90s Collecting Flashback: Opening a 2020-21 Skybox Metal Universe Blaster

While I know Fleer created hockey Metal Universe sets in the second half of the 90s, my exposure to the Metal brand came through basketball cards. Precious Metal Gems are one of the most sought after parallel sets out there. I don't own any myself, and maybe I never will with the card market surge over the last few years. Even lesser known players have PMGs selling for hundreds of dollars. While I may never own one, if I have a chance to open some packs that flash me back to my childhood collecting, I'm going to do it. Enter Skybox Metal Universe Hockey.

While the Skybox Metal Universe retail offering doesn't provide the chance at PMGs, it does allow for a reasonable way to find some awesome inserts like 'Intimidation Nation', 1997-98 Retro cards and 1997-98 Skybox Premium Prospects, and a slim chance at finding a Jambalaya or Platinum Portraits insert.  The brand and inserts alone are enough to warrant the price of a blaster, in this 90s kid's opinion.

I know you are all wondering what Predators came out of his blaster. Three Predator cards in the first two packs, and once again I'm hooked, one of them being a 1997-98 Retro design. These scan terribly as I expected. 

True to the original Metal Universe sets, these cards are easily dented and are definitely condition sensitive. Not the best cards for my 5-year old son to be handling if we are about condition, but this hobby is for him, too.

The photo I took of the Josi 1997-98 is not much better, but this is honestly the #1 card I was hoping for out of this box, and in pack #2 there it was. Even when it's a fairly common card, it's always satisfying to pull a card of a player you actively collect. I've still got a few Predators wants from this set, including some tough parallels, but I can cross off these three, at least.

The other 1997-98 was Auston Matthews, another solid pull. I'm probably done going after the 1997-98 since there aren't any other Predators and 50 cards seems like an ambitious insert set to chase after right out of the gate. The purple spectrum parallel of Josi will go on the want list, though.

I'm still trying to figure out how to get good photos of cards using a light box I picked up. It's a work in progress for sure.

The blue spectrum parallels scan much better than the base cards. The backgrounds really stand out in these scans. The Byram rookie seems like a pretty good pull, the 4th overall pick in 2019. I'm learning about these players as I go, but a rookie parallel is always good and the Avalanche are having a great season. I opened one of these parallels in each pack.

The Net Deposits are inserted in 1:6 retail packs. Awesome set and awesome player to pull. Really appreciate the spiraling puck design. Maybe if there's another iteration of this insert set it could include an image of the net somewhere.

There's that net I was talking about. That's a lot of deposits.

Would be a good box for a Leafs fan. A rookie insert set with a Skybox Premium design from 1997-98, and again, the 90s throwbacks are excellent. The Prospects are inserted into 1:4 blaster packs. I'm sure the Star Rubies versions of these look stellar in person. 

The toughest pull in this box at 1:25, a Toews Hardware insert. It's hard to tell from the scan, but the card is translucent. 

How sick is this? Throwback to the late 90s Intimidation Nation baseball and basketball sets, and I love it. This was the insert I was most excited to pull (with realistic odds) and it didn't disappoint. Quick is a name I recognize too which makes this one of the top pulls in the box.

What didn't I see in this blaster? I didn't find any purple parallels #'d out of 199. No Jambalaya or Platinum Portraits, as expected. No Alloyance or ALON inserts, either, but neither were necessarily expected to come out of a single blaster.

If this ends up being a yearly release it will be a must buy for me. Opening Fleer/Skybox brands again? Count me in. My interest in hockey cards after this box break is as high as it's ever been.

Next step after these couple of breaks, other than waiting for Upper Deck Series 1 to arrive, is not rush into purchases and really define what I want to try to pick up or trade for. Right now everything is new and shiny, and when that wears off I want to be excited about the direction of my collection, Predators and otherwise.  That being said, I've added a handful of Predators cards to my COMC that I'll share in a future post, so not off to the best start in that department. So far I'm sticking to inserts and parallels of featuring throwback set designs, and looking into picking up some key rookies, although the Young Guns aren't cheap.

Hockey Revisited: Opening a Blaster of 2021-22 Upper Deck MVP

Back in 2017 I wrote a series of posts when I started following hockey and picked up my first packs of hockey cards, and some bloggers were generous enough to send me a 'starter pack' of Predators cards to get my collection going. Well, towards the end of 2017 I really stepped back from cards entirely. But what I've learned about this hobby is that long-term, it has staying power for me, and it always comes back around. The cards will always be there, the people in the hobby will always be there, and in 2022 now more than ever, sports card content is everywhere. 

And so my first foray into hockey cards in five years is a blaster box of 2021-22 Upper Deck MVP. The blaster has 15 packs, a great product if your idea of fun is busting a lot of packs. The base cards have a mint color as part of the design, with the image looking like ice is shooting up form the players skating. It's a cool effect. Each card from the base set has an 'Ice Battles' parallel, and the short prints, including rookies, are blue.

My chosen team was the Predators, and I've stuck with that, although I've followed them more loosely than I would like. With young kids, it's been hard to find time to watch a full game, to be honest. Now that my oldest is five and he's showing interest in several sports, including hockey, it's become much easier to at least catch portions of a game.

These three are familiar names for me, Fiala being a former Predator.

Here's an example of one of the rookie cards from the set. Denisenko's only appeared in one Panthers game, but is getting plenty of time with the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL. The Zac Jones is a rookie short print Ice Battles parallel.

Zac Jones I included because he's originally from Richmond, VA, which is where I grew up. I figured that was rare for an NHL player to be from Virginia, and even less likely to be from Richmond, and sure enough, with his NHL debut in April last year, Jones is the first player from Richmond to play in the NHL. So there you go, maybe a reason to start a side player collection.

Meier recently scored 5 goals in one game, a feat I've definitely never seen before in my brief time as a hockey fan. And this happened in a game I happened to be watching on replay with my son. He's a fan of the Sharks logo and the jerseys, as you can imagine. The Sharks are probably his top hockey team right now. That could change any day, but we've enjoyed watching the Sharks, and that 5 goal performance was quite a treat. 

I've always been an insert guy, going back to collecting basketball cards in the 90s in my childhood. What I wasn't expecting out of this MVP blaster were inserts that make me want to look at the checklist and see who else I can grab. The cracked ice effect, especially coming out of cheap packs like this, are something that would have hooked me as a child, and I guess I'm not much different today.

This 20th Anniversary set reminds me of an insert that would have come out of MVP products in the late 90s/early 2000s. Can't argue with a MacKinnon card, either, a former number one overall pick. I'd like to pick up the Josi from this set. I'd expect the gold parallel of a Pred would look nice!

P.K. Subban was a favorite of mine, and I'm sure many others, from his time on the Predators. The Predators traded him to the Devils in 2019, and even though he's not at an All-Star level anymore, he's still popular enough to be included in insert sets like these. The before picture shows him wearing a red tie to the CMT Music Awards in 2018, before his time with the Devils. Glad I pulled a player I appreciate from this set.

What would an MVP product be without Silver Scripts and Gold Scripts. While big hits are pretty rare out of a box like MVP, it's nice to know that it's possible to chase the Super Scripts. My box had several Silver and Gold Script cards.  

The mascot set is a hit with younger collectors, I'm sure. It was a favorite for my son. I'll have to pick up the Shark card for him, and probably some others, and learn the mascots in the process. Well done Upper Deck on this one.

It was nice to see some familiar faces in this blaster, find some of the young stars in the game, and pull some inserts with a cracked ice effect, unexpected from an MVP blaster. 

I'm going to be putting an updated hockey card wantlist on TCDB (cardstacks), where I plan to be more active in making some trades, although I've mainly got basketball and baseball for trade.