiro
#70 Brad Richards
#GB27 Tomas Vokoun - Game Breakers

Just like MVP, these tend to yeild either a rookie or Game Breaker insert in each pack. This was no exception with the Vokoun. I love goalie cards so this is nice to go in the binder. There was also another Jagr that I don't think I have yet (I think I always say that, whether I do or not).

Pack #4: 2008 Donruss Classics Football

#52 Ronnie Brown
#76 Kevin Curtis
#33 Jon Kitna
#28 Jason Witten
#85 Devin Hester

This pack was strangely similar to the last pack of these I opened, with the Brown and Curtis cards on top. It even had the Hester, although this one wasn't serial numbered.

Pack #5: 1997-98 Collector's Choice Hockey

#167 Wayne Gretzky
#238 Rob Zamuner
#9 Paul Kariya
#77 Mike Vernon
#123 Vitali Yachmenev

This is the first pack I have opened in a long while that actually had a Gretzky card that wasn't some kind of advertisement. It's him in his Rangers uniform skating behind the net. It almost looks like he was cropped from a different photo and placed onto this card because the proportional size of him in relation to the rest of his surroundings is a bit off. Weird. Of course these are Collector's Choice so they are about as good as furniture shims.

BONUS Pack #6: 2007-08 Ultra Hockey

#109 Anze Kopitar
#173 Alex Tanguay
#54 Simon Gagne - Gold Medallion
#106 Alexander Frolov
#190 Ilya Kovalchuk

I miss counted here but it doesn't matter. This was the last and final pack of 2007 Ultra Hockey. I am going to see how may I am away from at least a base set and maybe put this one together. Not a bad pack though, considering the talent.

Pack Busting: The Saga Continues

Another episode of Pack Busting. I'm getting closer to clearing out the closet. I have found more space than I knew I had. That's more place to put more cards I guess...twist my arm. Here is another sad batch of random packs.

Pack #1: 2007-08 Ultra Hockey

#9 Brendan Morrison
#157 Martin Havlat
#32 Matt Carle - Gold Medallion
#110 Dustin Brown
#96 Michael Ryder

Blah. Just, blah. I am definitely going to put this set together now that I have so many of them.

Pack #2: 2006-07 Flair Showcase Hockey

#2 Teemu Selanne
#8 Kari Lehtonen
#77 Shane Doan
#98 Eric Fehr
#42 Tomas Holmstrom

I bought a retail box of these 6 months, a year, 2 years, I don't remember. I just know I did. The box yeilded almost the entire base set minus, if I remember, 3 cards. These weren't the three cards. I do like the heavy stock they are printed on and the "shiny" factor is in full effect.

Pack #3: 2008 Score Football

#314 Vince Young
#304 Earnest Graham
#253 Heath Miller
#302 Jeff Garcia
Tony Romo - Donruss Decals
#373 Limas Sweed (R)
#119 Andre Johnson - Glossy Parallel

I think this is my 4th or 5th Sweed rookie. At the beginning of the season I was excited about them and all of Limas' potential as the #3 or #4 receiver. Yeah, that's panned out...Sweed was benched for most of the season. I think he probably saw action in 2-3 games. He has now voluntarily moved himself to the IR. What is that all about? Oooohh. I got a Romo sticker I can put on my Trapper Keeper, too.

Pack #4: 2008 Donruss Classics Football

#52 Ronnie Brown
#76 Kevin Curtis
#72 Jerry Porter
#29 Marion Barber III
#86 Matt Hasselbeck

I like these card designs. Unfortunately, there was nothing in here of any substance. I have binder pages for the Brown and Barber. The rest go into the box of oblivion.

Pack #5: 1997-98 Collector's Choice Hockey

#237 Dino Ciccarelli
#183 Janne Niinimaa
#89 Curtis Joseph
#68 Joe Nieuwendyk
#239 Igor Ulanov

Was there ever a time when Collector's Choice was cool? I actually liked the following year (98-99) when they tried to hide the fact that it was a CC product and called it UD Choice. At least then I didn't feel so cheap for buying it. Either way, it is what it is. Nothing to see here.

More Fun With Pack Busting

In my continuing effort to rid the world, ie. my bedroom closet, of unopened packs of cards, I present to you another episode of Pack Busting for Dummies. This is a mixed bunch that includes hockey and football because, yes...I am that crazy.

Pack #1: 2007-08 Ultra Hockey

#191 Slava Kozlov
#65 Henrik Lundqvist
#177 Jason Pominville - Gold Medallion
#46 Curtis Joseph
#44 Georges Laraque

Another Ultra hockey pack. I don't know why I have so many of these. I can't remember if there was a retail box or blaster that I opened and left the packs in a box or what. The GM was Jason Pominville; the SOB who scored the game winner over the Pens last night. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Pack #2: 2005-06 Upper Deck Rookie Update Hockey

#92 Ed Belfour
#6 Kari Lehtonen
#57 Patrik Elias
#14 Miika Kiprusoff
#62 Rick DiPietro

The Goalie Pack. Except for Elias, who I am sure somehow got into this pack by mistake.

Pack #3: 2008 Donruss Classics Football

#40 Andre Johnson
#97 Roydell Williams
#61 Laurence Maroney
#19 Carson Palmer
#42 Peyton Manning

The first football pack in the mix. Not a very good one if you are an insert/"HIT" collector. I don't have any of these in my player albums so these will at least be a welcome addition. Other than the Roydell, the rest will go into the album.

Pack #4: 2008 Score Football

#285 Deion Branch
#239 Donovan McNabb
Carolina Panthers - Donruss Decals Tattoos
#293 Torry Holt
#246 Lito Sheppard
#381 Anthony Alridge
#87 Heary Colbert - Glossy Parallel

Score football is like Collector's Choice in hockey. It exists. You occasionally run into some cards from it. You are usually no better off than you were prior to opening it. I may very well give these to my kids to throw around the house at each other like they do with all their other toys.

Pack #5: 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Hockey

#452 Alexander Edler
#120 Paul Martin
#136 Chris Kunitz
#307 Patrick O'Sullivan
#437 Ryan Malone
#516 Brian Lee (R)

The Brian Lee Marquee Rookie is alright. I also pulled a Kunitz in a Ducks uniform although he is now a Penguin and a Malone in a Penguin uniform although he is now a member of the Lightning. I also needed two of these for my set. At least from a practical standpoint, this was the best pack of the bunch.

Stay tuned for more pack madness.

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.