Collecting Upper Deck is a Trip Down Memory Lane

I picked up two cards off eBay over the last few weeks, both cards from Upper Deck hockey products. I'm waiting on a fairly large COMC shipment, but there are so many cards in the queue ahead of mine that I doubt it'll actually ship by the listed ship date. But between the eBay and COMC adds it's clear to me that what I value in today's collecting world is nostalgia. I enjoy finding cards with retro designs, especially designs that I remember from my childhood collecting. 

Collecting hockey is exciting for me on three fronts. It's exciting because it's something my son is getting into right now. He's learning to ice skate, because to play hockey he has to know how to skate. We live in South Carolina, so it's no hockey hotbed here, but you wouldn't know it spending a day in our house. 

It's exciting because it's something almost completely new for me. I've collected a lot of basketball cards and am still pretty active on that front (see HoopsHobby.com), I pick up baseball cards, and I'm sure I'll be active there once the season starts, whenever that might be, but going through a full season of hockey products is new. 

Lastly, I get to open packs of Upper Deck cards again, and with Upper Deck I get those retro designs, some of which were used in basketball as well.

The first card I picked up recently meets number three. This is a 1995-96 SP insert from 2015-16 SP Authentic of the captain of the Predators, Roman Josi. I started on a hunt for retro inserts after seeing UD3 and some others in 2020-21 Upper Deck Extended, and this was one I knew I had to pick up. While I didn't necessarily open any packs of 1995-96 SP basketball, I do have several Pacers (my NBA team of choice) in my collection. I look at this card and I'm 9 years old again, trading with my best friend from down the street.

Love the back too, even though I don't think it's true to the original as far as finish. But the design is close enough for me.

The next one is not a retro design, but a parallel set that's been around for a long time, but one I honestly don't know if I own any of in any sport to this point.

I don't have the base Forsberg, or any other versions from this year's MVP, but I now have a Super Script parallel numbered out of 25. I have plenty of Silver Script and even a few Gold from basketball sets in the late 90s and early 2000s, but this is my first Super Script. 

Really hoping the Predators find a way to get an extension done with Forsberg that makes sense for him and the team, but what I'm reading is that it may limit the flexibility to make moves around him. Tough spot for both sides.

I just broke a box of 2021-22 O-Pee-Chee with my son, so I'll have a recap of that coming soon, and also share some of the cards a fellow blogger sent for my 5 year old son. The blogging community is a generous group, that's for sure.

Enjoy ripping your Series 1 packs if you've got 'em! 

Fire on Ice

My son and I are enjoying hockey in many forms these days. Between opening a few hockey blaster boxes, watching hockey games on ESPN+, and going to a minor league hockey game for the first time since the pandemic started, we've got hockey activity around our house just about on a daily basis. 

He's all about the Sharks, but he'll watch just about any game on TV. He doesn't know it's coming, but he's going to lose his mind over the NHL All-Star festivities this weekend, coinciding with the start of the Winter Olympics. Even though NHL players aren't in the Olympics, we'll be watching hockey I'm sure.

Meanwhile I'm soaking up hockey card content and adding cards to my Predators want list. While I've tried to hold off on making too many purchases, I did make an initial purchase after seeing a parallel version of this set on twitter.

The parallel version I saw was shinier and serial numbered, but I'm happy with this rookie year card of the top scorer on the Predators, Filip Forsberg. It wouldn't scan well, so I took photos in my light box. A rookie year Forsberg in a set like this, I couldn't pass up when I saw they were a very reasonable price. 

One thing I noticed, and I am not up to speed on Panini's history with a hockey card license, is the Dual Class wording on the Rookie Card logo.  Does this indicate multiple rookie classes in a single year's set? I googled and couldn't find information on it. Was this an attempt by Panini to introduce a rookie card logo in hockey? Info on this would be appreciated.

Same image used on the front and back of the card, but you get to see a faint background. Forsberg's been my favorite Predator to watch since I started following the team. He hit the 200 goal mark just recently, and is on a tear right now. On fire, you might say. He's in the final year of his contract and while he's sure to get a big contract, surely he'll be back in Nashville.

In modern card collecting, I am drawn to sets that are a throwback to a prior set. The 'Fire on Ice' name was used for Leaf insert sets in the mid-90s, the 1997-98 version being my favorite.

So there you have it, my first purchase for the Predators collection. Many more to come, I'm sure. 

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. 

Nashville Predators Starter Pack from Sports Cards from the Dollar Store

For the first time ever I had a rooting interest in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Nashville Predators went to the Cup Finals for the first time in team history. I'm not going to say much more at this point other than I had a blast following this team and I can't wait to follow a full season starting in the Fall.

Sports Cards from the Dollar Store saw my initial posts on hockey cards and sent a large package of Predators my way. He seemed excited to have a landing spot for his Predators cards. Well let me tell you all I am happy to be that landing spot.

Glad to have a reason to pick up the O-Pee-Chee brand. Wish this existed for current baseball sets. Pekka Rinne 'shut the door' repeatedly on playoff competition and the defense picked up from the regular season as well. Roman Josi is a big part of that. Weber was traded last June for my personal favorite P.K. Subban after serving as the Nashville captain for many years.

With O-Pee-Chee comes the Platinum brand as a separate release. And unlike other Chrome brands these scan pretty well, I think. It was nice watching you the last few months, James Neal. Good luck in Vegas!

Even though the consensus was that Rinne had a sub-par regular season based on his past performance, he stepped it up in the playoffs, helping get the Predators farther in the playoffs than they've ever been. Excited to be collecting new cards from the Fleer Showcase brand once again. It's been awhile.

The first card from 2015-16 Tim Hortons Collector's Series is a beauty. The Panini Select card on the right is a sharp looking card, too.

Three cards of the current captain. Particularly like the Contenders card referencing Bridgestone Arena.

Forsberg is probably my other favorite player at this point along with P.K. Subban. Was shocked when I learned he is only 22 years old and is as good as he is. Colin Wilson seems to step up his game in the playoffs. Glad to add a rookie card of his to my collection. Would Johansen have turned the finals in favor of the Preds? He sure would have helped.

Now we're getting to the gems of the starter park. This Forsberg is a silver parallel /25 from 2015-16 Champs. Nice, clean set design here.

I didn't fully appreciate this card until I saw Rinne dominate for stretches of games in the playoffs. What a card this one is! So glad for it to be the first hockey autograph to go into my collection.

This was just a small part of an amazing starter pack. Focused on current players in this post because those are the guys I'm familiar with based on the last few months or so of watching. Already can't wait for next season to start!

Second Pack of Hockey Cards

Well, I'm in on hockey. On watching games, on collecting Nashville Predators, I'm in.

I went into another trip to Target over the weekend with the intent of purchasing a few packs of new Topps Heritage baseball. When that wasn't there I gladly chose another 32 card pack of Upper Deck Series 2 instead. I think the hobby is trying to hook me on hockey based on the contents.

A few of the notable base cards based on name recognition for me, being a new hockey fan. Weber stands out as the former Predators Captain who was traded for current defenseman P.K. Subban.

Speaking of...

What a great card to pull. I've gotta say I really like the Nashville guitar pick logo on the jersey sleeve. Subban has quickly become one of my favorite Predators but I'm sure if I had followed the team over the years Weber would have been a favorite too.

My first Young Guns pull. I was so excited to see the words Young Guns, it didn't even matter that I didn't pull one of the 'chase' rookies. I feel like a real hockey collector now.

The other notable base card. I've been seeing this guy's name a lot. The Wild look to be a tough out and are leading the Central Division and the Western Conference.

Three more Predators to add to the Subban checklist above, and just like that I only need two more cards for the Series 2 team set of base cards.

Here's a full breakdown:

Arizona Coyotes (2) - 257 Tobias Rieder, 258 Max Domi
Boston Bruins (1) - 265 Tuuka Rask
Buffalo Sabres (2) - 271 Zamgus Girgensons, 272 Brian Gionta
Chicago Blackhawks (1) - 295 Ryan Hartman
Colorado Avalanche (1) - 301 Semyon Varlamov
Detroit Red Wings (1) - 316 Riley Sheahan
Minnesota Wild (2) - 343 Charlie Coyle, 344 Mikael Granlund
Montreal Canadians (2) - 351 Shea Weber, 352 Alexei Emelin
Nashville Predators (4) - 355 P.K. Subban, 357 Roman Josi, 358 Colin Wilson, 450 P.K. Subban/Shea Weber Checklist
New Jersey Devils (4) - 360 Taylor Hall, 362 Travis Zajac, 363 Devante Smith-Pelly, 456 Yohann Auvitu Young Guns
New York Islanders (1) - 369 Johnny Boychuk
New York Rangers (1) - 375 Henrik Lundqvist
Philadelphia Flyers (1) - 388 Jakub Voracek
Pittsburgh Penguins (1) - 398 Nick Bonino
San Jose Sharks (2) - 403 Joe Thornton, 407 Matt Nieto
St. Louis Blues (3) - 409 Jaden Schwartz, 411 Jay Bouwmeester, 412 Kevin Shattenkirk
Tampa Bay Lightning (1) - 420 Jonathan Drouin
Winnipeg Jets (2) - 444 Blake Wheeler, 448 Connor Hellebuyck

First off, I want to say that received no duplicates from the first 32 card pack I opened. Gold star! And with four Predators I can say I don't think I've ever pulled that many cards of a team I collect out of a single pack before. Certainly off to a good start!

First Pack of Hockey Cards

I picked up NHL 16 for the playstation on clearance last week and managed to get a few games in. What fun that is. It flashed me back to playing on the original playstation. For NHL 97 my team of choice was the Flyers, scoring goals at will with Eric Lindros, John LeClair and Mikael Renberg, the 'Legion of Doom'. But I was only 11 years old then. I've never gotten into following hockey over the years for whatever reason, but that's changing.

So my first hockey pack ever ends up being 2016-17 Upper Deck Series 2 Hockey. It's been awhile since I've opened an Upper Deck pack at all, with Panini having the exclusive basketball license and Topps for baseball.

The first game I played on the PS4 was while waiting for the rest of the game to download. It was a matchup between the two league finalists from the year prior, the Blackhawks and Lightning. Guess what two of the first few cards in my first pack of hockey cards were?

Glad to pull two guys I know right off the bat. Filppula it appears has been traded to the Flyers for Mark Streit who is on an expiring contract. Stamkos has been on the Lightning his entire NHL career. My kind of player! 

A few goalies from the pack. I always enjoy seeing the designs on the masks these guys wear. Looking forward to finding some insert sets that feature these. Craig Anderson is 2nd in the NHL in save percentage. 

Speaking of inserts and goalies, the lone parallel/insert in this pack. Apparently the Young Guns are the chase cards in these packs and I didn't pull any of those, but I have a feeling I'll have more opportunities. Again, awesome mask with Jets for the Winnipeg goaltender.

Here's the allocation by team for my 32 card pack:

Boston Bruins (3) - 266 Torey Krug, 267 David Backes, 268 Dominic Moore

Calgary Flames (2) - 279 Sean Monahan, 283 Michael Ferland

Carolina Hurricanes (1) - 285 Victor Rask

Chicago Blackhawks (1) - 293 Richard Panik

Colorado Avalanche (1) - 296 Joe Colborne

Detroit Red Wings (1) - 315 Petr Mrazek

Florida Panthers (3) - 333 Nick Bjugstad, 334 James Reimer, 335 Keith Yandle

Montreal Canadians (1) - 349 Carey Price

New Jersey Devils (1) - 364 John Moore

New York Rangers (1) - 376 Oscar Lindberg

Ottawa Senators (2) - 385 Craig Anderson, 386 Zack Smith

Philadelphia Flyers (3) - 390 Michael Raffl, 391 Scott Laughton, 392 Matt Read

Pittsburgh Penguins (2) - 393 Chris Kunitz, 397 Olli Maatta

Phoenix Coyotes (3) - 259 Alex Goligoski, 260 Radim Vrbata, 263 Luke Schenn

San Jose Sharks (1) - 404 Joonas Donskoi

St. Louis Blues (2) - 410 Colton Parayko, 413 Neil Yakupov

Tampa Bay Lightning (2) - 416 Steven Stamkos, 418 Valtteri Filppula

Winnipeg Jets (1) - Canvas C209 Connor Hellebuyck

I left one card out. I've always been a team collector and player collector. I've picked a team to follow and a team to collect. I've taken a few trips here over the last couple years and enjoyed the city. There's reason #1. Reason #2 is I think the logo, team name, and where the logo comes from is just too cool. And lastly the color scheme closely resembles my favorite NBA team, the Indiana Pacers. 

I pulled one card for this team.

I'm collecting the Nashville Predators. They have a relatively short NHL history which I actually like. Their team logo is based on a saber-toothed cat that's been extinct for 10,000 years. The idea came from a partial skeleton found in downtown Nashville in 1971 during construction of a bank building, per Wikipedia.

I'm trying not to get too ahead of myself, but I'm looking forward to adding cards of the Preds to my wantlist and starting a hockey collection, following the NHL season and a Predator playoff run, and most of all interacting with hockey card bloggers and collectors. I watched the Predators beat the Edmonton Oilers the other night and had a blast. Hopefully more to come soon!