edging closer...

My wife went shopping last night at the new super wally world. Normally I wouldn't even notice, except she came back with 09/10 Blaster of series 2 hockey for me. No strings attached. 12 packs, 5 cards per....

Here's the highlights...
and two of the elusive Young Guns...

I hope with a name like this, he talks like Scrooge McDuck...

But the really cool thing is that of the 60 cards in the box, less the 7 inserts, I got 45 cards I needed for my set. These, along with the cards that Dog Faced Gremlin is sending me, leaves me only 5 cards short of the set. Not including the SP Young Guns of course, but I'll never finish them.

Blasters vs. Fat Packs. A study in contrast.

catchy title, huh? What the hell was I thinking when I wrote that? Feels like I'm back in eleventh grade english.
Anyways... today's post will highlight a comparison between buying fatpacks, and blasters. For today's example, I will use the brand new 2009/10 OPC Hockey.
To give an acurate comparison, I purchased 4 fat packs and 1 blaster. The price of 4 fat packs = the price of 1 blaster. Am I going too fast? Here we go....
This year's product went old school with Wayne Gretzky in his Oilers jersey. For you youngin's, Wayne was hockey's version of Brett Favre. He just kept coming back year after year wearing odd uniforms of various teams. It was a bit embarrassing after awhile.

The base cards have a silver border with accents in the player's team colours.

sometimes it works....

sometimes not so much...

sometimes it just doesn't...

You get 31 or 32 base cards in a fat pack, along with a chance at a retro parallel insert, or a rookie/legend card. Both inserted at 1:3. In my 4 packs, I got 3 retros, no rookies or legends.

I have no idea why these are called retro... they don't look like any other OPC hockey set I've ever seen. Kind of a letdown after the HUGE success of last years retros. See what lawsuits do? They ruin everything.

Onto the blaster. Wayne! Lookout behind you!!! Where's Semenko when you need him?

inside were 14 little packs, 6 cards each.

aside from the base cards, in the blaster I found Rainbow parallels 1:8

Rookies/Legends 1:2 (found 3 rookies...)

(... 4 Legends)

The base set is cards 1-500. Rookies and Legends make up cards 501-600.

Also found were various shiny inserts 1:4

and my favourite insert set, Canadian Heroes 1:72

somehow I managed to pull 2 of these. At 1:72 odds, 2 in 14 packs. I guess that's where the "on average" comes in.

Okay, so now that the pretty picture portion is over, let's get to the hard facts.

4 Fat Packs-

125 Base Cards (1-500) 3 doubles

3 Retros ( Zach Boychuk, Patrick Marleau, and Mike Bossy)

0 Rookies/Legends (501-600)

0 Inserts

1 Blaster-

62 Base cards (1-500) 0 doubles

7 Retros

7 Rookies/Legends (501-600)

8 Inserts

So for the same $$$, fat packs give you twice as many base cards towards your set. But no rookies. Or inserts. But I wouldn't want to build the set either way. With the ratio for rookies such as it is, you need to go the hobby box route. For $45 (blasters are $25) you'll get twice as many base cards, with a better chance for rookies/inserts.

So there ya go.... I'm doing this, so you don't have to.....

Hobby box vs Blaster - You choose

Today's experiment tries to answer the age old question, Hobby box or Blaster? A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a blaster of UD Hockey Series 2 at wally world. At the card show last weekend, I grabbed a hobby box of the same. Let's crack 'em open and compare value.
The Blaster. 12 packs of 5 cards each. They stiff you right off the bat with only 5 cards in each pack, unlike the 8 cards in Hobby boxes.

51 Base cards

0 duplicates

1 Young Gun SP
6 Victory cards, inserted at one per pack

2 insert cards from UD's many, many insert subsets...

0 Jersey/ Swatch cards

COST: $25

The Hobby Box

24 packs, 8 cards per pack (that wrapper says 5, it's the only pic I had)

123 base cards

32 duplicates

7 Young Guns SP's
24 Victory cards, inserted one per pack

6 insert cards from UD's many, many insert subsets

and

2 Jersey / Patch cards, one numbered /100

COST: $75

A review;

Blaster
51 base cards

0 duplicates

1 Young Gun SP

6 Victory cards

2 inserts

0 Jersey / Patch

$25

Hobby Box

123 base cards

32 duplicates

7 Young Gun SP's

24 victory cards

6 inserts

2 Jersey / Patch

$75

The Young Guns are the key here. These babies sell anywhere from $5 to $35 depending on who you're after. For a set collector like I am, I need to go Hobby here. If you go 3 Blasters, the base cards, Victory, and inserts all wash... but the Young Guns and Jersey cards put Hobby out front.

2007 Topps Baseball Series One Blaster Break

Like I mentioned on A Pack A Day, where I ripped the first pack of this blaster, I bought this, and two other blasters at a card show a week ago. The one good thing I can mention about card shows here in Calgary, is that the focus is so intense on hockey, you can pick up a bargain if your timing is right.
That's right. $5. I bought three blasters because they only had three blasters. Math is simple kids.
If you need a recap of Pack One, click here.

Now that you're back....
Pack Two-
Elizardo Ramirez - Reds
Cincinnati Reds team card
Tony LaRussa - Cardinals
Todd Helton - Rockies
Mickey Mantle Home Run #202 1:9 packs
Frank Catalanotto - Rangers
Eric Chavez Gold Glove - A's
Pack Three-
Hanley Ramirez NL ROY - Marlins
Bronson Arroyo - Reds
Eliezer Alfonzo - Giants
Nick Markakis - Orioles
Ian Snell - Pirates
Hideki Matsui - Yankees

Pack Four-
B.J. Ryan - Blue Jays
Brian Schneider - Nationals
Jake Peavy - Padres
Josh Gibson Home Run #260 1:9 packs
Eduardo Perez - Mariners
Chone Figgins - Angels
Pack Five-
Classic Combo Delgado/Wright - Mets BOO!
B.J. Upton - Rays
Scott Podsednik - White Sox
Jay Gibbons - Orioles
Generation Now Andre Ethier 1:4 packs
Pack Six-
Andre Ethier - Dodgers
Vladimir Guerrero - Angels
Michael Barret - Cubs
Joel Zumaya - Tigers
Own the Game Brandon Webb 1:6 packs
Clay Hensley - Padres
Pack Seven-
Austin Kearns - Nationals
Chris Duffy - Pirates
Brad Ausmus - Astros
Unlock the Mick 2KSports Video Game Cheats 1:18 packs
Checklist
Chris Duncan - Cardinals
Chuck James - Braves! Finally!!!

Pack Eight-
Adam Lind - Blue Jays Rookie
Preston Wilson - Cardinals
Andrew Miller - Marlins Rookie
Distinguished Service - Monte Irvin US Army 1:12 packs
Emil Brown - Royals
Eric Byrnes - Diamondbacks
Pack Nine-
Dontrelle Willis - Marlins
Curt Schilling - Bloody Sox
Road to 500 ARod #4 1:36 packs
Generation Now Chase Utley 1:4 packs
Adam Loewen - Orioles
Rocco Baldelli - Rays

Pack Ten -

Todd Greene - Giants

Albert Pujols - Cardinals

Mark Ellis - A's

Josh Bard- Padres

Brad Penny - Dodgers

Classic Combos Soriano/Beltran - NL All Stars

Pack Eleven- THE BONUS PACK!!

Adam LaRoche - Braves - HELL YEAH!!! WOOOHOOOO!

Tony Gwynn Jr. - Brewers

Albert Pujols Gold Glove - Cardinals

John Lackey - Angels

Justin Verlander - AL ROY - Tigers

Checklist

Brandon Inge - Tigers

A quick breakdown:

ARod 1:36 - 1

Mickey Mantle 1:9 - 1

Josh Gibson 1:9 - 1

Generation Now 1:4 - 2

Own The Game 1:6 - 2

Distinguished Service 1:12 - 1

Unlock the Mick 2K7 Sports Video Game Cheats 1:18 - 1

Base cards - 57

Duplicates - 0

Checklists - 1,2,3

Three damaged cards in the box.... all three checklists dinged on the bottom left corner, all three in the middle of their respective packs. Hmmmmm......

I'll bust the other blaster of this sometime next week....