a Zistle swap with LatentMoths

I've made a couple of Zistle trades recently. It's a great site and I need to get my cards updated on there soon so I can trade some more and finish off some of these sets...

 

user LatentMoths, a Bruins fan in Texas if you can believe it, sent me some cards I wanted in exchange for some cards I didn't want.

 

awesome.

 

I'll show off a few of them here to give you a sampling...

 

First up some random OPC cards from various years...

and a couple more....

but the key card for me was this

a '95/96 UD Collector's Choice card of Lyle Odelein.

I've had the Platinum parallel for awhile now, but could never track down the base. And now I'm one card closer to having all of his cards.

if any of you feel like swapping, check out my want list page or on Zistle.

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 OPC Hockey Box Break Cardboard Review

Hey kids! It's that time of year again! That's right, football is in full swing and the smell of another NHL lockout is in the air. Let's have a big round of applause for Gary Bettman and Jeremy Jacobs who year after year, try to do their best to ruin my damn game. Idiots.

Anyways.... oh yeah! Cards! Even though there are still four? five? sets of 2011-12 product yet to hit the shelves... the first of the 2012-13 product has arrived.

Don't try and figure it out. Just go with it.

May I present the 2012-13 version of O-Pee-Chee hockey. No Gordie, Bobby, or Wayne this year.

Jonathan Toews makes an appearance.

500 base cards, 100 SP's, 32 packs, 8 cards per pack for $63. You can get these online for around $59 for those of you without a shop nearby.

I asked for a box and my buddy reached blindly and grabbed one off of the shelf. I flipped it over to see who was on the bottom.

 He asked if I wanted a different one. Seeing as he grabbed me the Carey Price one without looking, I saw it as a good omen and kept the one I had.

Good call.

The wrapper..... as usual, a lot like the box.

 The base cards are quite a bit different than past efforts. Gone is the monstrously huge O-Pee-Chee logo. It only took 8 years of whining. The picture is also bigger.

 I like the changes. Although the border confuses me. It's still a white border..... but they took a pastel yellow and airbrushed it close to the edge. Why I have no idea. The jury is still out on that move.

When I am elected Grand High Poo-Bah, I will decree that the Kings must wear these uni's full time.

 The backs are kind of a miss for me. Upper Deck switched to brown cardboard from grey. The result is a dark mess on the back of the card. Has no one at UD ever looked at an old OPC card? They were always coloured! Not natural grey or brown.

 The use of vital statistics and career stats is a big plus...... if you could read them. But for those that haven't had long careers........

 UD failed to do anything to use up the blank space. No little write up, not even a cartoon. Remember those?

 As mentioned, after the 500 base cards are 100 SP's. These are divided up into 50 Legends and 50 rookies. Or are they?

The Legend cards are brightly coloured, but the picture has been altered to a sepia like tone. Again, why I have no idea.

 The backs are cool as again, full career stats. This is great for those of you who haven't necessarily heard of or researched some of these older players. It's a chance to look at his career and go, Whoa! Alex was good! And he was.

The "50" rookies are still a photoshopped nightmare.

Look at all of those craptastic graphics on the bottom.

 With the backs, they did a little write up and how the rookie was acquired. Cool. Why couldn't they do that with the base set as well?

 And you may have noticed I put the 50 in quotation marks. The reason is this year there are not 50 rookies in the set. Not true rookies anyways.

Last I checked, Super Mario's RC was in '85/86 OPC, not '12/13. There are five cards like this, as well as a checklist. So that makes 44 rookies in the set. Cool gimmick?

No. Let's be real. There just wasn't 50 rookies worth the cardboard to put in this set. That's the price of coming out so early.

As usual, there are parallels to chase. The Rainbow Foil of course.....

My scanner seems to love Rainbow Foils.

And of course, Black Bordered Rainbow Foils,  #/100.

 You can really see the airbrushing of the faux border on these. Foils are 1:4 packs. I somehow ended up with 12 of them, 5 black bordered, instead of the 8 I should've received.

A few years ago, OPC came out with a Retro parallel. In 08/09, I LOVED them. In 09/10 I did not. In 10/11 I LOVED them. In 11/12 I did not. So that must mean that in 12/13 I must LOVE them again, right?

 Damn right. I am all over these. Vinny demonstrates the base. Very 1954/55 if I rememebr correctly.

 There are also retro Rookies as well as Legends.... You'll find a retro card in every pack.

Oh, by the way, did I mention that this year OPC is including stickers in their hockey set? STICKERS!!!!!!! WHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

 Stickers are found 1:3 packs. I found 12 over the 10-11 expected.

 OPC is also including Pop Ups. Just like the old days. I rememebr getting Pop Up cards in my cereal box waaaaaay back when. Well they're back! At an insertion rate of 1:16 packs, I should've found two. I didn't get any. Boo!

However.

OPC is also including Team Logo Patches. These are found every 3 boxes, or 1:96 packs. Yeah, you know where this is going.

 Woot! A nice little semi-case hit.

But wait....

What's this?

Could it be?

Not one, but......

two?

Ok. I'm not so upset about the Pop Ups anymore.
Supposedly four patches per case, and I find two in my one box. Hmmm.... fine by me.

So there you have it. My want/trade list will be up shortly. Anyone out there going to collect this set?

Brand new 2011-12 OPC Hockey... it's fresh...

So today is the day I've been waiting for. It's the day that the new OPC hockey cards hit the shelves. And to make it even more interesting, the release date was pushed back a couple of times. So, as luck would have it, I was driving home from work this afternoon and I found myself near the cardstore. How fortuitous!

One problem. It was 1:30 and no OPC. And my bud the owner wasn't there either. Some dude behind the counter said it was coming, but who knows when. Yikes. What to do? So while he fiddled with his GPS (don't ask) I watched the ballgame on tv.

Now it's 2:30.... still no OPC and I have to go. Crap.

Bummed, I leave and begin the long drive home. I'm about halfway home when I remember that I'm now near another cardstore...one I don't normally buy boxes from. So I head there. $55 and five minutes later, Voici!

 I guess old Wayne gets a turn on the box 'cause who knows if Crosby is ever coming back. We'll probably see Howe again next year. Upper Deck is predictable if anything.
36 packs and 6 cards per pack. Ouch. For a "entry level" set, Upper Deck doesn't build it as one. This should be 10 cards per pack at least.
Here's the box bottom for those of you interested in such things.

 And the wrapper. A wee similar to the box. We're not re-inventing the wheel here....

 So let's see the cards!
Here's the base... no more white borders.

 do we really need 33% of the front to be taken up by the logo??

How's the back?

 simple, boring, and recycled. It's odd that the reincarnation of OPC has bland grey backs to get that retro feel, and yet OPC always had bright, coloured backs.

The base set has a Rainbow parallel again this year...

 that backs on these are much better... kinda what the base should be.

 Agian, after the 500 card base set, there are 100 short printed cards (501-600) 50 for the legends of hockey...

 Definitely a movie poster theme to this entire set.... the backs are..... bland...

 Gee NHL, whatever did Mr Hull do between 1972 and 1979??? I hate that the NHL still to this day will not acknowledge the existance of the WHA.

The rookies are similar, and bright...

 they at least added some graphics to the backs of these....

 Wait... aren't these cards from last year's set? Yep. They put last year's Update set into this year's packs. 1 per 9 packs. That's 4 per box for you math impaired folks...

 Of course there are leader cards.... I like these, but I wish they would make them part of the set like the old days instead of an insert set. And bring back team cards!!!

 One thing I did like about these this year is that they are now on regular card stock intead of the super thick and glossy stock of the last few years.

 And oh yes, the retro parallel. Inserted at one per pack, this year's offering is loosly based on teh 1933-34 OPC set. I think. My memory only goes back so far.

 You may have gleemed these on the box bottom at the top of this post. Four different colours, sepia picture, and no mention whatsoever of their first name. Even though the '33/34 cards had them. Plus, we have the hockey version of 2011 Topps Lineage baseball card backs.

Horrible. And again, as you could forget, 40% of the card back is logo. Sweet jesus.

Alright. There you have it. When I'm done busting open the box, I'll give you a breakdown of what I found.

2011-12 OPC Hockey
What I liked
- No white borders.
- Affordable at $55 per box.
- leader and trophy cards on regular cardstock
-different retro cards

What I didn't like
- enough with the 64 point font OPC logo. OPC cards never had this. Get rid of it.
- grey backs. Again, OPC never had this.
- only 2/3 of the front available for photo
- only 150 base cards per box for a 600 card set!!!! What happened to entry level and affordable???