Box Break: 2019-20 Upper Deck Allure

Upper Deck Allure released back in early February, 2020.  While I was abundantly aware of the product at the time, I wanted to give it a cooling off period for a bit before diving in.  Even a good steak needs to sit for a couple minutes after it comes off the grill.  Everyone knows that.  I was hesitant because my skepticism got the best of me.  Why?
This is uncharted territory for Upper Deck as Allure is a new title in their arsenal of products.  There really hasn't been a comparison to put it up against and hockey card collectors generally adhere to the paradox of wanting innovation but fearing change.  The previews didn't completely sell me either because what looks good on the screen may not have the same impact in-hand.  The concept design was very nice and had great potential, but the idea behind the product seemed strange.  With focus on rookies, short prints, inserts, and parallels, the low price point at about $100 per box didn't seem to fit the typical configuration for that pricing level.

So let's see what's so alluring about 2019-20 Upper Deck Allure...(see what I did there?)

The Puck Junk Podcast is Back!!

The wait is over.  In honor of National Podcast Day, the Puck Junk Podcast has come out of hibernation.  Our first episode in a long time hit the airwaves early this AM.  If you haven't had a chance to check it out yet, give it a listen.

Sal and I get back into it, discussing Upper Deck's first release of the 2019-20 NHL season, MVP.  We also discuss Topps re-entry into the NHL sticker market.

Quick Shots: 2012-13 Black Diamond Hockey

Somehow, someway, the cardboard gods are going to pull me back into this thing.  

I figured I would take a stab at a quick one-off review of a product and show a few cards to boot.  I don't know if this will become a regular thing because there are 100 other card reviewing sites out there that do it frequently and way better than I could.


So despite my boycott of product this year (other than the flagship UD and OPC) I somehow ended up with a few packs of 2012-13 Black Diamond in my hands yet again.  I say yet again because each year I vow to never again trespass down the shiny-electro-silver-foil-overdose path.  But here I am.

The product isn't new by any means.  It was released in the midst of my hiatus back in early December.  It features the major stars of the game as well as many NHL legends and HOFers.  There are numerous parallels to chase at different release rates as well as the familiar inserts like Championship Rings, Double Diamond Jerseys (which make nifty little puzzles again), GEMography, and the various Lustrous inserts.  There is also everyone's favorite set to chase rookies in, Upper Deck Ice, inserted into hobby boxes at a rate of one 5 card pack per box.

For 12-13 Upper Deck took the familiar Black Diamond design and tweaked it ever-so-slightly in order to prevent confusion by the collector over which year's release they are really looking at.  I'm not going to get into all the subtleties and particulars of this set vs. others because this is a Quick Shot and I don't want to waste anyone's time.  Lets just leave it at this...the silver foil explosion that we either love or loathe is still in full swing.

Here are some quick shots...(images are all over the place because of the foil, tried different settings, oh well)

These are two Single-Diamonds.  The foil is in overdrive here.  Both of these guys have additional cards later in the base collation of the set.  Gretzky has a "throwback" Rookie Gems card and Stamkos is in the Quad-Diamond grouping.

Speaking of Quad-Diamond, here's one now.  This is Eddie from what looks to be an All-Star game of some sort.  I'm guessing from his tenure with Dallas since the gear is mostly green.  

Here are a couple Rookie Gems.  Somehow these scan better.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe its the stippled backgrounds contrasting with the color.  These are of the Triple-Diamond variety.

And continuing with some Triple-Diamonds, these three come from that grouping.  

There are legends mixed with current stars in all levels of this release, just like previous years.  I'm not sure if I am into that or not but I can say that I would much rather get a card of a legend or HOFer rather than some third or fourth liner in a product like this.  At $90-$100 per box, there isn't much room for "filler".