2013-14 OPC Hockey Box Break Review

Last week, or maybe the week before, I bought a couple of jumbo packs of the new 2013-14 Score Hockey release.
I was going to scan and review them, but then I realized that it was SCORE AND NO ONE GIVES A HOOT.
So I filed the cards away and forgot about them.
But today is the day.... the 2013-14 OPC hockey came out today!!!!! Woot WOOT!

Before we dive in and take a look see at what Santa brought us in August... I'd like to take a second to talk about numbers.
No, I wasn't just sponsored by Sesame Street. (but seriously, how cool would that be???) I'm a numbers guy. Out of my 8 courses my senior year, 3 were maths and 4 were sciences. That continued into college.
I can do most math in my head. It just comes naturally. I'm no Charlie Epps, don't get me wrong... but I can't understand how some people can't do any math, let alone complex stuff in their head.
But I can't do a cartwheel either, so what do I know?

You may be wondering where the heck I'm going with this... bear with me... I'm a numbers guy, not a writer.
As a child, watching the game, or reading the backs of my hockey cards for hours... stats were my thing. I poured over them... memorized them. I'd follow the league stats in The Hockey News. Remember when they used to have PAGES of stats in The Hockey News?
As a result... I can look at tables, charts, reports, and the information I want just floats off of the page and I can extrapolate from there.
One of the things that pops out to me that others may or may not see is patterns. Remember those questions? "What is the next three numbers in this sequence? 17, 95, 563, ..., ..., ...

I lived for those.

Word problems? If a train travelling north at 80mph leaves Calgary at 3pm, and a train travelling south at 45mph leaves Winnipeg at 4pm, when will they meet?

All over it like a fat kid on a smartie.

But back to patterns... there was a definite pattern I observed while opening this box. And it didn't take a Mensa candidate to see it either. I can only assume Upper Deck sold their computers and bought Macs or something... follow me on this...

But first, the box. Here's the top. Patrick Kane is our fashion model for the season.

32 packs, 8 cards per pack.
And here's the bottom. I have no idea why all card companies don't do this... it should be mandatory. It's not like it'd cost any more.... anyways. I like seeing cards on the box. I believe there are 4 different box bottoms to chase.

the wrapper, remarkably similar to the box.

The base set is still 500 cards, with 100 short prints for cards 501-600. Unlike the last few years, the last 100 SP's are not divided into 50 rookies and 50 Legends. This year it's 99 rookies and 1 checklist.
Cool beans.

Here are the base cards.... I scanned five of them as there are 5 different colour schemes.

Cards #1-100 are represented by the Mule, Johan Franzen.
Colours - Light Blue and Red

Notes: If you're not interested in the whole numbers thing, ignore the Notes.
Cards 1-100 : 16 in the box #'s 3, 8, 13, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 74, 79, 84, 89, 94, 99

Cards #101-200 shown here by Carey Price
Colours - Yellow and Olive Green

Notes: Cards 101-200 : 21 in the box, #'s 104, 109, 114, 119, 124, 129, 134, 139, 144, 149, 154, 159, 164, 169, 174, 179, 184, 189, 194, 199 and 111

Cards #201-300 we have Evgeni Malkin
Colours - Gold and Pink

Notes: Cards 201-300 : 21 in the box, #'s 204, 209, 214, 219, 224, 229, 234, 239, 247, 252, 257, 262, 267, 272, 277, 282, 287, 292, 297 and 276, 281, 286

Cards 301-400 Say hi to Wayne Gretzky. Wayne Gretzky??? I guess there are legends in the base set... not sure how many. Less than 50 though... at least it's a new pic of Wayne. From fairly early in his career judging by the Titan.
Colours - Orange and Green

Notes: Cards 301-400 : 54 in the box. I won't list them all, but the pattern continues...

Cards 401 to 500 - Holy schnikes! Jarome Iginla in a Pens uni....
Colours : Purple and Light Blue

Notes: Cards 401-500 : 70 in the box. Here are the ones I'm missing.... 404, 409, 414, 419, 424, 429, 434, 439, 444, 449, 454, 459, 464, 469, 474, 479, 484, 489, 494, 499, and 471, 476, 481, 486, 491, 496, 500

Cards 501-600 The Rookies
Colours : Red for the Eastern Conference and Blue for the Western Conference.

Notes: There should be 16 SP rookies per box, I only got 15.

 

 

I guess I should show the backs of these suckers.... fairly straightforward. Number top left as it should be, vital statistics, and playing stats. Everything you need on the back. Well done.

The retro parallel is back this year.....

When I opened a loose pack at the store and got to the one per pack retro, the LCS owner started singing Jimi Hendrix' Purple Haze....

I'll go out on a limb here and say that every hundred cards has a different colour scheme here as well, but I can't confirm it because ...... of the 32 retros I got, the numbers are 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100, 105, 110, 115, 120, 125, 130, 135, 140, 145, 150, 155, 160, 165, 170, 175, 180, 185, 190.... so nothing in the 200-500 range.

The useless mirror parallel is back as well... 8 per box. The base is a regular foil and the Rookie SP's are a gold foil. I did get 5 SP Rookies. Now to trade them for regular base ones...

Elsewhere in parallel hell is the black bordered parallel of the foil parallel. These are two per box and numbered out of /100

Again this season we have an insert set of stickers! 100 cards again this year. They are 8 per box, I got 10.
OPC must have had some yellow ink left over from last years base set....

Replacing the unpopular Pop Up set from last year that didn't Pop Up, are equally unpopular Rings.
OPC did this in the early '70's and why they brought them back, no one knows. 50 in the set, 2 per box.

A popular chase set is the manufactured patch cards found this year at 1 per every 3 boxes. I did manage to pull one.....

I should be able to swap this for something really good that I actually want.


So there you have it... thanks for putting up with my numbers rant... I cannot believe the collation this year. What happened? Writing an algorithm for this shouldn't be that hard....

The vast difference in quantity of 1-100, 101-200, 201-300, and the high numbers is staggering, but throughout the run, either having or missing cards by 5 is way too weird.

Let me know how your box breaks go....


EDIT: UPDATE... by reading a few of the forums where box/case breakers hang out... people are losing their minds over this. Apparently it's product wide and not even case breakers are completing sets.

2012-13 In the Game Between the Pipes box break review... with pictures!

It's everybody's favourite day, release date for In the Game's Between the Pipes.

What? It's not your favourite day? Well, it should be. Plus, it's Thursday, so only one more day until the weekend.

This year's box artwork borders on epic.

Alright, forget the borders... it is epic. Look at those masks!

Unfortunately, in my box, I didn't get any cards with any of theose masks on them. Is it my bad luck, or are they not in the set?
Hopefully, it's my bad luck. I have no other kind.

This product has a 200 card base set. Like past issues, the first section is for the CHL Prospects.

These aren't really the focus of the set. At least, in the buyer's eye. At past Cross Canada Redemption Tour* rip parties, collectors basically ignored these cards save for putting together their base sets. They're fun to look back on after a draft or two to see where they end up.... but that's about it.
Nice, colourful photos with colour matching borders... a slight peek into the background, but not too much. A little busy on the full page, but individually, each card really pops.

*Cross Canada Redemption Tours are when certain card shops host a BTP box breaking frenzy where you can redeem your box tops for special 1/1 BTP cards. There's another one coming up here in Calgary on May 11th. To check out if your area has one coming, go to ITG's website. LINK

The next section is for our current favourites. What I like about these is that for the most part, all of the Stars have their current mask on display. No old photography from last year etc... found here.

Everyone you'd expect to be here is here, except for Marty Brodeur. Licencing issues rear their ugly head into our hobby once more. But I think once he retires in a year or so, Marty will be back in ITG.

I'll show off this particular card on it's own.... Marc-Andre Fleury's current mask, complete with a rendition of last year's ITG BTP card of himself on the side. Hockey cards featuring masks featured ON a mask!

Nice!

Then, my favourite part of the set. The Decades section... featuring goalies from past decades...

Some really great shots on some of these...

some of the pics are a wee blurry, but trying to track down quality photos for some of these is next to impossible.

The last part of the base set is devoted to record breakers and International Stars.

a few random cards to give you the feel of it...

although I would not call Grant Fuhr an international star..... talk about getting the job because of who you know, and not on your abilities.... wow.
Other than that, some great names from International competition. Again, an obvious name missing from the checklist is Ken Dryden. But Mr Dryden isn't about to sign with any card company. Just not his thing.

Another cool part is the older Decades cards... guys from the 30's and 40's.

Some of you may recognize some of the names. For those that you don't, read the cards! Hop on to google and type in their names. The stories you find are fascinating. These guys built the game we all love. If it weren't for them, we'd all be watching cricket right now.
So give them some love and appreciation.

For you hit chasers, autographs are found 1:7 packs. With 18 packs per box, you'll get two. With four of every seven boxes getting an extra.

Mine weren't overly thrilling.... with young Etienne here in dire need of some penmanship lessons.

I hope card companies put clauses into their autograph contracts about lousy autos. The dude's sweater number takes up more room than his name.

Next we have current Dallas Stars starter, Kari Lehtonen.

I have no idea how you get Kari, or Lehtonen out of that.... but at least it takes up the space.

Relic cards are 1:8 packs. So every other box will get a third.

I got a nice dual of Jordan Binnington and Curtis Joseph. Cujo is retired now and Jordan was drafted by St Louis in 2011.

my other relic was from the Big League Debut subset, featuring Tim Cheveldae.

Did you know Tim led the NHL in wins in 1991-92 with 38? And he was second in wins over the years 1990-1993. He also played in the '92 All Star Game.

While I didn't get any of the really cool hits available in BTP ( I never do), I was lucky enough to get a three auto box.... and a really sweet third auto it was.

Gary Inness. Awesome. Mr Inness is a principal for a school in Ontario right now. I wrote him a year or two back for an auto and got a really nice letter back from him.

Also this year is the return of the Decoy/Puzzle pieces. These should be fun to build again this year.
He's 1/3 of Bernie Parent.

But I know some of you are screaming, "What about the MASKS!??!?!"

Okay... you've waited long enough. Found at 3 per box, here are the three I was lucky enough to get.

Cory Crawford (almost called him Carl)

These are awesome. Flat out Epic. Waaaaaay better in person than scanned.

Mike Palmateer... I normally trade away any silver of gold versions I get of these.... but having seen a gold one in person, I must acquire one or two for myself. They are very impressive this year.

Oh. Have you met Rogie?

Rogie, say hi to everyone.

Effing sweet. They really upped their game with the 10th anniversary diecuts last year. Since a diecut 11 wouldn't work well, I really like what they've done.

Looks like I'm chasing this set of 50 again this year.

I still need 4 more for last year.... *sigh*....

2011-12 Parkhurst Champions box break

So the latest hockey set has been released. You won't find the latest or hottest rookies in it though. It's the latest version of Parkhurst Champions featuring all the greats, and some not so greats, of the past.

The box features 20 packs with 5 cards per pack. Cost was $84. A bit more than what you would think it should cost considering you'll find the 100 card base sets for $3 at card shows in a couple of weeks.

The first card out of the first pack is.....

 Patrick Roy in his rookie garb. Awesome. The set has various levels of cards. The first, the main base, has 100 cards. In honour of my pal Shane, here is card #100......

 interesting to see the material that sweater is made out of... it looks like a football jersey.
The cards are full bleed of course, high gloss, with a gold foil embossed name and logo at the bottom.

The backs are like this...

 Full career stats!!! Which for a superstar set like this one makes for some interesting reading...
99 of the 100 base card set also come in an autographed parallel. Chances are 1:14 packs. The exception is Eric Lindros. Eric no sign for you!

Cards 101-120 are made up of old Wire Photos. They are short printed. You get one every five packs. Or four per box.

 Cards 121-130 are also Wire Photos, but feature more than one player. They are short printed to one per box.
Smile boys.

 All of the Wire Photo cards also come in an autographed parallel. The single player auto odds are 1:500 packs. The multi player auto odds are 1:3000 packs.

Cards 131-150 are called Rendition Colour and feature artwork. These fall at 1:8 packs.

 19 out of the 20 Rendition Colour cards are available autographed. 1:800 packs will find you one. Again, Eric Lindros no sign for you!

Cards 151-160 are a subset called Rendition Black and White. These beauties are 1:32 or just over 1 per box and a half.

 You know by now that they also come autographed. Although odds fall at 1:4000 packs.

The other part of the "set" are Champ's mini's. These mini cards make up a 57 card set. And the first 45 cards are one per pack.

 They come in four parallels. Regular back, Green back 1:6, Parkhurst back 1:172 and Gold foil 1:???
What do they look like? Glad you asked. My only "duplicate" in teh box was getting a Marcell Dionne regular and Green back.

 Pointless. But apparently standard nowadays.

Cards 46 through 57 of this mini set are short printed and fall at 1 per box. My SP mini ended up being Phil Esposito. 

 Now the "hits" The box advertises one OR two autographs per box. Standard base autos fall at 1:14. I ended up with Flyer sniper Reggie Leach.

 Differences include a matte finish card, and the gold foil has been replaced with silver.

I did end up with two autos in my box... the other came in mini form.

These are tough to find at 1:90 or one every five boxes. They also come in a Red Ink variation, but only 15 copies of those exist.

So there you have it... all in all a fun break. Not for everyone, but if you enjoy hockey history like me, then you'll enjoy reading all of these cards like I did.
I'll be, as expected, going after this set, so if any of you bust any and don't like them, send them my way.