Sports Card Geek Heaven
Archive for November, 2011
Matt Duchene, Colorado Avalanche
Nov 16th
This kid is good just in case you hadn’t heard. Colorado’s 3rd Overall pick in 2009 is paying huge dividends as he approaches the 60 goal mark (for his career) averaging almost a point per game for his career thus far. The 20 year old lefty Center probably would have went #1 if a guy name Tavares hadn’t been in the 2009 draft class.
His cards are relatively cheap compared to guys like Tavares and other young stars. (Prices are sell value, we don’t go by book value…that’s just nonsense)
SP Authentic Future Watch Auto/ 999: $40-60
Upper Deck Trilogy /499: $15-20
Upper Deck The Cup Auto Patch /99: $375-500 (may be even wider range depending on colors in patch)
Upper Deck Ice /99: $200-$300 (These don’t show up very often)
Box Break: 2011-12 Upper Deck Series 1 Hockey
Nov 15th
As promised here is our break of 2011-12 Upper Deck Series 1. It was as awesome as we had hoped for. Let’s get the break and review started.
Inserts
The UD Canvas cards that fall 1:6 packs are very nice looking in person and the stock is awesome. Hockey Heroes are a nice idea but the design is really boring and could have been spruced up with a less busy look and the same stock as the canvas. EA Ultimate Team cards are cool if you’re into video games…sort of. All World Team is another weak looking insert you get tossed into your box for “added value”. Overall the inserts are saved by the Canvas cards but not entirely. 7/10
Parallels
We’d love to write about Exclusives and High Gloss but we didn’t pull any. Rest assured they are a nice addition as always. It was slightly dissapointing to not get an Exclusives as it seems like every other box we have seen opened resulted in one despite the 1:48 odds they are listed at. 10/10
Game Used/Autographs
Falling two per box we hit two. They were both lame, plain jersey cards. To make it less lovable we hit our favorite team of the St. Louis Blues (Chris Stewart) but of course it had a maroon Avalanche swatch on it. While we didn’t hit an autograph the design of them is downright hideous anyway. The checklist is pretty weak as well. The jersey card swatches are very tiny but the design is solid despite it’s typical UD look. 6/10
Rookies (Young Guns)
At 1:4 packs you know you’re going to land six Young Guns in a box. This year’s checklist is particularly solid for Young Guns with about a dozen players getting $15 or more for their RC. You can also hit a Young Gun Canvas Parallel at a rate of 1:48 packs. We did not hit one of those however we did do well with our Young Guns.
The first four YG’s weren’t so hot. They got a little bit better with the next one.
Last but not least we hit what everyone opening Series 1 hopes for…Ryan Nugent Hopkins!
Happy Upper Deck Series 1 Release Day!
Nov 8th
The day has come! Winnipeg Jets will return in all of their cardboard glory to Series 1 with the annual release of Young Guns. These cards are going to be super hot in coming weeks. Jets fans have been waiting for this. To add to the impact of the set there are a handful of great RC’s to be pulled that aren’t wearing the Winnipeg insignia’s.
As expected the cards are hitting ebay as fast as they possibly can. Here are some of the goodies:
- This Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is over $100 with an hour left at auction. Don’t worry if you miss it. There will be plenty more like this one.
- Gabriel Landeskog’s YG is pulling around $50 early on.
- One of the players I’m more intrigued by is Flyers rookie Matt Read. It looks like he may not sell very well despite his hot start of 7 points in 11 games until he suffered an injury. A $9.99 Buy It Now is currently available.
- Read’s Flyer counterpart Sean Couturier isn’t selling nearly as cheaply as it looks like his YG will cost $30-40 early on.
- Keep an eye on the key Winnipeg RC of Mark Scheifele. He is very good but was sent down a week or two ago which shouldn’t impact his value much but it may very well do so. BIN’s of $24.95 have already been hit with auctions over $30.
There are a lot of young stars waiting to be grabbed so check out what is available and pick them up asap. As always, have fun!
We are still waiting on our box of S1 but will be posting it with some contests after it arrives. We’re also busting a box of Score 2011-12 to give away so stay tuned!
