Monday, August 9, 2010

a new box break review....

Hot damn it's time for a box break.... I haven't busted a box since around the Super Bowl, and I've been dying to. Why haven't I? Because there hasn't been anything worth my time since last football season. If you read between the lines and determine that Topps is doing a horrible job with their exclusive baseball license, that's odd, because I feel the same way. Eerie how we think alike, isn't it?

Anyways, onwards with the first hockey product of the new 2010/11 season. Upper Deck Victory. Now normally I don't buy this entry level stuff... but re-read the first paragraph, and the fact that it contains the first rookie cards of my new favourite player, P.K. Subban, and add in the low, low cost of this box, and voila! Or is that Voici!? Whatever.... here it is in all it's glory.
Hey look! UD put Sidney Crosby on the box. Just like they have for the last 4 years. How unique. How daring. And if that ain't enough.... why not put him on the wrapper too?
Oy. Moving on to the base cards.... everyone loves base cards. (at least I do, so sit back and fake it if you have to)

Everyone's favourite Fin, Miikka Kiprusoff. The man may need therapy after the amount of vulcanized rubber that will be flying at his face this coming year....

Defending Stanley Cup Champ Patrick Kane. Do NOT ask the man for spare change. Trust me.

Montreal's uncontested number 1 netminder. No pressure kid. Everyone is allowed to make a mistake now and then. Uh.... except you, that is.

Rookie phenom John Tavares

and of course who everyone outside of the greater Pittsburgh area calls "whiny little bitch." Or at least, that was the nickname given him by Montreal fans during the last playoff run. The man whines more than Gretzky ever did. And believe me kids, that's a lot.

and we'll round out with the best player in the game today.... Alexander "I date a different Russian Supermodel every week" Ovechkin. Hey. I would if I could too.....
Now the box has 36 packs, 6 cards per. 5 of those cards are base cards, so you get 180 out of the 200 card base set. Less one gold parallel.
The other 36 cards are divided up into 3 catagories. Rookies. Found 1:2 or 18 per box. Game Breakers. Found 1:4 Or 9 per box. And Stars of the Game, also 1:4 or 9 per box. Apparently there are memorabilia and auto cards to be found, but UD isn't man enough to post those odds which means to me and you, It ain't gonna happen.
I did pull all I was supposed to.... including my 18 rookies. (50 of them numbered 201-250 to complete the set)
Brandon Yip and look! A Montreal Rookie!!!
Initials and everything. But the wrong initials. J.T. Wyman is no P.K. Subban.
Here's the gold parallel I pulled. Could've been a lot worse.
and here's what the two insert sets look like, first the Stars of the Game....

and Game Breakers.
So all in all a fun break. Nice cards. Slippery little suckers though. These will never stick together.
So if you're looking to bust some hockey, pick up a box. $22.95 at Blowout, $28.95 at DACardworld, $34 CDN at my LCS.
Or, I suppose I just could've spent my money on the guy I wanted. There's a Black bordered P.K. Subban rc (black parallels found 1:1440, so P.K. is found 1:72000) on the bay right now at $39.95. So there ya go.
is it just me, or in this day and age of over political correctness and fear of offending ANYBODY, isn't it kinda odd that the best P.K. Subban is a BLACK parallel? Maybe it's just me... kind of an inside joke if you don't follow hockey.
"Uh, Can I get a coffee, Black?"
"Can't you see I'm talking, White?"
maybe too obscure of a reference........

8 comments:

TheRealDFG said...

1st - I really like those cards...sort of. It is weird that the bottom has a white border but the V extends to the edge on the top.

2nd - I agree Crosby is a whiny little bitch sometimes too. A whiny little bitch that owns 80% of the league (the other 20% he has never played against).

3rd - I too have never had the luxury of pulling memorabilia from Victory...ever!

4th - That's Parallel of African Decent.

5th - Zack & Miri Rules!!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, that design looks like an Upper Deck "X" reject. And those rookie cards have too much dead space on them. And I hope this isn't another year where Upper Deck doesn't even try with it's inserts, but those are pretty meh to me...

shoeboxlegends said...

DFG, I pulled a "hit" from Victory hockey before, trust me, you're not missing anything.

These cards just seem to be so similar year after year. The base doesn't look half bad though for a cheap product.

Sal said...

Score might replace Victory in my heart as best "cheap card" to get.

At least they did something different this year. For the past few seasons, the word "Victory" was ghosted in the background. I like the giant "V" behind the player much better. At least it is different.

I have NEVER got a jersey or autograph card from Victory. I didn't even know they inserted those. I thought that's why the price was $1 per pack, and not $3 or more like the other brands, so as to offset the cost of jersey or auto'd cards.

Drop The Gloves! said...

I bought four packs of this today in the hopes of pulling an Adam McQuaid rookie. At a $1/pack, why not. Unfortunately, I did not get him. If you are building this set, you can have the ones I ripped today.

SportsCardGirl said...

I find this new box very substantial.All pulls are great. Definitely a must have..

thehamiltonian said...

Oh my goodness. 10/11 cards already?

Somedays I hate my life. Kadri or Irwin?

Paul said...

I bought one rack pack of this stuff at Walmart hoping for a Jimmy Howard base card and actually got one, so I don't see myself buying packs to get the other Howard parallels.

Great looking base design though, love the giant V in the background as well as the black & white image behind the full color player image.