2010-2011 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection - Product Review

Since Upper Deck Ultimate Collection Hockey released in late July we have opened our fair share of the product. We have hosted 6 Case Group Breaks, as well as busted a few personal boxes. To say I am impressed with the product would be an understatement, however, let's skip the romance and jump to the content, design, and value of the product.

CONTENT: As far as 2010-2011 hockey products go, Ultimate Collection has had the best checklist yet. It is a product LOADED with key rookies, current stars, and all of the greatest players to ever touch the ice. On top of the player content, you have the opportunity to pull autos, jerseys, patches, and NHL Logo Shields; and not only patches, but pieces of team logos that explode out of the cards! Thus far, through 5 cases, we have yet to pull a seriously damaged card or notice any errors in the production. All in all the content of Ultimate Collection is in a league of its' own! A+

DESIGN: I would consider the design format of Ultimate to be something of a clean or modern sort. Nothing too fancy but screaming high-class all the way. The color schemes are great, the shape and size of the memorabilia cut outs are great! The premium swatches cards boast a HUGE piece of game-used jersey or patch. All of the autographs are on a simple background, allowing you to clearly see the ink. The only draw back for me was the design of the base cards. The base cards consist of the cut out of a player on a black backdrop. I felt they could have been done up a little nicer, but am glad they leaned to the simple side and didn't try to over do it. A

VALUE: I consider 2010-2011 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection Hockey to be the best value of the card season thus far. Boasting great card design mixed with unbelievable content, there is not much Upper Deck did wrong with this product. As always, you have to watch out for the 3-4 boxes per 15-Box case that are a real kick in the nads, otherwise it is all fun 'n' games with 10-11 Ultimate! A+

Until next time...HAPPY MOJO!

2011 Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts Baseball - Product Review

Over the past week I collapsed and decided to pick up a total of four boxes of Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts Baseball. Up until this point I have always stayed clear of the "Cut" products. I either did not like the content, the "hard-case" packaging, or the price point. After watching some boxes of this years' Legendary Cuts I decided that I was in LOVE with the checklist, the price point was within reason, and they were tangible cuts, not encased in thick hard plastic to where you can't even touch your cut auto. After busting four packs/boxes, these are my thoughts...

CONTENT: I feel this years' Legendary Cuts has one of the better checklists in recent history. Sure, there are a lot of unheard of names in there, but that helps keep the price down, but there are TONS of Presidential Cuts as well as all of the HUGE names like Ruth, Koufax, and Aaron. Even though I did not hit any of the big shots, I felt it was worth the risk to try for them anyways.

DESIGN: The design of these cards is the one area that Upper Deck REALLY needs to step up in. The cut autographs are simply cut out and "double-sided" taped to the front of the card. Often times, the cut is not the size of the card, it is simply a small piece of paper taped to the larger card stock. This makes for an aesthetically un-appealing card. As you can see from the scans below, the Dual Cut is an awesome card, but the cut and tape job was a MAJOR fail on the Stengel Auto. Quite frankly, these cards look like they could be produced with the simplest of supplies: card stock, two-sided tape, and a nice printer. Upper Deck needs to at least place acrylic over the surface with a cut-out in the middle (similar to the relic cards in Topps A&G Baseball) allowing the cut to be "framed" but also giving the collector a chance to touch the cut if desired.

VALUE: I truly feel that if Upper Deck would spend a little more money on the card design, then the price point would be VERY good on this product. However, with some cards coming fresh out of the pack looking like an art project from Kindergarten, it is hard to justify $200/Card. As always, the greater the risk, the greater the reward. So for all of you pulling Ruth and Lincoln out of this; CONGRATULATIONS! For those of you ready to bust your first pack; may the MOJO be with you! Until next time...HAPPY MOJO!

2011 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions Review

So I went out on a limb and picked up a box of 2011 Goodwin Champions. In case you are not aware, Goodwin Champions is a product released by Upper Deck which covers pretty much every sport out there. You can pull anyone from Michael Jordan to Bobby Orr, from Tiger Woods to your favorite Olympian. After opening G.C. I have concluded that its ability to touch all sports is it biggest strength and its biggest weakness.

I LOVE opening a product knowing that I could pull a great from any sport, but when you don't pull a "Great" you are left with cards of people you could sometimes care less about. In the case of my box, I pulled some decent cards.

Let's start with the Memorabilia Cards, you are supposed to get 3 Total Hits per box. I walked away with 4 Memorabilia Hits and No Autos. The design of the Memorabilia Cards is nice, however, the swatch is pretty darn small. I am not a fan of the "M" cut-out for the relic swatch. Here is a look at the hits...

 I unfortunately am not a collector of Football cards, however, I can appreciate a jersey of Troy (Cowboys were my childhood team), Steve, and Barry. I definitely have NO interest in golf so the Miller Jersey/Shorts/Boxer Swatch is of little to no interest to me. I can not complain about 3 good ones out of 4. I will complain about not getting an autograph though. As good as jersey cards are, they do not hold near the value of an autograph card. I would have loved to have seen one of the hard-signed autos that G.C. has become known for. O Well...

Overall I think the product is good, especially at only $75/Box. Not an overload of Inserts (which is great) and the ones that do exist are pretty darn cool...

Other than that the set consists of some Short Print and Super Short Print Base, as well as a set of mini parallels. EVERY pack contains either a hit, an insert, or a SP card. I would encourage everyone to pick up a box of this and take your shot at one of the chasers, who knows, maybe you will get one of the Entomology Bug Cards! Until Next Time...HAPPY MOJO!!!

2010-2011 Panini Luxury Suite Hockey

Luxury Suite was quite a welcome SURPRISE for me! Right off the bat I will say that up to this point Panini's card design was a little lack luster. Every product consisted of foiled card fronts that smeared easily and were damaged by the slightest gust of wind. However, in terms of design for Luxury Suite, Panini scored big time! All cards in the product are on 100-120 PT card stock. This makes for a card that feels valuable AND withstands all of the bumps and bruises cards endure.

Now let's move to content. I would have to give Luxury Suite a middle of the road average on content. The Rookie Relic Autos are OUTSTANDING, featuring the on card autos and nice two color swatches, they are not as nice at the Rookie Silhouettes from Crown Royale, but probably the second best rookie Panini has produced. The area this product lacked in was the Autograph section. Each pack had a Rookie, a Jersey, and A Bigger Hit. The rookies are what's to be expected; guys most have never heard of that didn't make the cut for the Auto'd Jersey variation. (I am COMPLETELY okay with these rookies being bland as I would not want to waste an auto or jersey hit on ANY of these guys) However, the "Star" and "Retired" Autographs were few and far between. In the case I busted, there were no "star" auto's and only 3 "retired" autos. Do not get me wrong, the Old School Auto cards are GORGEOUS, however I would have loved to see more of them for such a pricey product.

Before I leave this product for the next I would like to address a small Quality Control Issue ...

Overall I would say that Luxury Suite was another step in the right direction for Panini. At $180 per box I would say it is VERY hit or miss. Stick to Group Breaks on this product as you will get something, but will only spend half of that price on it. Hopefully Panini will continue to learn form their consumers and continue to progress to bigger and better things in the card world. Until Next Time...Happy MOJO!

The Card Community...

I have decided to set up this blog as a way of "officially" reviewing sports card products. I hope to review any and all Hockey and Baseball products as well as other sports in the future. I will review case break products, single boxes, and packs. Everything from high end to your run of the mill Series 1 sets will be carefully inspected and critiqued. I will post scans of the pulls, as well as videos of the break. I hope you enjoy the reviews and feel comfortable leaving your feedback as well! Money is hard to earn, especially in this day and age, so I want to make sure you can see what kind of value you can get out of each and every product. All of this in an effort to create the best community we possibly can!